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Pressley joins Epstein survivors demanding meeting with King Charles

The king declined to meet with survivors as he visited Washington to mark the 250th anniversary of America's independence from Britain.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley. J. Scott Applewhite/AP

April 29, 2026 | 11:05 AM

2 minutes to read

Rep. Ayanna Pressley joined lawmakers, advocates, and survivors of abuse at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein who have been demanding a meeting with King Charles III at a roundtable discussion Tuesday.

Pressley mentioned her previous position as a Boston City Council member, saying that she focused on policies that sought to “save women and girls.”

“There were naysayers who said to me that that was not the work of government, that I should go run a nonprofit. But each of you affirm that it is, in fact, that it is the work of government, it is the responsibility of government,” she said.

The roundtable was convened by Rep. Ro Khanna of California to purposefully coincide with King Charles’ visit to Washington. Last month, Khanna sent a letter to the king asking that he meet with survivors of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s abuse. He referenced allegations concerning Epstein’s ties to the king’s brother, former Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

“I thought the king owed that to the survivors given his brother’s serious allegations of abuse. I thought it would have been an incredible moment and statement to show that it doesn’t matter how much wealth you have, how much power you have, no human being is dispensable,” Khanna said at the roundtable discussion.

The king declined to meet with the survivors, Khanna said. Lawyers for the king cited the ongoing investigation into Mountbatten-Windsor in the United Kingdom for the king’s inability to meet with survivors, according to a letter obtained by The Hill.

Khanna said he met with Britain’s ambassador to Washington, who said that the king would acknowledge the survivors in his address to Congress.

The king’s speech was mostly concerned with the historic connections between the UK and America, as well as the current alliance between the two countries in the face of a shifting global order. However, he did appear to make a veiled reference to the survivors.

“In both of our countries, it is the very fact of our vibrant, diverse and free societies that gives us our collective strength, including to support victims of some of the ills that, so tragically, exist in both our societies today,” the king said.

But before the speech, the roundtable was intended to center the survivors and their families themselves. Amanda Roberts, the sister-in-law of the outspoken late survivor Virginia Giuffre, said that Epstein’s crimes are indicative of a larger, global problem.

She advocated for the pending legislation known as “Virginia’s Law,” which would eliminate some statutes of limitations to allow survivors of sex trafficking and forced labor to sue their abusers regardless of how long ago the abuse occurred.

“Jeffrey Epstein was not an anomaly. Unfortunately, this is a reality that young women, girls and men and boys face every single day of their lives,” she said. “It is now time to do something about it, legally, legislatively, and anyone in power deserves to pay the repercussions of their actions.

Pressley expressed optimism that change is “on the way” and outrage at the abuse commited by Epstein and others.

“What has happened to our survivors around the table was a violation of dignity. It was a violation of bodies. It was a violation of dreams,” Pressley said. “You see before you grown women, so you might forget that they were mere children. And I can think of nothing more vile than to groom, to prey upon, to exploit, to rape, to traffic a child.”