In February 2026, online users shared a rumor claiming a photo showed Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Karyna Shuliak — convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's last girlfriend — posing with five other women on a boat.
For example, on Feb. 11, the Russian state TV network RT posted (archived) the picture with a reference to Meghan's former name, Meghan Markle. "Epstein's 10-year girlfriend with MARKLE." The image displayed two red arrows pointing from names to people, claiming the woman second from the left was Shuliak and Meghan was second from the right. The post also featured a separate claim about former Prince Andrew, discussed later in this article.
(@RT_com/X)
Users shared the rumor and photo on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), Reddit (archived), Threads (archived) and X (archived).
In short, the photo showed no signs of manipulation and Meghan truly appeared in it, but Shuliak did not. An Instagram post (archived) from August 2016 confirmed the woman second from the left is Instagram user @flaviathechicpicnic. That Instagram handle reading "Flavia The Chic Picnic" referenced the defunct blog The Chic Picnic. An archived page for the blog identified the woman as Flavia Cirrincione.
Snopes contacted RT via an X private message to ask about the accuracy of its post. We also emailed, or messaged on social media, women appearing in the picture to ask for confirmation of the in-question woman's identity, including Meghan, Cirrincione, Carlotta De Luca, Heather Dorak and Misha Nonoo. We will update this article if we receive further information.
A review of the evidence
On Aug. 10, 2016 — weeks after Meghan began dating Prince Harry — De Luca (@carlottadeluca__) posted (archived) the photo showing the seven women on a boat with a text caption referencing the Spanish island Formentera, "#Girlz off to #Formentera!" De Luca identified six of the women, minus the woman on the far left, either in her post's caption or tags. She tagged the woman users later wrongly identified as Shuliak as @flaviathechicpicnic, referencing Cirrincione, who at the time managed The Chic Picnic blog.
From left to right — not including the unidentified woman on the very left of the photo — De Luca's post identified the women in the picture as Cirrcincione, De Luca, Nonoo (@mishanonoo), Benita Litt (@benitalitt) and Meghan. Dorak (@heatherdorak), the woman farthest right, identified herself in the post's comments.
(@carlottadeluca__/Instagram)
On the same day, Dorak reposted (archived) a picture Meghan shared to an Instagram account active at the time, showing the same group of women, along with several men, seated at a restaurant table with the caption, "Vacation friends." A woman, possibly Cirrincione, appeared to be seated next to a man as the two people farthest from the camera, on the right-hand side of the table. Dorak's photo did not feature tagging. No one resembling Shuliak appeared in any of Dorak's several photos from the same trip.
(@heatherdorak/Instagram)
Years later, other Instagram posts featured Cirrincione marrying a man named Alvise. We have not yet confirmed his last name. The posts showed the wedding took place at the Italian venue Tenuta Valle Cento in June 2022. In one Instagram post, the fifth slide displayed a video showing Cirrincione marrying Alvise — a man bearing a resemblance to the man, in the above-pictured photo, seated farthest from the camera on the right side of the table.
Epstein's federal case files indicated Shuliak was conducting business as usual in the days around Aug. 10, 2016, with no mention of travel to Italy.
RT post allegations about Meghan, ex-Prince Andrew
The RT X post (archived) incorrectly identifying one of the women on the boat as Shuliak featured an additional claim: Meghan supposedly had knowledge of former Prince Andrew's alleged illicit activities with Epstein.
That claim, along with a quote appearing at the bottom of the post, originated from a Daily Beast article published in December 2021. The story quoted David Boies — an attorney at the time representing Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre — who said he believed Meghan was a "close associate" of Andrew's, and that she was "in a position to perhaps have seen what he did."
Giuffre's publicist confirmed Giuffre, who had accused Andrew and other influential men of sexually exploiting her as a teenager, died by suicide on April 26, 2025.
On Feb. 19, 2026, police arrested the ex-prince, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, on suspicion of misconduct in public office. The Associated Press reported police previously said they were assessing reports he sent trade information to Epstein in 2010 while serving as Britain's special envoy for international trade. King Charles III stripped Mountbatten-Windsor, his brother, of his royal titles and evicted him from his royal residence in November 2025.
For further reading, we previously fact-checked the claim that the Epstein files proved the "pizzagate" conspiracy theory.