How the Andrew-Epstein saga plunged the royal family into a crisis that lasted for years
LONDON – The arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on charges of misconduct in public office is the latest development in the years-long saga surrounding his dealings with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which has plunged the British monarchy into its biggest crisis in decades.
Britain’s Thames Valley Police Department said on Thursday it was “searching addresses in Berkshire and Norfolk” after arresting a man in his 60s on suspicion of misconduct in a public office. In line with the British police meeting, it did not mention the name of Prince Andrew.
The arrest follows the release last month of millions of files linked to Epstein, including emails and photos linked to the former prince. After the release by the US Department of Justice, police said they were looking into allegations that classified documents were shared with Epstein in 2010, when Mountbatten-Windsor was working as a UK trade ambassador.
Other emails that Mountbatten-Windsor sent to Epstein appear to show that Epstein was sent reports connected to the former prince’s visits to Vietnam, Singapore and China, which he took in his role as British trade envoy, as well as information on investment opportunities.
Mountbatten-Windsor was appointed the United Kingdom’s Special Representative for International Trade and Investment in 2001, a role she held until July 2011.
The files that emerged from the DOJ document dump include photos of Mountbatten-Windsor on all fours over an unidentified woman lying on the floor, both fully clothed, and emails in which Mountbatten-Windsor appeared to invite Epstein to Buckingham Palace after the latter’s release from prison in 2010.
The former prince has long denied any wrongdoing associated with Epstein, but has expressed regret over his years-long friendship with the wealthy American businessman, which continued after Epstein was convicted in 2008 of soliciting prostitution from a minor.
The full picture of Epstein’s crimes began to emerge years later, and in 2019, Epstein was arrested again on federal charges of child sex trafficking. He died in prison after months of waiting for those charges to go to trial.
Here, we look at scandals decades in the making.
Friendship for years
Mountbatten-Windsor and Epstein were introduced in 1999 by Epstein’s then-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, according to Mountbatten-Windsor recounting their friendship in a 2019 BBC interview. Maxwell, a British socialite, was arrested in 2022 for her role in Epstein’s sex trafficking.
Mountbatten-Windsor told a British broadcaster that she saw Epstein “once or twice a year” before Epstein’s first conviction in 2008.
In December 2010, months after Epstein’s release from prison, the two men were photographed together in New York’s Central Park.
Mountbatten-Windsor told the BBC in 2019 that she had visited Epstein and stayed at his home during that time with the intention of ending their friendship, although released emails show she sent messages to Epstein months later telling him “we’re in this together” and “we’ll play some more soon!”
A growing shame
In 2011, a British newspaper published a photo of Mountbatten-Windsor on the arm of Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who had publicly accused Epstein of having smuggled her to his powerful friends.
Mountbatten-Windsor questioned the authenticity of the photo and later denied ever meeting Giuffre, who claimed in court in 2015 that she was forced to sleep with Mountbatten-Windsor three times in New York, London and on Epstein’s private Caribbean island when she was 17. The age of consent in the UK is 16.
Mountbatten-Windsor continued to work as an active member of the royal family until 2019, when, after Epstein’s second arrest, she tried to answer questions about their relationship in a high-profile BBC interview.
“I fully admit that my judgment may have been influenced by my tendency to be too respectful, but that’s the way it is,” he said in a BBC interview. he also cited an inability to sweat, and family visits to a budget pizza restaurant, as factors he said contradicted Giuffre’s allegations.
The interview was widely seen as a car accident, which brought more scrutiny to the prince, who announced days later that he would step down from public service “for the foreseeable future.”
Legal collapse
Giuffre sued Mountbatten-Windsor in 2021, claiming he sexually assaulted her. He agreed to settle the case for an undisclosed amount in 2022, without admitting wrongdoing.
In a joint statement to bipartisan legal teams, he pledged to “fight the evils of sex trafficking” and pledged “a major donation to Ms. Giuffre’s victims’ rights organization.”
Revelations about the friendship between Epstein and Mountbatten-Windsor continued to flow, however, with press reports and the release of documents linked to Epstein leading to further questions of Mountbatten-Windsor and the British royal family.
Royal consequences
Mountbatten-Windsor was stripped of his executive authority, military association and “HRH” title in 2022 by his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, who, according to British media reports, privately funded his legal defense and part of the settlement with Giuffre.
Newly crowned king Charles III has taken drastic measures, and in October he severed the remaining family ties with his younger brother.
He stripped his brother of his princely and royal titles, ordered him to leave his Windsor residence, the Royal Lodge, and removed him from the family’s press service, with Buckingham Palace no longer fielding media inquiries about Epstein in his place amid a storm of scrutiny.
Buckingham Palace said at the time that “the sentences are taken seriously, although he continues to deny the allegations against him.”
After the release of the Epstein files from the DOJ, Mountbatten-Windsor was moved to Sandringham, which is privately owned by the king. He remains in the line of succession, and any attempt to remove him requires action in the British Parliament.
