Recently released emails between Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Jeffrey Epstein are reshaping the public record of their relationship and raising fresh questions about the former prince’s long-standing denials as more documents emerge.
While not all of the correspondence was written by Andrew himself, the expanding cache — including messages exchanged among Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and their associates — offers the most detailed view yet of how King Charles III’s brother privately navigated allegations linking him to Virginia Giuffre, who said she was trafficked by Epstein as a teenager.
Buckingham Palace has for years now said it does not act for Andrew, who has also long parted ways with his former PR and legal representatives. Newsweek has approached Andrew’s former representatives for comment.
A senior member of the monarchy, and eighth in line to the throne, Andrew has faced unprecedented consequences over his relationship with Epstein, signaling that even figures insulated by centuries of privilege are not beyond public scrutiny.
The fact that Andrew has already lost titles, patronages and public standing raises the question of what happens next for others with documented ties to Epstein.
Among them is President Donald Trump, whose name appears repeatedly in Epstein-related documents and who has taken shifting positions on releasing the full files. With Congress pushing for broader disclosure, the scrutiny Andrew is now facing may preview what awaits other high-profile figures in the U.S. as more of the Epstein files becomes public.
Then-Prince Andrew emailed with Epstein in 2010, before he had been publicly linked to the scandal, but after Epstein’s 2008 plea deal in Florida saw him convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor.
Epstein seemingly wanted to arrange for the royal to meet high-profile banker Jes Staley. Andrew said he would be out of the country “but I will make sure I meet him soon on another trip.”
Andrew added: “Also I have no immediate plans to drop by New York but I think I should at some stage soon. I’ll look and see if I can make a couple of days before the summer. It would be good to catch up in person.”
In fact, it would be December 2010 before Andrew visited Epstein in New York, staying at his house for several days and being photographed walking through Central Park with him by the paparazzi.
In February 2011, U.K. tabloid the News of the World published those photos in a story that questioned whether it was right for the royal to spend time with a man who had only a few years earlier become a convicted sex offender.
In the aftermath, Giuffre’s first newspaper interview was published by The Mail on Sunday, including a photograph of Andrew with an arm around her waist. Giuffre said it was taken on her disposable camera by Epstein in Maxwell’s London home, in Belgravia. In court filings and media interviews, she would later say that was the night she was first made to have sex with Andrew but in that article she said only that she danced with him in a London night club and was paid $15,000 shortly afterwards.
Prior to publication, The Mail on Sunday reporter Andrew emailed a palace press officer: “I have given her DoB [date of birth] and social security number for investigation with XXX, the on duty ppo [personal protection officer].”
In the article, Giuffre described abuse by Epstein and said in her pre-teenage years she had also spent a period of her life homeless during which she had to have sex with older men in exchange for food.
The day after publication, the Mail reported, Andrew emailed Epstein to say: “I’m just as concerned for you! Don’t worry about me! It would seem we are in this together and will have to rise above it. Otherwise keep in close touch and we’ll play some more soon!!!!” Andrew signed off the email: “A, HRH The Duke of York, KG.”
In another email the following month, in March 2011, Maxwell forwarded on to both Andrew and Epstein a request for comment from The Mail on Sunday and indicated she did not plan to respond.
“Just got it two minutes ago,” Epstein replied. “I’ve asked g [sic] lawyers to send a letter. Not sure…it’s so salcisous [sic] and ridiculous, im [sic] not sure how to respond, the only person she didn’t have sex with was Elvis.”
Andrew then appears to reply by email saying: “Please make sure that every statement or legal letter states clearly that I am NOT involved and that I knew and know NOTHING about any of these allegations. I can’t take any more of this my end.”
In a separate email chain, Andrew told Maxwell: “Hey there! What’s all this? I don’t know anything about this! You must SAY so please. This has NOTHING to do with me.”
Two days later, Epstein emailed Andrew again to ask: “You OK? These stories are complete and utter fantasy. I don’t know and have never met Al Gore.
“Clinton was never on the island…the telephone book is not mine, it was stolen by my houseman that is currently in prison for doing so.”
That summer though, Epstein appeared to privately confirm the authenticity of the now famous photograph of Andrew with his arm around Giuffre’s waist.
In an email to his publicist, Peggy Siegal, in July, 2011, released by the House Oversight Committee, Epstein wrote: “The girl has fled the country with an outstanding arrest warrant. The da [sic] after she accused others, said in writing that she has no credibility, she was never 15 years old working for me, her story made it seem like she first worked for trump [sic] at that age and was met by ghislaine maxwell [sic].
“Total horse s***, the daily mail [sic] paid her money, they admitted it, with the statement that it took money to coax out the truth. Yes she was on my plane, and yes she had her picture taken with Andrew, as many of my employees have.”
Epstein’s email added: “I will ask if they will cooperate — Prince people.”
“Send a reporter or reporters to investigate,” Epstein wrote in another email. “The palace would love it, the girl in the photo, was nothing more than a telephone answerer, she was never 15, according to her version she worked for trump [sic], first at that age, at Mar-a-Lago. It’s ridiculous.”
In January 2015, Giuffre filed a civil lawsuit in Florida in which she first stated that she had been made to have sex with Andrew during the visit to London when the photograph was taken. She also said she was trafficked for sex with Andrew on two further occasions, in New York and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Days later, Maxwell emailed Epstein to tell him how she planned to respond publicly: “I have to distance myself from you in statement too. And they need me to say I was not aware of massage w/andrew in my house. These thing [sic] they have to stay along w/meeting and rebutting those allegations. I needs [sic] it asap.”
The British press made much of Maxwell’s phrasing in the private email, that she was “not aware” of a massage, rather than that a massage did not happen.
Andrew has always denied the allegations and in 2022 settled, without admitting liability, a civil lawsuit brought by Giuffre in New York that year. In filings, Giuffre had alleged rape. In a public statement at the time, Andrew acknowledged she had suffered as an abuse victim.
Giuffre died by suicide in April this year, her family said.
The story flared up again in 2019 after Epstein was arrested by the FBI on sex-trafficking charges and later died by suicide in jail in Manhattan.
That November, Andrew agreed to an interview with Newsnight, a flagship BBC current-affairs program known for its tough interviews, during which he was asked about the photograph and suggested it might not be real.
“From the investigations that we’ve done,” Andrew said, “you can’t prove whether or not that photograph is faked or not because it is a photograph of a photograph of a photograph. So it’s very difficult to be able to prove it but I don’t remember that photograph ever being taken.”
“Well here’s the problem,” he continued, “I’ve never seen Epstein with a camera in my life.”
Emily Maitlis, the interviewer, suggested some believed it was real and Andrew replied they “might well wish to believe it but the photograph is taken upstairs and I don’t think I ever went upstairs in Ghislaine’s house.”
“I’m terribly sorry but if I, as a member of the Royal Family and I have a photograph taken,” Andrew continued, “and I take very, very few photographs… I am not one to, as it were, hug. And public displays of affection are not something that I do.
“So that’s the best explanation I can give you and I’m afraid to say that I don’t believe that photograph was taken in the way that has been suggested.”
Maitlis also asked Andrew about his decision to stay with Epstein in December 2010: “I went to see him and I was doing a number of other things in New York at the time and we had an opportunity to go for a walk in the park and that was the conversation coincidentally that was photographed which was when I said to him, I said, ‘Look, because of what has happened, I don’t think it is appropriate that we should remain in contact,’ and by mutual agreement during that walk in the park we decided that we would part company and I left, I think it was the next day and to this day I never had any contact with him from that day forward.”
The interview was widely seen as a PR-disaster and would ultimately lead to Andrew’s resignation as a working royal.
Maxwell was jailed for 20 years in 2022 on sex trafficking charges for her role in grooming girls for Epstein to abuse.
Since then, the House Oversight Committee has been releasing previously private emails, predominantly provided by the Epstein estate. Together with the publication in October of Giuffre’s posthumous book Nobody’s Girl, the new material placed pressure on the king to act. Charles stripped Andrew of his royal titles on October 30.
The House and Senate on Tuesday voted to force the release of the Epstein files by the Department of Justice and Trump has indicated he will sign it into law, despite past comments opposing the move. It will then be down to the DOJ to indicate whether it will in fact go ahead with releasing more documentation.
