Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Jeffrey Epstein: How disgraced royal’s relationship with paedophile financier unfolded

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office following allegations he shared confidential reports with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Thames Valley Police confirmed the former prince was taken into custody on Thursday, on his 66th birthday, in the latest controversy marking his extraordinary fall from grace.

The arrest follows allegations he leaked documents from his time as the UK’s trade envoy with the disgraced financier, following the release of millions of pages of files related to Epstein.

Pictures circulated online on Thursday appeared to show unmarked police cars attending Wood Farm on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, with plain-clothed officers gathering outside Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s home.

Thames Valley Police previously said it was also reviewing allegations that a woman was trafficked to the UK by Jeffrey Epstein to have a sexual encounter with Mr Mountbatten-Windsor.

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Searches are being carried out at addresses in Berkshire, where Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s former home, Royal Lodge is situated, and Norfolk, where he lives at Wood Farm on the King’s Sandringham estate, the force said.

Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s friendship with Epstein led to the former duke stepping down from royal duties in 2019 and the King officially stripping his disgraced brother of both his HRH and prince titles.

Mr Mountbatten-Windsorrew has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.

Here, we look at what we know about Mr Mountbatten-Windsor and his connection to Epstein and the financier’s sex trafficker girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell:

Mr Mountbatten-Windsor previously told BBC Newsnight he first met Epstein through “his girlfriend back in 1999”.

In March 2011, the prince’s then-private secretary Alastair Watson, who spent nine years in the role, wrote to The Times newspaper saying Mr Mountbatten-Windsor met Epstein in the “early 1990s”.

Mr Mountbatten-Windsor later said he saw Epstein “infrequently”, adding “probably no more than only once or twice a year”.

During Maxwell’s sex trafficking trial, jurors hear Mr Mountbatten-Windsor flew on Epstein’s private plane with a 14-year-old girl in the mid-1990s.

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Virginia Giuffre claims to have had sex with Mr Mountbatten-Windsor “three times, including one orgy”, with the first encounter allegedly taking place in Maxwell’s London townhouse in 2001.

Ms Giuffre also claimed to have had sex with Mr Mountbatten-Windsor at Epstein’s New York flat and at an “orgy” on his private island, Little St James in the Caribbean.

Epstein admits to prostituting minors and is sentenced to 18 months in prison.

While under oath in an interview in 2009, Epstein’s former housekeeper, Juan Alessi, testifies that Mr Mountbatten-Windsor had “daily massages” at the paedophile’s Florida home.

Epstein is released from jail. Mr Mountbatten-Windsor is photographed with him in New York’s Central Park.

Mr Mountbatten-Windsor quits his role as UK trade envoy after the fallout from the Central Park photos.

In February, he tells Epstein, “we are in this together” despite later claiming he broke off all contact with the paedophile in December 2010.

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Buckingham Palace denies Mr Mountbatten-Windsor has committed any impropriety after he was named in US court documents related to Epstein.

A woman, later named in reports as Ms Giuffre, alleges in papers filed in Florida that she was forced to have sex with Mr Mountbatten-Windsor when she was 17, which is under the age of consent in the state.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr Mountbatten-Windsor, in his first public engagement since he was embroiled in the allegations, responds by saying: “I just wish to reiterate, and to reaffirm, the statements that have already been made on my behalf by Buckingham Palace.”

In January, Mr Mountbatten-Windsor is reported to have sent an email to Maxwell asking for help in dealing with Ms Giuffre.

As part of her civil suit against Maxwell, Ms Giuffre testifies that Epstein paid her 15,000 dollars (£11,180) to have sex with Mr Mountbatten-Windsor.

Ms Giuffre also testified about a sexual encounter with Mr Mountbatten-Windsor in the bath of Maxwell’s home in 2001, saying: “He was adorning my young body, particularly my feet, caressing my toes and licking my arches.”

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Newly released legal documents show that Johanna Sjoberg, another alleged Epstein victim, claimed Mr Mountbatten-Windsor touched her breast while sitting on a couch inside the US billionaire’s Manhattan apartment in 2001.

Buckingham Palace said the allegations are “categorically untrue”.

Epstein is found dead in his jail cell on August 10, having killed himself after being charged with sex trafficking.

Later that month, a pilot on Epstein’s private jet, David Rodgers, claims Mr Mountbatten-Windsor was a passenger on past flights with the financier and Ms Giuffre.

Mr Rodgers said in a testimony released in August that Epstein, Mr Mountbatten-Windsor and the-then 17-year-old travelled to the US Virgin Islands on April 11 2001.

Buckingham Palace describes the evidence statement as having “a number of inconsistencies” and said that Mr Mountbatten-Windsor was on a different continent in some cases.

In her posthumous memoir, Ms Giuffre claims American broadcaster ABC did not air an interview in 2019 after the royal family “applied pressure to nix the interview”.

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Following Epstein’s death, a statement from the palace says that Mr Mountbatten-Windsor is “appalled by the recent reports of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged crimes”.

Breaking his silence on the issue for the first time since 2015, Mr Mountbatten-Windsor then releases a statement on August 24 saying: “At no stage during the limited time I spent with him (Epstein) did I see, witness or suspect any behaviour of the sort that subsequently led to his arrest and conviction.”

In November, during an interview with BBC Newsnight, Mr Mountbatten-Windsor said he had “no recollection” of ever meeting Ms Giuffre and added he could not have had sex with her in March 2001 because he was at Pizza Express with his daughter Beatrice on the day in question.

He added he “did not regret” his friendship with the sex offender but admitted he should not have gone to see him in New York in 2010 to break off their friendship.

The television sit-down was widely criticised and dubbed a “car crash”, with commentators questioning Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s responses and condemning his unsympathetic tone for victims and seeming lack of remorse over the friendship.

Four days after the interview, the then Duke of York released a statement confirming he was “stepping back from public duties for the foreseeable future” with permission from Queen Elizabeth II.

Mr Mountbatten-Windsor also said he “deeply sympathised” with all of Epstein’s victims and added he was “willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required”.

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In January, a US prosecutor claims Mr Mountbatten-Windsor has “provided zero co-operation” over the Epstein sex trafficking inquiry.

US attorney Geoffrey Berman said Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s lawyers had been contacted by prosecutors and the FBI, who requested to interview him as part of the investigation.

Ms Giuffre, writing on social media a few days later, urges Mr Mountbatten-Windsor to “do the right thing” and talk to FBI investigators.

In June, Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s lawyers said he offered to assist the US Department of Justice “on at least three occasions this year” in its investigation into Epstein.

Just a few hours later, prosecutor Mr Berman – who was leading the investigation into Epstein at the time – said Mr Mountbatten-Windsor had “yet again sought to falsely portray himself to the public as eager and willing to co-operate” although he “has repeatedly declined” requests to schedule an interview.

Speaking in a documentary, Ms Giuffre claims Mr Mountbatten-Windsor played a “guessing game” about her age and compared her with his daughters during the alleged March 2001 encounter at Maxwell’s home.

A former Epstein employee tells a Netflix documentary released in 2020 that he saw Mr Mountbatten-Windsor frolicking with a topless Ms Giuffre in a pool on the paedophile’s island.

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In August, Ms Giuffre starts legal action against Mr Mountbatten-Windsor, saying it was “past the time for him to be held to account” for allegedly sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager.

Lawyers for Ms Giuffre filed a civil suit seeking unspecified damages at a federal court in New York, where documents claim she was “lent out for sexual purposes” by Epstein, including while she was still a minor under US law.

Mr Mountbatten-Windsor is named as the only defendant in the 15-page suit, brought under New York state’s Child Victims Act, though Epstein and Maxwell are mentioned frequently throughout.

In December, Maxwell is convicted in a New York court of helping Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls.

In January, a US judge rules the civil case against Mr Mountbatten-Windsor can go ahead, in what is a huge blow for the royal whose lawyer had argued that it should be thrown out.

Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s status as a member of the royal family is left in tatters after Queen Elizabeth II strips him of his honorary military roles and he gives up his HRH style in a dramatic fallout from his civil sex case.

He is also stripped of his remaining royal patronages.

The development came after more than 150 veterans joined forces to express their outrage, writing to the late Queen to demand the removal of the honorary military positions.

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Buckingham Palace says in a statement that Mr Mountbatten-Windsor “will continue not to undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a private citizen”.

In February, court documents show Mr Mountbatten-Windsor and Ms Giuffre have reached a “settlement in principle” in the civil sex claim.

The documents show Mr Mountbatten-Windsor will make a “substantial donation to Ms Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights” and has pledged to “demonstrate his regret for his association with Epstein” by supporting the “fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims”.

Calls are renewed for him to lose his dukedom after he pays millions of pounds to a woman he claims never to have met.

Allegations against Mr Mountbatten-Windsor resurface in unsealed documents as part of Ms Giuffre’s civil claim against Maxwell – with claims such as him being involved in sex tapes, as well as resurfaced allegations of his participation in an under-age orgy.

Ms Giuffre dies aged 41 in April.

Buckingham Palace announces Mr Mountbatten-Windsor will stop using his titles and honours, including the Duke of York.

Ms Giuffre’s posthumous memoirs claim Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s “team” tried to hire “internet trolls to hassle” her.

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The Metropolitan Police said it would look into claims that Mr Mountbatten-Windsor had passed Ms Giuffre’s date of birth and social security number to his taxpayer-funded bodyguard in 2011 and asked him to investigate.

After speculation around whether Mr Mountbatten-Windsor will leave the Royal Lodge, Buckingham Palace announces the King has begun a process to remove his titles, style and honours.

Notice has also been served to surrender Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s lease on the lodge and it emerges he will move to new accommodation on the private Sandringham estate.

On January 30, more than three million documents are published by the US Department of Justice relating to Epstein including photos that appear to show Mr Mountbatten-Windsor crouched over an unidentified woman.

The images are undated with no caption and appear to show the former duke touching the woman’s abdomen.

Elsewhere in the document dump, screenshots and scans appear to show Mr Mountbatten-Windsor exchanged emails with Epstein about a “beautiful” Russian woman and invited him to Buckingham Palace in an August 2010 exchange.

In response, the former prince appears to ask Epstein if it is “good to be free” months after his release from prison for procuring a girl under 18 for prostitution.

In the same month, Mr Mountbatten-Windsor can be seen in a separate email apparently telling Epstein: “Wish I was still a pet in your family.”

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A month later, Epstein apparently requests “private time” with Mr Mountbatten-Windsor, following his invitation to have dinner at Buckingham Palace.

The documents also include a legal letter which claims the former duke and Epstein asked an exotic dancer for a threesome at the late paedophile’s Florida home.

In the letter, dated March 23 2011, the woman’s legal representatives accused Mr Mountbatten-Windsor and Epstein of having “prevailed upon her to engage in various sex acts” during the alleged encounter in “early 2006”.

A draft statement written by Maxwell and sent to Epstein in January 2015 appears to confirm the photograph of the former duke and Ms Giuffre, which Mr Mountbatten-Windsor has long disputed the legitimacy of, is real.

Following the release of the latest set of documents, Sir Keir Starmer suggests Mr Mountbatten-Windsor “should be prepared” to testify before US Congress about his links to the paedophile.

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An unnamed woman alleges she was sent to the UK by Epstein for a sexual encounter with Mr Mountbatten-Windsor and that she received a tour of Buckingham Palace after spending the night with the former duke in 2010, her lawyers tell the BBC. Thames Valley Police later say they are assessing the allegations.

Mr Mountbatten-Windsor moves out of Royal Lodge amid the release of new files related to Epstein.

The Press Association reports that he has relocated to Norfolk to a property on the King’s Sandringham estate, reported by the Sun to be Wood Farm Cottage, where he will stay temporarily.

Buckingham Palace says it would “stand ready to support” the police if approached over the claims made against Mr Mountbatten-Windsor.

A spokesman for the Palace adds that the King had made clear his “profound concern” over his brother’s alleged conduct.

On 19 February, the former prince’s 66th birthday, police announce that Mr Mountbatten-Windsor is in custody after being arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office, becoming the first senior royal in modern history to be arrested.

Searches are being carried out at addresses in Berkshire and Norfolk, Thames Valley Police said.

Pictures circulated online appearing to show unmarked police cars attending Wood Farm on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, with plain-clothed officers appearing to gather outside Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s home.

It comes as multiple forces across the UK confirm they are assessing whether to launch probes into allegations related to Epstein, with a national group set up to support UK forces that are “assessing allegations” related to the Epstein files, according to the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC). At least nine forces are either assessing whether to or already have launched investigations.

On 18 February, the Metropolitan Police say “initial inquiries into these specific allegations have begun” regarding protection officers after concerns from one unnamed officer that some turned a “blind eye” to Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s visits to Epstein’s island, Little St James, in the US Virgin Islands.

Surrey Police say it is looking into allegations of human trafficking and sexual assaults on a minor in Virginia Water, Surrey, between 1994 and 1996, after they became aware of a redacted report in the US Department of Justice Epstein files release in December.

The force say they have found no evidence of the allegations being reported to them after reviewing their systems but has urged anyone with information to come forward about claims, which appeared in the Epstein files.