Scandalous photo of Prince Andrew with teen emerges in Epstein case
LONDON—Buckingham Palace has never attempted to explain the photograph. It shows a middle-aged Prince Andrew, Duke of York, smiling with his arm around the bare waist of Virginia Roberts, then 17, who claims she was paid by Jeffrey Epstein to have sex with the prince.
In the background stands Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite who accusers say was Epstein’s girlfriend and madam. The photo was reportedly taken at Maxwell’s London home in 2001.
The image caused scandalous headlines for the Royal Family when it first surfaced in 2015, along with serious allegations of sexual misconduct. Andrew has long been dubbed “Randy Andy” in the British tabloids. He has denied having any sexual relations with Roberts.
But after the arrest of Epstein on July 6 on federal charges of sex trafficking of minors in Florida and New York, this old scandal is back for Prince Andrew.
With Epstein now dead after a suspected suicide on Saturday, and Maxwell apparently outside the reach of investigators, hiding from the limelight she once embraced, the Duke of York may be the highest-profile member of Epstein’s circle from the time of the allegations against him.
On Friday, newly unsealed legal documents from a defamation suit Roberts brought against Maxwell brought old accusations to the surface and elaborated on the account of inappropriate behaviour.
In the documents, Roberts, now Virginia Giuffre, says she was “trafficked” to Prince Andrew, with whom she claims to have had sex three times. Her lawyers say flight logs show Giuffre, Maxwell and Epstein flying to London on Epstein’s private plane.
They also claim that the photo of Prince Andrew, Giuffre and Maxwell, included in the documents, corroborates their claims.
“There is no other reasonable explanation why an American child should be in the company of adults not her kin, in the London house owned by the girlfriend of a now convicted sex offender,” the lawyers said.
The documents also contain deposition testimony from a woman named Johanna Sjoberg, who echoes allegations first made public in 2007 that Andrew groped her at Epstein’s New York townhouse when she was 21.
Buckingham Palace, which rarely comments on scandalous accusations, repeated denials it issued in 2015. A spokesperson told The Washington Post: “This relates to proceedings in the United States, to which the Duke of York is not a party. Any suggestion of impropriety with underage minors is categorically untrue.”
A number of British newspapers showed Andrew, now 59, going to church Sunday with his mother, Queen Elizabeth. “Royals rally round” read a caption in the Sun, a right-wing tabloid.
Andrew’s friendship with Epstein has dogged him for years. A picture of the two men strolling in Central Park, taken in 2010 but published a year later, proved especially damaging for the prince. Epstein was, by then, a registered sex offender, and questions were raised about Andrew’s judgment.
Andrew and Epstein reportedly met in the late 1990s, introduced by Maxwell, daughter of disgraced media mogul Robert Maxwell.
In 2000, the Mail on Sunday reported that Andrew threw a birthday party for Maxwell at Sandringham, the Queen’s country estate, to which Epstein was also invited. Maxwell and Epstein were also snapped on a pheasant shoot at the estate.
In 2001, the prince reportedly vacationed with Epstein in Thailand, where Andrew was photographed on a yacht with several topless women.
In a post-#MeToo era, it may prove difficult for a powerful man accused of sexual misconduct to bat away the accusations — even if he is a royal. A number of British lawmakers are now calling for a new investigation of Prince Andrew’s ties to Epstein.
“We are talking about the trafficking of children,” Jess Phillips, a member of Parliament from the opposition Labour Party, told the Daily Mirror. “This is very serious and authorities should learn from the past in ignoring such allegations.”