Andy’s toxic fixation
Since they met, the Prince and the paedophile partied together at least 20 times — even after Epstein was convicted. Read this dossier of their liaisons and ask yourself: what WAS fuelling...
PRINCE Andrew has finally broken his silence following Jeffrey Epstein’s death, declaring himself ‘appalled’ by his old chum’s ‘alleged crimes’.
Quite what the Prince was doing in 2010, when Epstein was not just a convicted paedophile but also a registered sex offender, is therefore, anyone’s guess.
Back then, Andrew didn’t seem ‘appalled’. Instead, he chose to not only stay at the multimillionaire’s New York home, but also to entertain celebrity guests at a party designed to mark Epstein’s return into polite society.
But the Prince has had a seeming blind spot for the unsavoury aspects of Epstein’s character, as their long, close relationship attests.
FREEBIES ON EPSTEIN’S JET
ANDREW was dragged into Epstein’s grotty orbit during the late 1990s, apparently via his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, who became chummy with Ghislaine Maxwell, the New York-based socialite daughter of disgraced newspaper tycoon Robert.
Maxwell was Epstein’s girlfriend, fixer, and (it’s widely alleged) the ‘madame’ who helped recruit girls to his personal harem. She has long denied any wrongdoing.
In April 1998, Epstein flew to Nassau in the Bahamas to mweet the Duchess and daughters Beatrice and Eugenie, then aged nine and eight, who were holidaying on Epstein’s island, Little St James in the U.S. virgin Islands.
Ten months later came the first documentary evidence of Epstein’s friendship with Andrew: the flight log of his private jet revealed that in February 1999, they travelled together to the same location, subsequently nicknamed ‘Paedophile Island’.
TRIPS TO ‘PAEDOPHILE ISLAND’
ANDREW returned to the island in May 1999, according to Miles and Cathy Alexander, a South African couple hired to manage the Caribbean property earlier that year.
‘The Duke came via helicopter with his bodyguard and a woman in her 30s, who said she was a brain surgeon,’ Cathy recalled. ‘She was tall, bleached blonde and had big boobs. They shared a room and spent most of their time on windsurfing, sailing or doing other water sports.
‘One day he came back into the house in great mirth, claiming his guest had stepped on a sea urchin and he urinated on her foot as a remedy. “The royal member has done its duty,” he chuckled. ’
WEEKEND AT BALMORAL
WITH the salmon fishing season in full swing, Andrew repaid Epstein’s hospitality in spectacular fashion: by inviting him and his entourage to Balmoral in July 1999.
Epstein’s party, which included a number of young women, billeted at Craigowan Lodge, a shooting lodge in the grounds of the Queen’s private Scottish retreat. One of Epstein’s companions, a model then in her early 20s, this week told the Mail how Epstein and co. were welcomed by the Prince and provided with a tour of the historic estate. ‘He was really nice. He was very polite,’ she said.
TRUMP RESORT PARTY
THE first of many headlines generated by Andrew’s friendship with Epstein came via a newspaper, the Palm Beach Post’s ‘society snapshots’ column. In February 2000, its reporter attended a party/tournament at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s exclusive private members’ club, where he spotted the British Royal with Epstein and Maxwell.
‘Even when Trump announced England’s Prince Andrew, many in the crowd doubted his presence,’ says the column. ‘For one, he stayed in the background, introducing himself as Andrew York, and for two, he’s recently shed 20 pounds, making him a possible double for actor Rupert Everett.’
Trump was an old chum of Epstein’s. ‘I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,’ the future U.S. President would tell New York magazine in October 2002. ‘It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.’
The President later said the pair fell out ‘12 or 15 years ago’ and reiterated last month that he was ‘not a fan of Jeffrey Epstein’.
NEW YORK MEETINGS
OVER the ensuing weeks, Maxwell and Epstein invited Prince Andrew to a number of social events in New York, including a party hosted by designer Ralph Lauren and a £630-a-head charity concert in aid of the American Friends Of The London Philharmonic Orchestra.
In April 2000, this newspaper revealed that Andrew had ‘become one of Ghislaine’s regular guests at the famous dinner parties she holds at the home of [Epstein] on New York’s prestigious Upper East Side. Twice in the past year, he is said to have stayed for a few days at the mansion, one block from Central Park.’
In the same period, our report noted, the Duchess of York had stayed at Epstein’s mansion no fewer than three times.
FLORIDA NIGHTLIFE
TO THE alarm of royal aides, the Prince embraced his new chum’s style. May 2000 saw Andrew fly on Epstein’s plane from New Jersey to Miami, in the company of Maxwell, supermodel Naomi Campbell, and a woman named only as ‘Alexia’. During the stay, Epstein arranged for them to visit a local nightclub called Crobar.
According to the venue’s ‘greeter,’ Doron Ofir, the party was given a table in the VIP area, and supplied with a £300 bottle of Cristal champagne. ‘Andrew was so cool,’ Ofir later recalled.
ROYAL BIRTHDAY BASH
EPSTEIN’S patronage was again swiftly repaid — in spades.
On June 23, 2000, Andrew invited both Epstein and Maxwell to attend the most lavish royal event in years: a ‘Dance of the Decades’ at Windsor Castle celebrating the landmark birthdays of Princess Margaret (70) Princess Anne (50), Andrew (40) and Prince William, who was 18. Guests were served Ruinart champagne among 30ft towers of flowers, with the Queen and Prince Philip leading revellers to the dance floor following dinner.
HALLOWEEN RAVE
ANDREW flew back across the Atlantic four months later for a social visit to celebrate Halloween. It kicked off with a bondagethemed party at a nightclub called the Hudson, hosted by model Heidi Klum, who wore black latex, a dog collar and wrist restraints.
Maxwell dressed as a prostitute, in gold trousers and a blonde wig, reportedly telling a fellow guest: ‘I’m a hooker tonight. We are going on to another party with a pimps and prostitutes theme.’
Later, at the trendy Lotus supper club, the Prince (who was wearing a suit but had removed his tie) sat next to a tattooed punk with spiked hair.
SANDRINGHAM SHOOT
EPSTEIN completed a hat-trick of visits to royal residences in December 2000, after Andrew spent £20,000 hosting a pheasant shooting weekend at Sandringham. He was allowed to land his private jet at Marham, a local RAF base. Flight logs record that Epstein jetted in with a woman called Kelly Spamm, an unnamed ‘female,’ and a wealthy American businessman called Tom Pritzker. Also on board was Maxwell. During the shoot, Epstein’s attire sparked criticism from snobbish courtiers: ‘Dressed more suitably for a shopping trip on 5th Avenue than an English pheasant drive in his LL Bean hunting boots and $1,000 leather parka,’ read one report.
TOPLESS IN THAILAND
PRINCE ANDREW jetted off to Thailand shortly after Christmas 2000, where he once more met up with Epstein.
The duo stayed at the luxury Amanpuri hotel on Phuket, where the Duke was billeted in a £4,000 a-night private villa with a redand-gold bedroom and private black-tiled swimming pool.
He was photographed on board the hotel’s catamaran surrounded by a bevvy of topless young women. During the evenings, Epstein and
the prince hit the local red-light district of patong, attending a disco called Banana and an ‘adult entertainment’ bar filled with go-go dancers called Rock Hard.
‘i was amazed to see the prince here. But he was not at all fazed and seemed quite relaxed until people realised who he was,’ the manager later told reporters.
IN TRAMP WITH TEEN
in MARCH 2001, Epstein flew to London with Maxwell and Virginia Roberts, a troubled 17-year-old girl who was one of Epstein’s dozens of young victims.
There they met up with the prince, apparently enjoying dinner and dancing at the Mayfair nightclub, Tramp.
What happened next is fiercely disputed. in sworn court depositions, Roberts has alleged they adjourned to Maxwell’s mews house in Belgravia, where she and the prince took a bath together.
‘He started licking my toes, between my toes, the arches of my feet. And then we went into the bedroom and he proceeded to make love to me, so to speak,’ she has claimed. According to Roberts, Epstein paid her $10,000 (£8,000) the following day.
However Andrew has vigorously denied sexual contact with the teenager, and her claims were ordered to be struck from the record by a U.s. judge in 2015, who described them as ‘immaterial and impertinent.’
There has also been no claim that Andrew knew about the alleged payment by Epstein.
All we know for sure is that a photo of the prince and the teenager was taken at Maxwell’s home — the prince’s hand draped around her exposed midriff — reportedly by Epstein himself.
PUPPET ‘PRANK’
VIRGINIA ROBERTs says she met Andrew a second time in 2001 at Easter, at Epstein’s vast new York townhouse.
Also present was a young woman called Johanna sjoberg. Both she and Roberts say the prince was given a present: a latex puppet of himself from the TV series spitting image, which Epstein had bought at auction. shortly afterwards, the puppet was allegedly used for an unedifying prank, in which Roberts and sjoberg allege that Andrew jokingly groped their breasts.
A Buckingham palace spokesman said: ‘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.’
SEXY PHOTO SESSION
A FORTNIGHT later, Roberts claims to have encountered prince Andrew for a third time, on Epstein’s private island.
‘i flew there with Jeffrey and Ghislaine and seven Russian girls who didn’t speak a word of English but turned up with a modelling agent,’ she has alleged.
‘Jeffrey was so excited. He said: “We’re going to do a big photo shoot with you and the girls.” The agent took the pictures. They were very provocative. We were topless and he had us in sexual positions.’
in testimony which has, again, been vigorously denied by Buckingham palace, Roberts alleges that she was then required to take part in an orgy.
‘Jeffrey directed us with hand gestures to start undressing and then we were instructed to start kissing and touching each other,’ she has claimed.
‘Jeffrey and the prince were laughing and then they stripped and i performed a sex act on Andrew. There was a dinner the next day and then Andrew was gone.’
A palace spokesman said: ‘it is emphatically denied that HRH the Duke of York had any form of sexual contact or relationship with Virginia Roberts. The allegations made are false and without any foundation.’
PALM BEACH SPLASH
EPSTEIN’s former butler, Juan Alessi, witnessed almost all of the comings and goings at his palm Beach mansion, where bedrooms contained massage tables and boxes full of sex toys, and bathrooms were supplied with bars of soap in the shape of male genitalia.
in 2011, he claimed that prince Andrew had visited ‘three or four times’ in the early to mid-2000s, for weeks at a time.
‘prince Andrew was a gentleman,’ Alessi recalled. ‘He would get up and make his own bed, tidy things up. He didn’t want nothing [sic] to be done for him. He was the only guy who left us a tip — and a key chain from the royal palace as a souvenir.’
According to Alessi, Andrew attended naked pool parties, and was treated to daily massages during his stays.
Buckingham palace has in response claimed that his visits lasted days, rather than weeks. Apropos massages, sources have said: ‘He is not denying having a massage, but that in itself does not represent impropriety.’
CELEBRITY SOIREES
ONE of the hottest invitations in Manhattan, in the early 2000s, was to Epstein’s townhouse, where decorations included an entrance foyer decorated with fake eyeballs, a portrait of Bill Clinton in a dress, and a bathroom with prosthetic breasts on its wall.
The reason? it would often offer a chance to meet prince Andrew.
socialite businessman Vikram Chatwal in 2002 told the new York Observer that he’d recently attended a dinner party there where the Duke ‘told a quite humorous joke involving pepto-Bismol and his brother prince Charles’ girlfriend, Camilla parker Bowles.’
DISCREET SUPPORT
in 2005, police raided Epstein’s palm Beach home amid allegations that he’d sexually abused dozens of underage girls.
Three years later, the billionaire’s expensive lawyers struck a plea deal which saw him plead guilty to solicitation of prostitution and solicitation of minors to engage in prostitution, in exchange for an 18month prison sentence.
Although his chum was now a court-certified paedophile, Andrew doggedly refused to call time on their friendship.
‘After Jeffrey was convicted, i phoned Andrew and told him: “You cannot have a relationship with Jeffrey,” an acquaintance of the prince later told Vanity Fair magazine.
‘He said: “stop giving me a hard time. You’re such a puritan.” From there, our conversation descended into a screaming match, and finally Andrew said: “Leave me alone. Jeffrey’s my friend. Being loyal to your friends is a virtue. And i’m going to be loyal to him.” ’
PAYMENTS TO FERGIE
AFTER Epstein had emerged from prison in July, 2009, the convicted sex offender generously decided to settle some of sarah Ferguson’s personal debts.
in a 2010 deal brokered by the prince, Epstein wired £15,000 to Johnny O’sullivan, the Duchess’s former personal assistant, who was claiming £78,000 in unpaid wages and other bills.
it was to be the first of several instalments, until the Mail became aware of the arrangement, causing further payments to be cancelled.
The Duchess duly issued a grovelling apology for ‘a gigantic error of judgment’.
DOORSTEP FAREWELL
BEFORE Christmas 2010, the prince travelled to new York to support Jeffrey Epstein as he eased his way back into public life.
The four-day stay at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse, where child pornography was subsequently discovered by police, saw Andrew attend a ‘welcome home’ bash stuffed with local TV celebrities, including famous American news anchor Katie Couric and film-maker Woody Allen.
During the stay, a string of glamorous young women were photographed coming and going from Epstein’s residence, including a glamorous brunette who Andrew was seen furtively waving goodbye to, from behind the front door, in footage obtained by the Mail on sunday which became public at the weekend.
WALKS IN THE PARK
THOUGH it survived Epstein’s criminal conviction, prince Andrew’s friendship with the paedophile couldn’t endure the widespread public criticism that ensued when they were pictured walking together in Central park.
Taken during the December 2010 new York trip, and made public two months later, it eventually led to the prince giving up his role as Britain’s trade ambassador.
Whether the controversy surrounding their friendship will cause any further damage to the Duke’s status for now remains to be seen.