Prince Andrew may have contacted convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein after saying they had cut ties, according to newly unearthed emails. The Duke of York was first introduced to Epstein in 1999 by mutual friend and now convicted sex trafficker, Ghislaine Maxwell but the royal insisted he severed all contact with him in December 2010. Andrew said that his meeting with Epstein that month – where their pair were famously pictured walking in Central Park, New York – was the last time he ever contacted Epstein. But documents suggest otherwise.
In his infamous Newsnight interview in November 2019, Andrew told Emily Maitlis he never spoke or saw Epstein again following that meeting.
Epstein had only just been released from an 18-month jail sentence for child prostitution offences and the royal was heavily criticised for staying at his £60million Manhattan house during the trip.
However, new emails, released as part of a US court case, suggest the pair may have had contact several months later.
A report by JP Morgan, seen by the Daily Mail, into the bank’s former executive Jes Staley and his relationship with Epstein, just two months after the New York meeting states: “Epstein writes to Staley ‘Andrew asked for your London schedule’.”
The entry could suggest the pair saw, met or had contact after Andrew said they had cut ties.
Speaking of their last meeting, Andrew claimed by “mutual agreement” they decided to “part company”.
He told the journalist: “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 emails that bring these comments into doubt have been made public as part of the US Virgin Islands’ lawsuit against JP Morgan.
It has been alleged that JP Morgan was “complicit in the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein”, in a counterclaim the bank has accused officials from the US Virgin Islands of taking money from Epstein and looking the other way while he trafficked girls into the territory to be sexually abused.
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Following his interview, Prince Andrew was forced to step down as a working royal due to his association with Epstein.
Queen Elizabeth II later stripped him of his military titles and royal patronages and it was announced he would stop using the style of His Royal Highness in an official capacity.
In 2021, a civil lawsuit was launched against Prine Andrew, by Virginia Giuffre, accusing him of sexual abuse when she was 17.
Andrew repeatedly and vehemently denied the allegations before reaching an out-of-court settlement was reached with Ms Giuffre in February last year, and made no admission of guilt.
