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By Jack Royston
Chief Royal Correspondent
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Prince Andrew told Jeffrey Epstein "we are in this together" in a newly disclosed 2011 email that casts doubt over his account of breaking off their friendship.
It has long been known that the Duke of York visited Epstein in December 2010 and stayed overnight at his New York mansion. However, he told the BBC in a 2019 interview: "I never had any contact with him from that day forward."
That statement now appears to have been blown out of the water by an email published in the Sun on Sunday and The Mail on Sunday, two U.K. tabloids, over the weekend.
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Virginia Giuffre previously said she was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell as a 17-year-old to London, New York and Epstein's private island and forced to have sex with Andrew. He denies the allegations and settled a civil case brought by her out of court for an undisclosed sum. Giuffre passed away earlier this year after what an initial family statement suggested was a suicide.
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Prince Andrew's 2011 Email
The message, sent in February 2011, came two months after his New York visit and one day after the first publication of a now famous photograph of Andrew with his arm around Giuffre, in The Mail on Sunday.
That article in the Mail had described Epstein in its second paragraph as "a convicted child-sex offender" and detailed how Giuffre was paid by Epstein to have sex with him, including when "she was under Florida's age of consent, which is 18."
At the time, the full details of Guiffre's allegations against the prince were not yet known though the story said: "Even more serious doubts are cast on his suitability after a woman at the center of the Epstein case revealed to The Mail on Sunday that she had, as a 17-year-old employed by Epstein, been flown across the world to be introduced to the Prince. On one of those occasions she was subsequently paid $15,000 (£9,400)."
The day after publication, Andrew emailed Epstein: "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." KG is often used to denote that a person is a Knight of the Garter, an order of chivalry in Britain that includes Andrew, as well as King Charles III and Prince William.
The Mail described the email as having been "leaked" though the U.S. House Oversight Committee has also recently been publishing documents supplied by Epstein's estate.
Newsweek approached representatives of Prince Andrew for comment.
Reaction to Prince Andrew's Email
The new message sparked further debates in Britain about Andrew's impact on the reputation of the Monarchy, including on Good Morning Britain which posed a question about whether Charles should attempt to banish Andrew from the U.K.
As recently as September 16, Prince Andrew was seen attempting to talk to both King Charles III and Prince William at the Westminster Cathedral funeral of the Duchess of Kent.
Afua Hagan, a U.K. based royal commentator, told Newsweek: "We cannot keep excusing him. He doesn't need to be at any royal event. Every time there is another revelation it just proves that he is so untrustworthy.
"Lying to Emily Maitlis and saying I went to New York to say I broke off all contact and then sending him an email a couple of months later in black and white.
"It's the stupidity that you think you're not going to get caught out, you're so untrustworthy, it's also that the Epstein Files keep on giving. Every single week it feels like there's going to be more, there's going to be something else.
"What are we going to find out next? The king really, really has to make a decision about Prince Andrew. He has already been stripped of his titles. At this point, what else can he do? Is it kicking him out of Royal Lodge? Is it banishing him to Antarctica? How practical is any of that?
"The point is, this continues to be embarrassing to the royal family every single week that we have a drop of these files and Prince Andrew is included. They're untrustworthy, they're entitled and they're continuing to make the royal family look bad and the king has to do something because its damaging to their brand."
What Was Known About Prince Andrew Allegations in February 2011
Prince Andrew was in the earliest days of the scandal that would destroy his royal career and reputation at the point he sent the email, but even as far back as February 2011 the story was still always that Andrew should not associate with Epstein because Epstein was a convicted pedophile.
A News of the World front page headline eight days before the message read: "PRINCE ANDY & THE PAEDO; EXCLUSIVE ROYAL'S DODGY PAL Just what is the 4th in line to the Throne doing meeting a convicted child-sex pervert … even if he is a billionaire?"
The story included pictures of Andrew and Epstein walking through Central Park together during the prince's stay in New York in December 2010. In 2008, Epstein had pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution.
The article read: "Prince Andrew goes for a stroll with a disgraced billionaire friend—who is a convicted child-sex pervert. It is the first time that he and Jeffrey Epstein, 58, have been snapped together since the financier was jailed on sex charges involving a girl of 14.
"And it appears that the Prince is happy to stand by his old pal—even though Epstein admitted soliciting teenage girls into prostitution."
A week later, the scandal moved even closer to home as The Mail on Sunday published a further story containing the now famous photograph of Andrew with his arm around Virginia Giuffre, when she was 17 years old, in the London townhouse of Epstein's former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell in March, 2001.
The article described how Giuffre was abused by a family friend as a child and had spent time sleeping rough during which she had to have sex with older men in exchange for food.
Later, it said she was recruited to work as Epstein's massage therapist and was, from the very first session, groomed to perform sex acts for him.
Giuffre was quoted saying: "My face was red with embarrassment. But I felt under immense pressure to please them. The whole time it was going on, they were promising me the world, that I'd travel with Jeffrey on his private jet and have a well-paid profession."
"Basically," she added, "I was training to be a prostitute for him and his friends who shared his interest in young girls. After about two years, he started to ask me to 'entertain' his friends."
The article said she took Xanax "to detach herself from sordid reality."
The Mail also gave Giuffre's account of being flown by Epstein and Maxwell to London and going out to the nightclub Tramp to dance with the prince in March 2001. Guiffre would later say she was forced to have sex with Andrew, though that did not become public until it was included in court filings in a civil lawsuit in America.
"Ghislaine served tea from a porcelain pot and biscuits," Guiffre said. "She knew Sarah Ferguson [Andrew's ex-wife] and they talked fondly about Andrew's daughters.
"Then Ghislaine asked Andrew how old he thought I was and he guessed 17 and they all laughed. Ghislaine made a joke that I was getting too old for Jeffrey. She said, 'He'll soon have to trade her in.' It was widely known that he liked young girls."
"After about an hour-and-a-half," she said in The Mail on Sunday interview, "we drove back to Ghislaine's. All of us went upstairs and I asked Jeffrey to snap a picture of me with the Prince. I wanted something to show my Mom. Ghislaine and Jeffrey left us after that, and later Andrew left."
These quotes were printed for the first time the day before Andrew's email to Epstein stating: "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!!!!"
In 2022, Guiffre made her allegations against Andrew in a New York civil lawsuit. Andrew settled out of court while denying liability and paid her a substantial sum.
What Prince Andrew Told the BBC About His New York Visit
The new email is significant because it appears to directly contradict Andrew's explanation of the New York visit during an interview he gave journalist Emily Maitlis, for BBC Newsnight, in 2019: "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 came after Epstein died in prison after what the New York medical examiner ruled was a suicide. A backlash against the interview forced Andrew to step back from public life.
Do you have a question about King Charles III and Queen Camilla, Prince William and Princess Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
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