Prince Andrew’s ‘Affair’ with Controversial Public Figure Leaks Years After His Divorce From Sarah Ferguson
Jason Pham
More details are coming out about Prince Andrew’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Andrew Lownie’s new book, Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York , details Andrew’s alleged relationship with Maxwell after his divorce from his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, in 1996. “Andrew and Ghislaine were good friends, and over the years had been occasional lovers—and through her, the prince had come into the ambit of her boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein,” Lownie wrote.
Related: Who inherited Queen Elizabeth’s money
According to the book, Andrew was “rudderless” after he left the Royal Navy in 2001 and leaned on Maxwell to reinvent himself, including his wardrobe, and run his social calendar, while using the prince to secure lucrative business deals for herself. “[Andrew] appeared to be rediscovering his youth, hooked by the wealth and reach of new friends,” the book wrote. A friend was also quoted in the biography saying, “‘He’s spiralling out of control, he’s even started dressing like a 25-year-old in jeans and blazer.'”
Lownie credited the change in Andrew’s demeanor to Maxwell. “This lifestyle could be traced back to his closer relationship with Ghislaine,” Lownie wrote. “She introduced him to many of the women with whom he had brief flings, but she also drew him further into Epstein’s net.”
Lownie also claimed that Andrew and Maxwell had an affair in the early 2000s, which involved hangouts with celebrities like Naomi Campbell. “In 2000, he resumed his on-off affair with Ghislaine,” Lownie wrote. “In May they were spotted holding hands at a restaurant in Manhattan before flying to Miami, with model Naomi Campbell and Parisian art dealer Alexia Wallaert, on the Lolita Express, as Epstein’s plane was known for flying so many young girls.”
In 2014, Virginia Giuffre alleged that she was sex trafficked to Andrew by convicted sex offenders, Epstein and Maxwell, when she was 17 years old. Andrew denied the allegations in an interview with BBC in 2019.
“Well, I met through his girlfriend back in 1999, who…and I’d known her since she was at university in the U.K., and it would be, to some extent, a stretch to say that, as it were, we were close friends. I mean, we were friends because of other people, and I had a lot of opportunity to go to the United States, but I didn’t have much time with him,” he said. “I suppose I saw him once or twice a year, perhaps maybe a maximum of three times a year and quite often if I was in the United States and doing things and if he wasn’t there, he would say: ‘Well, why don’t you come and use my houses?’ So I said: ‘That’s very kind, thank you very much indeed.'”
He continued, “It was his girlfriend that was the key element in this. He was the, as it were, plus one, to some extent, in that aspect.”
During the interview, Andrew confirmed that he once stayed at Maxwell’s home in Belgravia, but didn’t reveal whether they were romantically involved. “I’m not in a position to know what she’s trying to achieve, but I can tell you categorically I don’t remember meeting her at all,” he said of Giuffre. “I do not remember a photograph being taken and I’ve said consistently and frequently that we never had any sort of sexual contact whatever.”
When asked if he had sex with any woman trafficked by Epstein, Andrew responded, “No and without putting too fine a point on it, if you’re a man, it is a positive act to have sex with somebody. You have to have to take some sort of positive action and so therefore if you try to forget it’s very difficult to try and forget a positive action and I do not remember anything.”
Epstein pleaded guilty and was convicted of procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute in 2008. He served 13 months in custody before being released on an extensive work release. He was arrested again in 2019 on federal charges for the sex trafficking of minors in Florida and New York. He died in his jail cell on August 10, 2019. A medical examiner ruled his death a suicide by hanging.
Maxwell was arrested and charged in July 2020 with the crimes of enticement of minors and sex trafficking of underage girls. She was convicted of five out of the six counts against her, including one for sex trafficking of a minor, in December 2021. She’s currently serving a 20-year sentence at a prison camp in Texas.
