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As almost 70 mentions of Prince Andrew appear in the newly-released Epstein documents, it seems ex-wife Sarah is closer to him than ever – and those remarriage rumours are not going away... but could a marriage be seen as a deflection?
Despite appearing at church with the Royal Family – and it feeling as if his longed-for rehabilitation as a working Royal may have begun for the Duke of York – it’s fair to say that 2024 got off to a pretty disastrous start on 8 January – when 17 secret documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein were unsealed.
The late Queen’s second son was named 69 times in court papers relating to the sex offender Epstein, who was found dead in his New York prison cell in 2019.
The documents are part of a 2015 lawsuit filed against Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell, currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for child-trafficking offences. One of Epstein’s victims is Virginia Giuffre, who also accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault.
The release of the court papers has plunged the Prince into a fresh mire of bad publicity, amid detailed claims he was present an ‘underage orgy’ and groped a woman’s breast while she sat in his lap.
The dossier released in New York includes claims an underage girl was told to give Andrew ‘whatever he demanded’, while on Epstein’s private Caribbean resort on Little Saint James, now dubbed in reports as ‘Sin Island’.
A former housekeeper for Epstein has also claimed that Andrew would stay for weeks in Epstein’s Florida mansion, receiving daily massages.
In 2019, when the scandal exploded, The Duke of York was stripped off his Royal roles and charity associations and banished from public duty. And although he has always vehemently denied any wrongdoing, he paid out an estimated £12 million pounds to Giuffre in a settlement,
Late last year, it appeared that Andrew was making baby steps into rehabilitating his image. He was seated in the third row at Charles’ Coronation and on Christmas Day he appeared with the Royal Family outside the church in Sandringham – along with his ex-wife Sarah and their daughters Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.
But the release of the court papers has led to demands that Andrew be subject to a police investigation with anti-monarchy group Republic submitting a complaint to the Metropolitan Police.
There have also been calls for the King, 75, to serve notice on his brother from the Royal Lodge in Windsor, where he has lived since 2003, or at least remove Royal security, currently funded by Charles, so he would need to pay for both the security and the maintenance of the 30-room property
