Prince Andrew, the younger brother of Charles III, announced that he would no longer be using the style ‘His Royal Highness’ or his titles Duke of York, Earl of Inverness and Baron Killyleagh. Prince Andrew has long been disgraced by his close friendship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. There are plenty of other accusations against the prince, such as misconduct in a public office and bribery. The 65-year-old prince still lives with his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson. They divorced in 1996 but have a famously cordial relationship.
The publication of Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York by Andrew Lownie in August 2025 was an exposé of the nefarious conduct by Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson. Dr Lownie said there were many more unsavoury statements that he could not print about the prince for legal reasons. Not all of these claims could be proven to the civil standard. Lownie said that when his book was published, he believed it would induce more witnesses to come forward, as indeed it has. Dr Lownie is a barrister and writes with legal precision.
The late Jeffrey Epstein died in a New York prison in 2019, awaiting charges of rape and sexual abuse against 18 women and underage girls. It is a moot point whether Epstein committed suicide (the official explanation) or was murdered, and it was made to look like suicide. Mr Epstein was a good friend of former US President Bill Clinton, President Trump, Harvey Weinstein and a host of other international luminaries. Some of them are alleged to have participated in his sex crimes. The death of Epstein was very convenient for several extremely wealthy and powerful men. As the saying goes, dead men tell no tales.
Jeffrey Epstein’s brother rejects the theory that his brother took his own life. Epstein had beaten similar charges in Florida in 2009 and plea bargained it down to pleading guilty to one minor offence. He received a very mild sentence. In 2019, Epstein still had USD 600 million in the bank and had a superb legal team led by a Harvard professor of law, Alan Dershowitz. Jeffrey Epstein was ebullient. Why would he end his life when he believed that if he did not walk free, he would only serve a few years in prison? Andrew Lownie says he has been informed who murdered Jeffrey Epstein.
The day before Epstein supposedly committed suicide, his cellmate was moved. The security cameras around his cell mysteriously malfunctioned for a few hours before and after his alleged suicide. The prison officers who were supposed to check him on suicide watch every 15 minutes both fell asleep at the same time. There was coincidence upon coincidence pointing to a cover-up. Moreover, an autopsy paid for by Jeffrey’s brother says that the hanging was inconsistent with suicide. The prison also makes it impossible for men to self-destroy. They take away all items that could be utilised for self-harm.
The Epstein Files are held in the United States by the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation). The Trump Administration is holding back many of these files. Many believe that these files implicate Trump in Epstein’s sex crimes. Trump was Epstein’s neighbour in Florida. He was Epstein’s frequent guest there and in Manhattan.
Jeffrey Epstein was a donor to Israel. He was Jewish and an outspoken Zionist. It is believed that he was a Mossad agent. Epstein filmed his guests without their knowledge while they were in flagrante delicto with the women and underage girls whom he had supplied. A police officer investigating Epstein in 2009 took the videos and fled to Russia. Presumably, Russia has compromising videos of Prince Andrew and others.
Some of the Epstein Files have been published. In October 2025, it came to light that Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson corresponded with Epstein in 2011. They had both stated categorically that they had absolutely no communication with Epstein after 2010. Emails published from the Epstein Files prove this to have been a lie. Some of the files implicate Donald Trump, which is why the Trump Administration has refused to publish them.
Sarah Ferguson apologised to Jeffrey Epstein for having publicly criticised him. She said he would be ‘hellaciously disappointed’. She was begging him for money. She stated publicly that she abhorred sex crimes, particularly against minors, and would never associate with a person who committed such felonies. But we now know that in private, she held a different attitude. Miss Ferguson is notoriously profligate. In 1995, she was GBP 5 million in debt. She frequently buys things on credit, assuming that shops will not press her for payment; it often works. She is eager to accept freebies: holidays paid for by multimillionaires.
Sarah Ferguson (known as ‘Fergie’) has stayed very close to her ex-husband. They have even spoken of getting remarried. Why has she clung to him like a limpet? Before she married him, she was a secretary. There is nothing bad about that, but it is not high status. She has had her children’s storybooks published, autobiographies published, and she has been paid fat sums to appear on chat shows and to be a brand ambassador for Weightwatchers. No one would pay her a penny if she were not associated with the British Royal Family. After their divorce, Prince Andrew dated many other women. Fergie never objected to that; she was only adamant that he must not marry. Because if he did, then she would lose her title as Duchess of York.
The Epstein Files also revealed that in 2011, Prince Andrew wrote to Jeffrey about Virginia Giuffre (née Roberts), who had accused them both of raping her on multiple occasions. The prince said, ‘We are in this together. We will play again soon.’ The last phrase made people retch.
It is alleged that Prince Andrew asked his police personal protection officers to besmirch Virginia Giuffre’s name. He contacted public relations companies with this objective in mind. Miss Roberts (as she then was) had to be presented as mentally ill, a pathological liar, a stalker and a gold digger. This would wreck her credibility.
Prince Andrew has very expensive tastes. From 1960 to 1982, he was second in line to the throne. But financially, he was not even 1002nd in the United Kingdom. He felt he did not have the money commensurate with his stratospheric social status. He is so profoundly dim that he honestly believes he is a superior being. The only commoners he respects are the very affluent. The prince sucked up to Epstein because he gave him money. Epstein also paid off some of Sarah Ferguson’s debts.
There are allegations of misconduct in a public office. This is a crime which must consist of the following components:
For instance, police officers who attempt romantic liaisons with women or men whom they have met in the course of their duties are held guilty of misconduct in a public office.
For ten years, Prince Andrew was a roving ambassador for British trade. He flew particularly to the former USSR, the Middle East and the Far East. He liked absolute monarchies, which were indulgent of his abuse of power. He was also at home in dictatorships like Azerbaijan, where there was no pesky press to report his peccadilloes.
Whilst the prince was a roving ambassador for trade, he sometimes took Epstein along with him. Andrew’s mission was to promote British trade and not American trade. The USA has its own representatives. Andrew was actively undermining British trade when to Epstein, an American, it should have gone to Britishers. In Bahrain, Andrew advised the Bahrainis to lease, not buy, British equipment, as this would be a better deal for Bahrain. It would be a worse deal for the UK. Which side was he on?
There is a distinction between public and private. Someone in a public office must not misuse that office for private gain. A police officer on duty must not accept unofficial payments to guard only one street and neglect others in his area, for example. This is analogous to what the prince was doing.
Prince Andrew frequently midwifed deals as part of his UK Trade and Investment roving-ambassador role and asked for and received commissions for them. This was a blatant breach of the law. He already had a fat salary for this role, and it was expressly forbidden to seek or accept additional emoluments arising from his official duties.
The Conservative Party is the most monarchist party in the United Kingdom. Yet even a Conservative MP said that the prince’s behaviour was ‘not on the borderline of illegal, it was a million miles over it’. Prince Andrew routinely and grossly abused the public trust reposed in him.
People whom the prince met were part of his UK Trade and Investment roving ambassador role because of vital business contacts. He made money via them. He also transported large amounts of physical cash on his person and in his luggage. He was not subject to customs inspections. Money could be moved tax-free by him, even if it was the proceeds of crime.
When Prince Andrew flew abroad on UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) trips, he would insist on flying by business jet. Most royals would fly business class on an ordinary airline. Most members of the House of Windsor stay at the British Embassy when overseas. Andrew demanded that the presidential suite of a five-star hotel be rented out for him and his entourage. His demands were acceded to. All this simply increased the bill that the British taxpayer had to foot. Andrew wanted to stay in a five-star hotel because he could bring anyone to his room. In countries such as Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, the Soviet secret police used to secretly film such rooms to garner blackmail material, particularly of sexual sins. Was Andrew blackmailed by them?
Prince Andrew behaved as though he were above the law. He is not. His sister, Princess Anne, has twice been convicted of a minor offence. Once it was speeding in her car, the other time it was having a dog out of control. Monarchs in the United Kingdom have even been put on trial and convicted before.
Could Prince Andrew face trial over his alleged rape of Virginia Giuffre (née Roberts)? It is very improbable. She committed suicide in 2025. His accuser is now dead. Her statements about him were not sworn and have little evidential value. Her testimony cannot be cross-examined in court. Moreover, there is no precedent for a man to be convicted of the rape of someone who died before the trial.
Virginia Giuffre’s autobiography was published posthumously. It is called Nobody’s Girl. This book piled more pressure on the prince. He is widely seen as a sex criminal.
The prince resides at Royal Lodge in the grounds of Windsor Castle. The royal family is trying to get him to leave it despite him having a lease on it till 2078, when he would be 118 years old. One of the terms of the lease is that he must maintain the property in good condition. When he moved into the house in 2003, he spent over GBP 7 million on reparations. He is estimated to spend GBP 500,000 per annum on maintenance. He has to pay his own security bills. His elder brother, the king, withdrew all public funding from Andrew in 2024. The prince has a pension as a naval officer of GBP 20,000 a year. How he funds himself is a mystery.
When Prince Andrew’s name became tarnished, it is said that he told his business contacts that when he made deals with them, to pay commissions into his ex-wife’s account or the accounts of his two daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie. Both are married and they have a brace of children each. Perhaps they are holding monies on trust for the prince.
Prince Andrew is causing an existential crisis for the House of Windsor. He provides endless harmful headlines. His monstrous behaviour, at best, diverts attention from the good work that his relatives are doing.
The late Queen Elizabeth II was held in very high regard indeed. Even confirmed anti-monarchists seldom criticised her. She was held to epitomise decorum and dutifulness. However, she is guilty of turning Nelson’s eye to her second son’s constant breaches of ethics and law. It was reported to her that his conduct was unbecoming of a prince. She dismissed the allegations. Her late Majesty was overindulgent of Andrew. She believed he could do no wrong. Whenever a newspaper published an embarrassing story about Andrew, she would have him drive her somewhere or sit beside him in church to signal solidarity. The day after Jeffrey Epstein was sent to prison, Elizabeth II gave her son another order of chivalry to show her support for him. Andrew was anything but chivalrous.
About 50% of people in the UK support the continuation of the monarchy. 30% are against. This is the highest level of anti-monarchism ever. This is worrying for the Windsors. Even more perturbingly anti-monarchist is the majority opinion of people under the age of 30. The elderly are overwhelmingly monarchist, and they are dying off. It is true that some shift from anti-monarchism to monarchism as they age. But this trend will have to accelerate if the monarchy is to retain majority support. Prince Andrew has wrought an awful lot of damage. No one else has brought such utter shame on his family.
Prince Andrew is the embodiment of the worst that a royal can be: egotistical, arrogant, ignorant, hypocritical, scathing, snobby, avaricious, mendacious and sexually abusive. He has been able to get away with his manifold crimes precisely because of his princely status. Monarchy is the very inversion of equality. It strikes at the heart of any notion of fairness or merit. It perverts the notion of nobility. Nobility is supposed to be about honourable behaviour. But monarchy turns ‘nobility’ into meaning happening to be born in the right family. Why should a person be enormously rewarded because of who his or her ancestors were? Why should he or she get away with rape?