Prince Andrew, Ghislaine Maxwell, and The Paedophile

The Fall of Prince Andrew and a sex scandal for the ages

Once addressed as His Royal Highness, and a high-ranking military man, Prince Andrew skulks about the Royal Lodge, an embarrassment to the monarchy and excised from royal affairs.

Disgraced and stripped of all titles save the Duke of York, accused of sexual assault and battery, and with spiralling legal fees, how does a once respected member of the Royal Family fall so far from grace?

Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of media mogul Robert Maxwell, and once socialite, would open a doorway to a seedy path for a Prince with a history of questionable decisions. And through Maxwell, a friendship between Prince Andrew and Jeffery Epstein would be forged.

Maxwell studied at Balliol College, Oxford, and was ingratiated with the movers and shakers and part of the jet-set in high society. She was strategic in whom she formed friendships with, and had an eye for those that could serve purpose.

Writer Anna Pastnak, who studied at Balliol College along with Maxwell, notes: “She was one of those people at parties who always looked over your shoulder to see if there was somebody more powerful or more interesting while she was air-kissing you.”

“It was very clear to me even as an undergraduate that she was interested in power and money,”

It was 1999 and Epstein was yet to be imprisoned for prostituting a minor, and rumours of his infamous island had not yet surfaced. Donald Trump was throwing a party in the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Among those in attendance were Epstein and Maxwell and a thirty-eight-year-old Prince Andrew. With drinks flowing and shirts unbuttoned, it was an opportune moment for overtures and introductions to young Princes. And Maxwell wasted no time.

Maxwell and Prince Andrew were already well acquainted, and rumoured to have once been more than friends, but this was the first time Andrew had met Epstein. And such was the meeting, Maxwell and Epstein would be invited to stay at Balmoral Castle the same year.

A relationship that would eventually cost Prince Andrew dearly had begun.

They would meet again in 2000 when Maxwell and Epstein attended Prince Andrew’s 40th birthday at Windsor Castle. And it would be later on that same year Ghislaine Maxwell would approach Virginia Roberts (now known as Virginia Giuffre) for the first time, under the pretense of offering her a job as Epstein’s travelling masseuse.

Now an employee of Epstein, Ms Giuffre alleges she first met Prince Andrew on a trip to London in 2001 — when she was 17. She claims she and Andrew visited London nightclub Tramp together before going onto Maxwell’s home in Belgravia, London. And it is Maxwell’s home, Giuffre claims, that Prince Andrew first had sex with her. A claim the Prince would vehemently deny

In a 2019 interview with the BBC for Newsnight, Prince Andrew, in an attempt to showcase his innocence and win over the British public, told Emily Maitlis: “I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady [Virginia Giuffre], none whatsoever.” A surprising statement considering a photo of Prince Andrew with his arm around Giuffre [then Virginia Roberts] had been on the front page of newspapers the world over. The interview was deemed a P.R. disaster by the press and did little to convince the British public of Andrew’s innocence.

According to Virginia Giuffre, Andrew sexually assaulted her twice more, at Epstein’s New York home and again at an “orgy” in the Virgin Islands — where Epstein owned a private island that became the epicentre of sexual assault allegations with minors.

Epstein was known to hold large parties on the island and have a guest list dotted with eminent names. Pinhole cameras were concealed throughout the island’s properties, allegedly for the purpose of recording prominent guests in compromising situations with underage girls. It’s claimed Epstein’s use for the recordings was both blackmail and leverage.

Talk of Epstein’s tawdry lifestyle and rumours of his predatory behaviour were now widespread. And an arrogant or naive — or both — Prince would soon learn the price of association.

After Prince Andrew’s retirement from the Royal Navy, he was appointed the UK’s Special Representative for International Trade and Investment in 2001. A position he held until he stepped down in 2011, after mounting pressure over recent photographs of Andrew and Epstein in New York’s Central Park. Epstein was a convicted paedophile by this time, having had recently served an 18-month prison sentence for prostituting a minor.

The furore over Prince Andrew’s meeting with Epstein was compounded when details surfaced of a £15,000 payment from Epstein to Sarah Ferguson, Andrew’s live-in ex-wife, to help pay her spiralling debts. A misstep that fell short of topping her gaffe from the year before, when she was exposed brokering a £500,000 deal with an undercover News of the World journalist who posed as a sheik. She promised the undercover reporter access to Prince Andrew in his position as special envoy for U.K. business. Ferguson was secretly recorded telling the reporter his sum of £500,000 would be made back “10-fold”. Prince Andrew denied all knowledge of the meeting. Although this was called into doubt when Ferguson claimed Andrew had suggested to her the figure of £500,000 as the asking price to the sheik.

And in 2007 questions were asked when Timor Kulibayev, the son-in-law of the President of Kazakhstan, paid £3m more than the £12m asking price for Prince Andrew’s Sunninghill Park home. The speculation being the extra £3m was payment for a separate deal between the Prince and Timor Kulibayev that both parties wanted to remain secret.

This was one of a string of bad decisions made by the Prince during his time as Special Envoy for U.K. Business.

In 2011, Prince Andrew’s lapse in judgement was the cause for more concern when, three months before the Tunisa’s regime collapse, Sakher al-Materi, a member of the deposed Tunisian dictatorship, lunched with Prince Andrew at the palace. Sakher al-Materi was being investigated for money laundering at the time.

And around the time Britain took military action against Libya another questionable friendship came under fire by Labour MP Chris Bryant when he said: “[It is] increasingly difficult to explain the behaviour of the UK Trade & Investment special trade ambassador, who is not only a very close friend of [Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi’s son] Saif Gaddafi but a close friend of the convicted Libyan gun smuggler Tarek Kaituni.

“Is it not time that we dispensed with the services of the Duke of York?”

In April 2015, the shadow of Epstein hung over the Prince once more when Andrew is named in Florida court documents related to Epstein. The documents state Giuffre, then aged 17, was forced to have sexual intercourse with Andrew 3 times. The age of consent in Florida is 18.

Then an untimely death would hit the headlines and grip the world with speculation and suspicion. The American financier is dead.

Epstein is found hanged in his jail cell in August 2019 after being charged with sex trafficking. Much scepticism was made over the nature of Epstein’s death: some believe it an admission of guilt and a way out for a man who couldn’t face the rest of his life behind bars; others believe it was a staged suicide, killed to prevent secrets of eminent figures being known through possible plea deals.

Now a man desperate to hold on to any vestige of his former eminence, Prince Andrew fights a potential civil lawsuit of sexual assault and battery against Ms Giuffre. An out-of-court settlement for $500,000, in 2009, by Epstein to Guiffre was unsuccessfully argued by Prince Andrew’s legal team to have “waived her rights” to sue. On dismissing the motion to drop the case, judge Lewis Kaplan said: “The 2009 agreement cannot be said to demonstrate, clearly and unambiguously, the parties intended the instrument ‘directly,’ ‘primarily,’ or ‘substantially,’ to benefit Prince Andrew.” And since Epstein is no longer alive, it can only be speculated on what Epstein’s motives were with the settlement.

With Ms Giuffre now living in Australia with her husband and three children, it’s expected the Prince’s legal team will attempt to have the case dismissed on grounds Ms Giuffre is no longer a resident of the U.S.

If this fails and the Prince goes to trial, how likely is it he will win?

The burden of proof is lower in a civil lawsuit than a criminal one. Andrew’s alibi is he was in Pizza Express at the time he is alleged to have been in the nightclub Tramp with Ms Giuffre. But a recent documentary on ITV reports a witness has come forward stating she saw Prince Andrew in the nightclub on the night in question.

The next phase of legal proceedings will be discovery, where depositions will be conducted and communications handed to the court. This will include phone logs, emails and other personal documents. And there is the possibility of Ferguson and Princess Beatrice, Andrew’s daughter, being deposed.

It’s hard to know whether Prince Andrew is a victim of questionable judgment and unfettered opportunity, making him easy prey for those looking to benefit from his standing, or a man, with the arrogance of the protected class, who sees himself as unassailable and playing by his own rules. Either way, he is a man who has learnt, albeit a little late, actions do have consequences — even for princes!

In spite of whether he is found innocent, the prince has been told his titles will never be returned to him.

The Prince’s scandal wields a long tail not easily tamed; it will follow and bind him for the rest of his days. A blot on his character and a litany of gaffes, his once cachet of the Duke of York is of little value anymore. He will be kept behind the Royal curtain, away from public life, where reckless decisions can be managed and damage controlled. A Royal in name only. A pariah for real.