Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, British King Charles III ‘s younger brother, has been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office following a raft of disclosures related to his relationship with late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The man formerly known as Prince Andrew has for years faced a series of allegations over his contacts with the disgraced financier, most recently in the wake of the release of more than three million pages of documents related to Epstein from the US Justice Department.
Mountbatten-Windsor, 66, has denied any wrongdoing in his friendship with Epstein.
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Timeline
2011: Andrew is forced to resign as Britain’s special trade envoy following the first reports of his links to Epstein, who was convicted and jailed three years earlier for sex offenses involving a minor.
July 2019: Epstein is arrested for a second time on charges of sex trafficking and later dies by suicide in a New York jail cell. The news focuses public attention on allegations that the then-prince had sex with at least one underage teenager trafficked by Epstein. Andrew denies the allegations.
November 2019: Andrew attempts to staunch the flood of criticism by agreeing to an on-camera grilling by BBC reporter Emily Maitlis. The interview backfires when Andrew defends his relationship with Epstein, fails to show empathy for his victims and offers explanations of his behaviour that many people find hard to believe. Andrew says he broke off contact with Epstein in December 2010, a date that will come back to haunt him.
In the wake of the interviews fall-out Buckingham Palace subsequently announces Andrew will suspend all royal duties “for the foreseeable future” and he is stripped of his role as patron of 230 charities.
2022: Andrew agrees to settle a New York civil lawsuit filed by Virginia Giuffre, who alleged that she was forced to have sex with the prince when she was 17. While Andrew didn’t admit to any of Giuffre’s allegations, he acknowledged that she had suffered as a victim of sexual abuse. Legal experts estimate that the undisclosed settlement cost Andrew as much as $10 million. The source of the funds has remained murky ever since.
April 2025: Giuffre dies by suicide in Australia, where she had lived since about 2002.
October 2025: British newspapers reveal that Andrew sent an email to Epstein on February. 28, 2011, more than two months after he had told BBC he had cut off all contact with his one-time friend. Andrew wrote they were “in this together” and would “have to rise above it.”
Andrew subsequently says he is giving up his royal titles, including that of Duke of York, and other honours because “the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the royal family.”
In her posthumous book, Giuffre recounts details of how she first met Andrew in March 2001, and that she was forced to have sex with him on three separate occasions.
The king strips his brother of his remaining titles and honours, including the one he has held since birth — prince. From henceforth, he will be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor — he subsequently gains a hyphen. The king also serves notice for Andrew to leave Royal Lodge, his 30-room stately home near Windsor Castle, where he has lived for more than 20 years. He agrees to relocate to his brother’s private and remote Sandringham Estate
January 2026: The US Justice Department publishes the Epstein files, which appear to reveal further unsavoury details about the relationship between Andrew and Epstein. One picture of Mountbatten-Windsor crouching over a motionless and unnamed woman in what appears to be Epstein’s apartment in New York causes widespread consternation and disgust. Among the allegations that emerge over the ensuing days is that Mountbatten-Windsor sent Epstein confidential reports from a 2010 tour of Southeast Asia, which he undertook as Britain’s envoy for international trade. That proved to be the catalyst for his arrest.
