Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor visited convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein at his New York home in December 2010.
He stayed for four days and, by his own account, “honourably” told his friend that they could no longer keep in touch.
“I went there with the sole purpose of saying to him that, because he had been convicted, it was inappropriate for us to be seen together,” the former Prince claimed in 2019.
Epstein was “understanding”, he said, adding: “I never had any contact with him from that day forward.”
Mountbatten-Windsor, as he must now be known, believed the account was neat and showed his “leadership”.
Unfortunately, it was not true.
The three million documents released in the latest tranche of Epstein files show a billionaire and a then-prince who were, in fact, in close, warm, continued contact.
It was only a matter of weeks before Mountbatten-Windsor sent Epstein a Christmas card, telling him it was “great to spend time with my US family” and that he looked forward to “joining you all again soon”.
Later, there came an invitation to Buckingham Palace, requests for advice on PR and business, and a request to “keep in close touch and we’ll play some more soon!”.
In February 2011, after a photograph of Mountbatten-Windsor with his arm around Virginia Giuffre came to light, Epstein emailed: “Just want to make sure you’re okay.”
“I’m just as concerned for you!” Mountbatten-Windsor replied, in a message signed HRH The Duke of York KG. “Don’t worry about me! It would seem we are in this together and will have to rise above it!”
The headlines in recent days have been excruciating: the photographs of the former Prince looming over a woman lying prone on the ground; another woman flown over to spend the night with Mountbatten-Windsor before being given a tour of Buckingham Palace.
But it is the detail that paints the most vivid picture.
In emails sent over several years, the Duke and Sarah, Duchess of York – as they were then known – appear intertwined with Epstein and his associates in ways never before understood.
Epstein, it seems, was not just a friend, but a fixer.
They asked for his counsel and his money: could he pay for a film screening party for the Duchess, or check the guest list for a Windsor Castle dinner?
The royals also asked how they should obtain funds to pay a former member of staff to whom they owed money. Epstein, as was not uncommon, was the answer.
And while Ferguson later called it a “gigantic error of judgment” to accept, Mountbatten-Windsor sent Epstein, in January 2011, a gushing note of appreciation. “Thank you so, so much for sorting this last thing out for me,” he wrote.
He also added: “Just going into my annual retreat for the next eight days. This week is all about me; for one week of the year it’s great; time to put something back into me before the rest of the world starts sucking it out in all their greed and demands.”
“Fergie” or “F” as she was sometimes known in emails, was also profoundly and effusively grateful for the paedophile’s help with her attempted business deals.
In 2009, she reported back having the “best discussion” with Target, the American retail giant, who “want to get behind my entire Sarah Ferguson brand”.
“In just one week, after your lunch, it seems the energy has lifted,” she told him. “I have never been more touched by a friend’s kindness than your compliment to me in front of my girls. Thank you Jeffrey for being the brother I have always wished for.”
But the emails were often less familial, and more familiar.
A year later, another email from “Sarah” to Epstein says simply: “You are a legend. I really don’t have the words to describe, my love, gratitude for your generosity and kindness.
“Xx I am at your service. Just marry me.”
Epstein, paperwork reveals, bought the domain name and paid administration fees for Ferguson’s would-be project “Mother’s Army”.
“I will gladly pay,” Epstein assured an intermediary in 2011.
In 2010, after Ferguson forwarded an email from The Telegraph with questions about her financial arrangements, he coached her advisers on the best line to take in response.
“It’s only press,” he counselled. “Difficult business climate has effected [sic] everyone, she is no different ... there are few people who have been untouched by the economic crisis. She hopes that she will receive the same kindness, that she herself has shown to others in difficult circumstances.”
Epstein’s team, and Ghislaine Maxwell, were in frequent contact about travel arrangements and accommodation for Mountbatten-Windsor, Ferguson and their two children.
In New York, Epstein allocated rooms for the former prince’s police protection officers and a car for his travel.
“Do you want me to organise the Consulate to bring me?” Mountbatten-Windsor asked him, amid a series of emails about the final trip. No need, indicated Epstein.
“What sort of clothes will I need to bring?” asked Mountbatten-Windsor, as he prepared for the trip in which he claimed he would tell his friend he would never speak to him again. “ie will I need to bring something for the heat in case we go south or will it all be in NY so therefore COLD.”
Epstein in turn used Mountbatten-Windsor’s name to gather the rich and famous around him.
“Prince Andrew is at my house all week,” said a typical email, inviting an associate along. But he did draw the line, sometimes, to repeated requests.
Told in 2009 that the “Duchess has asked that she be in First and the girls in Club on the flight back from NYC to LHR apparently Jeffery said that this would be okay,” he replied bluntly: “I said nothing, do not respond.”
Asking about a screening for The Young Victoria film, of which Ferguson was a producer, a PR friend wrote: “She wants to know if you will come up and have it in your house… And she and I want to know – [if] you can’t come – can we have $20,000 to do the night.”
Ferguson, according to documents, also offered hosting duties to Epstein’s friends in return.
“Fergie said she could organize tea in the buckingham palace apts.. or windsor castle..” reads one 2009 email.
Asked if she could put on a VIP tour, she told Epstein: “Of course. I can organise anything.”
Eventually, it appears it was Epstein who drew the line.
In September 2011, “Sarah” sent a plaintive: “You have disappeared … It was sooooo crystal clear to me that you were only friends with me to get to Andrew. And that really hurt me deeply. More than you will know.”
Documents show that Epstein kept in touch with Mountbatten-Windsor’s interests for years afterwards, via third parties who would forward him details of events including the Diamond Jubilee and his Pitch@Palace initiative as late as 2017. He offered advice in return, and mutual friends as advisers.
Epstein died by suicide in a jail cell in 2019.
Mountbatten-Windsor has since been stripped of his titles and honours and is holed up in Royal Lodge as he waits to move out.
He has recently banned all forms of media from the house, it is said, hoping that no newspapers or television news headlines penetrate what is now a quiet life.
He has been seen out riding and driving, but his old hobbies and routines do not come with their old comforts. His previous inner-circle is, as yet, nowhere to be seen in coming to his defence as the fallout of the files continues to grow.
Mountbatten-Windsor is now facing growing calls to face official questions in the US about what he did and saw while in the Epstein orbit.
The document drop, so far, has provided no further smoking gun to implicate Mountbatten-Windsor in personal wrongdoing.
But they have shown exactly how he, and his ex-wife, got into such a mess in the first place.
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