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Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest on his 66th birthday is the latest development in a long-running controversy over his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Here’s how Andrew’s fall from grace unfolded.
2011: After 10 years as trade envoy tasked with promoting Britain’s overseas business interests, Buckingham Palace confirms that Andrew will step down from the role. Mountbatten-Windsor, then Duke of York, had come under intense criticism for his friendship with Epstein, who was convicted in 2008 of pimping a minor.
2015: Epstein’s prominent accuser, Virginia Giuffre, says in a filing in a Florida civil lawsuit that she was forced to have sex with Mountbatten-Windsor three times, including when she was 17. Andrew has always vehemently denied claims of wrongdoing.
2019: Mountbatten-Windsor agrees to a lengthy sit-down interview with BBC Newsnight about her relationship with Epstein. He said he traveled to New York in 2010 to end his friendship with the financier. Asked why he ended up staying at Mr. Epstein’s residence for several days, Mr. Andrew said, “It was a convenient place to stay,” and that he thought it was “the honorable and right thing to do” to speak to Mr. Epstein directly. He also said he had “no recollection of meeting” Giuffre and suggested that a 2001 photo of him and Giuffre at Ghislaine Maxwell’s home may have been faked.
2022: Giuffre sues Mountbatten-Windsor in a New York court in 2021, accusing him of sexual assault. Despite claiming never to have met her, the royal family reportedly paid Giuffre millions of dollars to settle the lawsuit in 2022 without admitting responsibility for any wrongdoing.
April 2025: Mr. Giuffre dies by suicide.
October 2025: King Charles III strips his brother of his title of prince following public outcry over claims made in Giuffre’s posthumous memoirs. Prince Andrew became Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and Prince Charles also began the process of evicting him from the royal estate of Windsor.
January 2026: The U.S. Department of Justice releases a trove of documents related to the investigation, including a photo of Mountbatten-Windsor appearing to be kneeling over a woman or girl lying on the floor. Other documents raised further questions about Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s dealings with financiers while he was trade envoy.
February 2026: On Thursday, the royal family was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. He was later released from custody “pending investigation,” police said in a statement. The Metropolitan Police said on Friday that it had urged Mr Andrew’s current and former Royal Guards to carefully consider whether “what they saw and heard” could be relevant to the investigation into Mr Epstein and his associates.
