Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s risky decision to grant a single TV interview about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein proved to be a disastrous PR blunder.
In October 2025, King Charles III began proceedings to strip his younger brother of his royal title as the Duke of York and evict him from Royal Lodge — the sprawling Windsor mansion where Andrew lived since 2003 thanks to a controversial “peppercorn lease.” Mountbatten-Windsor moved into temporary accommodations on the king’s Sandringham estate mere days before shocking archival photos from Epstein’s estate were released by the Justice Department in February 2026.
The domino effect of Mountbatten-Windsor’s downfall started six years earlier when he agreed to a “no holds barred” interview with journalist Emily Maitlis for the BBC’s Newsnight program.
Mountbatten-Windsor’s credibility took a major hit as he deflected questions about his past with Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, who previously accused the royal of sexually assaulting her three times, including once in 2001 when she was 17. (Mountbatten-Windsor denied having any sexual contact with Giuffre. He reached a private settlement with her in 2022 when she sued him for sexual assault.)
In the aftermath of the Newsnight interview, Buckingham Palace announced that the then-prince would suspend his public duties “for the foreseeable future” and he also resigned as the chancellor of the University of Huddersfield. Mountbatten-Windsor’s Newsnight interview resurfaced in December 2025 when the Justice Department released photos and emails that the former prince allegedly exchanged with the disgraced financier. (Mountbatten-Windsor has never faced criminal charges. The Metropolitan Police announced in December 2025 that it would “take no further action” against him over historic accusations that he asked his taxpayer-funded security officers to find dirt on Giuffre.)
Keep scrolling for a look at some of the most controversial moments from Mountbatten-Windsor’s 2019 Newsnight interview.
Prince Andrew Claimed He Cut Off All Contact with Jeffrey Epstein in 2010
Emily Maitlis repeatedly pressed Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor during their Newsnight discussion about the last time he spoke with Epstein.
According to Mountbatten-Windsor, he cut off all communication after visiting Epstein at his New York City mansion in December 2010. The visit occurred after Epstein served a 18-month prison sentence in Florida for pleading guilty to solicitation of prostitution and solicitation of prostitution with a minor in 2008.
Asked why he’d stayed at Epstein’s mansion, the royal explained: “I have always … ever since this has happened and since this has become, as it were, public knowledge that I was there, I’ve questioned myself as to why did I go and what was I doing and was it the right thing to do? Now, 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.”
Mountbatten-Windsor admitted he’d had “a number of people counsel” him in terms of whether it was appropriate to meet directly with Epstein.
Biggest Bombshells From Virginia Giuffre’s Unseen Interview About Andrew
“I took the judgement call that, because this was serious, and I felt that doing it over the telephone was the chicken’s way of doing it. I had to go and see him and talk to him,” he clarified.
The former Duke of York relayed that he went on a walk with Epstein in Central Park to explain why he was ending their friendship. (A paparazzi photograph of the pair together in Central Park later caused a major scandal in the U.K.)
“I said to [Epstein] … ‘Look, because of what has happened, I don’t think it is appropriate that we should remain in contact,’ and by mutual agreement during that walk in the park we decided that we would part company and I left, I think it was the next day. To this day, I never had any contact with him from that day forward,” Mountbatten-Windsor.
Later in the interview, Mountbatten-Windsor reiterated to Maitlis that he never again saw or spoke to Epstein after his December 2010 visit.
However, new questions about the veracity of those statements emerged in 2025 due to alleged leaked email correspondence between Mountbatten-Windsor and Epstein. One email dated in February 2011 — two months after Mountbatten-Windsor’s visit to New York City — allegedly saw him reacting sympathetically to the publication of paparazzi photos taken during his Central Park stroll with Epstein.
“I’m just as concerned for you! Don’t worry about me!” the prince allegedly wrote. “It would seem we are in this together and will have to rise above it.”
Mountbatten-Windsor allegedly closed the email by asking Epstein to “otherwise keep in close touch” so they could “play some more soon!!!!”
Prince Andrew Said He Had ‘No Recollection’ of Ever Meeting Virginia Giuffre
Emily Maitlis spent a significant portion of the Newsnight interview on Virginia Giuffre’s accusations. Giuffre alleged that she was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein and his then-girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor following a night at Tramp nightclub in London in 2001.
“I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady, none whatsoever,” Mountbatten-Windsor insisted.
Amid continued questioning from Maitlis, Mountbatten-Windsor doubled down by insisting that the alleged meeting at Tramp “didn’t happen” at all. He pointed to Giuffre’s claim that he’d bought her a drink before they danced together.
“I’ve no recollection of ever meeting her. I’m almost, in fact, I’m convinced that I was never in Tramps with her,” he said. “There are a number of things that are wrong with that story, one of which is that I don’t know where the bar is in Tramps. I don’t drink, I don’t think I’ve ever bought a drink in Tramps whenever I was there.”
Prince Andrew Delivered Infamous Rebuttal to Virginia Giuffre’s ‘Sweating’ Accusation
Perhaps the Newsnight interview’s most notorious exchange revolved around Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor explaining why Virginia Giuffre’s story about Tramp nightclub could not be true.
Maitlis brought up Giuffre’s recollection that Mountbatten-Windsor was “profusely sweating” as they danced together — so much so that she remembered taking a shower back at Maxwell’s apartment. Mountbatten-Windsor countered that a medical condition relating to his military service disproved Giuffre’s version of events.
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“There’s a slight problem with the sweating because I have a peculiar medical condition which is that I don’t sweat or I didn’t sweat at the time … I didn’t sweat at the time because I had suffered what I would describe as an overdose of adrenaline in the Falkland’s War when I was shot at and I simply … it was almost impossible for me to sweat,” he told Maitlis. “And it’s only because I have done a number of things in the recent past that I am starting to be able to do that again. So I’m afraid to say that there’s a medical condition that says that I didn’t do it.”
Mountbatten-Windsor’s explanation of his inability to sweat was met with heavy skepticism and was roundly mocked in the U.K. press.
Prince Andrew Cast Doubt on the Authenticity of a Photo With Virginia Giuffre
Virginia Giuffre produced a photograph of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor with his arm around her waist. Ghislaine Maxwell can be seen smiling in the background of the photo.
Mountbatten-Windsor told Newsnight that he had “absolutely no memory of that photograph ever being taken.” Asked whether he recognized himself in the photo, he replied: “Yes, it’s pretty difficult not to recognize yourself.”
Maitlis mentioned a disputed theory from some of the royal’s supporters that the photo of Mountbatten-Windsor and Giuffre may have been faked somehow.
“From the investigations that we’ve done, you can’t prove whether or not that photograph is faked or not because it is a photograph of a photograph of a photograph,” he answered. “So it’s very difficult to be able to prove it but I don’t remember that photograph ever being taken.”
Mountbatten-Windsor also doubted that Epstein personally snapped the photo because he’d “never seen [Jeffrey] Epstein with a camera in my life.”
“I don’t remember that photograph ever being taken. I don’t remember going upstairs in the house because that photograph was taken upstairs and I am not entirely convinced that [happened],” he argued. “That is what I would describe as me in that … in that picture but … we can’t be certain as to whether or not that’s my hand on her whatever it is … [her] left side.”
In February 2026, the Justice Department released a 2011 email written by Epstein where he seemingly confirmed the authenticity of the photo.
“Yes she was on my plane, and yes she had her picture taken with Andrew as many of my employees have,” Epstein wrote to a redacted recipient.
Epstein denied that Giuffre was underage when she worked for him and called her abuse accusations “total horses***.”
Prince Andrew Said He Did Not Regret His Friendship with Jeffrey Epstein
Another damaging section of the interview involved Emily Maitlis asking Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor whether he regretted ever befriending Jeffrey Epstein.
“Now, still not and the reason being is that the people that I met and the opportunities that I was given to learn either by him or because of him were actually very useful,” Mountbatten-Windsor replied. “He himself not, as it were, as close as you might think, we weren’t that close. So therefore I mean, yes, I would go and stay in his house but that was because of his girlfriend, not because of him.”
Mountbatten-Windsor conceded that he now felt it was unwise to meet Epstein at his New York City home in 2010 instead of handling the matter by phone or email.
Emily Maitlis Reflected on the Impact of Her ‘Newsnight’ Interview
In 2025, Newsnight reporter Emily Maitlis reflected on the way “everything changed” for the royal family in the wake of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s disastrous interview.
“Prince Andrew, he lost his royal duties, he lost the ability to wear [a] uniform, he lost the respect of the nation, and it became, I think, much more difficult for him in his place in the royal family,” she told BBC News in October 2025. “And on the other side, we don’t know if Epstein’s victims gained anything from that. We don’t know if their lives materially changed.”
She added, “There’s been no trial. There’s been a settlement … but we haven’t had that sense of closure there.”
Mountbatten-Windsor continues to deny Giuffre’s sexual abuse accusations despite reaching a financial settlement with her in 2022. (Giuffre died by suicide at age 41 in April 2025.) The disgraced royal has also strenuously denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein’s crimes.
New Epstein Files Reveal Prince Andrew Email About ‘Inappropriate Friends’
In October 2025, Buckingham Palace announced that the former Duke of York would no longer be able to use his royal titles and thus would be renamed “Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.” The Palace told Us that Mountbatten-Windsor had been served notice that he would need to move out of his longtime home at Royal Lodge. (Mountbatten-Windsor moved to a residence funded privately by King Charles at the Sandringham estate in February 2026.)
“Prince Andrew will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. His lease on Royal Lodge has, to date, provided him with legal protection to continue in residence,” a Buckingham Palace statement read. “Formal notice has now been served to surrender the lease and he will move to alternative private accommodation. These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him.”
Mountbatten-Windsor’s nephew Prince William followed with his and his wife Kate Middleton’s own statement in February 2026 to condemn Epstein’s criminal behavior.
“I can confirm The Prince and Princess have been deeply concerned by the continuing revelations. Their thoughts remain focused on the victims,” a spokesperson said.
Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019 and died of a suspected suicide at age 66 in August of that year. His ex-girlfriend Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022 after being convicted on sex trafficking charges. (Maxwell has denied the accusations and is seeking clemency from President Donald Trump. She invoked her Fifth Amendment right to avoid answering questions during a February 2026 deposition with the House Oversight Committee.)
If you or someone you know is a human trafficking victim, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.
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