Prince Andrew, the Duke of York and second son of Queen Elizabeth, was spotted making a public appearance at church Sunday with his mother a day after news broke that his friend, Jeffrey Epstein, died in jail.
Epstein was arrested in July and pleaded not guilty to charges of drug trafficking and sexually abusing dozens of underage girls in New York and Florida. He died early Saturday in a Manhattan jail in an apparent suicide while waiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
Paparazzi photos obtained by British tabloids show Prince Andrew’s oldest daughter, Princess Beatrice, accompanying her father and grandmother in a car after service at Crathie Kirk Church, where the royal family worships while in residence at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.
The charges against Epstein do not involve Andrew, although Virginia Roberts Giuffre, 35, has previously accused the wealthy financier and his employees of paying her, when she was 17, to sexually service him along with Prince Andrew, Harvard lawyer Alan Dershowitz and other friends of Epstein. Andrew forcefully denied her allegation.
The Guardian reports that Andrew met Epstein in the 1990s after being introduced by Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of the late British media mogul Robert Maxwell. She was Epstein’s girlfriend and employee at the time and has been implicated in Epstein’s alleged trafficking activities as one of his supposed “recruiters.”
In 2011, Andrew’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, to whom he is still close, acknowledged that Epstein had loaned her money to pay off her debts during one of her past financial crises.
“I personally, on behalf of myself, deeply regret that Jeffrey Epstein became involved in any way with me. I abhor pedophilia and any sexual abuse of children and know that this was a gigantic error of judgment on my behalf,” she said in a statement at the time.
Contributing: Maria Puente and Olivia Sanchez, USA TODAY
How does Prince Andrew know Jeffrey Epstein?
According to British media reports, they were friends for more than two decades. Their relationship is often cited as evidence of Andrew’s alleged poor judgment, and likely contributed in 2011 to the end of Andrew’s role as a British trade envoy, a job he loved and had held for about 10 years.
The Guardian reports that Andrew met Epstein in the 1990s after being introduced by Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of the late British media mogul Robert Maxwell. She was Epstein’s girlfriend and employee at the time and has been implicated in Epstein’s alleged trafficking activities as one of his supposed “recruiters.”
What is Andrew’s ex-wife’s relationship with Epstein?
In 2011, Andrew’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, to whom he is still close, acknowledged that Epstein had loaned her money to pay off her debts during one of her past financial crises.
According to The Telegraph, she apologized for a “gigantic error of judgment.“
“I personally, on behalf of myself, deeply regret that Jeffrey Epstein became involved in any way with me. I abhor pedophilia and any sexual abuse of children and know that this was a gigantic error of judgment on my behalf,” she said in a statement at the time.
What is the alleged ‘new’ link between Andrew and Epstein?
It is unclear so far who the accusers were in the charges unveiled last month by the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York. Nor is it clear whether these are the same accusers involved in the Florida sex-crimes case in which Epstein was convicted in 2008 after a secret plea deal with the U.S. Attorney’s office in Florida, later assailed as an illegal “sweetheart” deal.
But we know what Epstein accuser Giuffre, 35, has said about Andrew and Epstein. In early 2015, she went public with accusations that Epstein and his employees made her a “sex slave” and paid her, when she was 17, to sexually service Andrew and Epstein’s other rich friends.
Giuffre made the same allegations later in a civil defamation suit she filed against Ghislaine Maxwell in 2015, accusing Maxwell of defaming her by calling her a liar. That case was settled and sealed in May 2017 and the terms were not disclosed. The documents unsealed Friday came from that lawsuit.
