In a conversation with The Grayzone, author Andrew Lownie exposes startling discoveries from his investigation into Prince Andrew’s ties with Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein described Andrew as his “Super Bowl trophy,” exploiting the prince for intelligence which he then relayed to foreign spy services. Lownie warns that upcoming disclosures could “bury” the Royal Family.
Prince Andrew’s long-standing association with Jeffrey Epstein was “earlier, longer, and far more intimate than anyone has previously admitted,” historian Andrew Lownie revealed to The Grayzone. According to Lownie’s new book, Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, their relationship was so depraved that even Epstein, who called himself the “king of kink,” was taken aback by the Prince’s sexual desires.
Drawing on years of research—including BBC archives, interviews, and leaked emails—Lownie draws a grim picture of a man shielded by royal privilege, addicted to sex from an early age, and ultimately undone by his involvement with the infamous pedophile. The historian uncovers that Epstein not only provided Andrew with a constant stream of underage girls but also collected intelligence through him, passing this information on to Mossad and other intelligence agencies.
“The Prince was a useful idiot who lent Epstein prestige and access to political elites and business ventures,” Lownie told The Grayzone. “In return, Epstein gave Andrew a path into the super-rich lifestyle he long desired, an endless supply of women, opportunities to make vast sums of money, and financial support covering both his indulgences and Sarah Ferguson’s debts.”
Lownie revealed Epstein amassed sensitive intelligence from Andrew, including potentially compromising material that he could sell to foreign governments. Epstein’s former “mentor,” the serial fraudster Steven Hoffenberg, supported this claim, stating Epstein referred to Andrew as his “Super Bowl trophy.” While Andrew unknowingly spied on Epstein’s behalf, he simultaneously undermined himself, turning into an ideal pawn.
Throughout much of his life, Andrew benefited from exceptional protection and indulgence by his mother, Queen Elizabeth. An ex-staff member interviewed by an Australian outlet disclosed that royal aides were terrified of the prince’s impunity and generally avoided confronting his habitual bullying, as “Her Majesty almost always backed him and he fully exploited that.”
Lownie told The Grayzone that Andrew’s frequent outbursts at Buckingham Palace, which reduced some individuals to tears, occurred “virtually daily.”
A source close to Andrew disclosed to Lownie that the prince began showing unusual sexual behavior at only eight years old. The problem intensified after he lost his virginity at 11 when a friend’s father hired two escorts for the boys. According to the source, Andrew told them that by age 13, he had already been with over six girls, leading to the conclusion that he “had been a victim of sexual abuse at a very young age.”
Due to Andrew’s and Epstein’s actions, this cycle of abuse allegedly persisted with numerous young girls, including Virginia Giuffre. When her accusations against Andrew emerged in 2015, a BBC team covertly traveled throughout the U.S., examining police records and conducting extensive interviews with victims. During this investigation, they discovered emails between Andrew and Ghislaine Maxwell discussing Giuffre.
The correspondence shows no indication that either Andrew or Maxwell doubted Giuffre’s existence or considered her claims false. Lownie says the BBC investigation’s lead told him, “instead Andrew and Maxwell collaborated to compile a dossier on Virginia [Giuffre] to leak to the media.” In other words, they conspired to tarnish their victim’s reputation publicly before any legal proceedings began. When a lawsuit was eventually filed on Giuffre’s behalf, Andrew opted for a costly settlement over facing scrutiny.
Lownie suspects that revealing the full extent of Andrew’s involvement with Epstein could spell the end for the House of Windsor. A former Buckingham Palace employee told him, “they’d never be able to bounce back from it,” as the fallout “would bury them for good.” His source warned, “if the unconditional truth ever comes out, the British public would try to impeach the Royal Family—after all, many of Andrew’s offenses were committed on the British taxpayer’s dime.”
Canadian journalist Ian Halperin was the sole reporter to extensively interview Epstein before his death. Halperin granted Lownie exclusive access to his files, revealing Epstein’s surprising openness about his preference for underage girls and his even arguing publicly that pedophilia should be legalized. Epstein also divulged explosive details about Andrew, whom he called his “closest friend in the world.”
In one email, Epstein claimed he and Andrew were “very similar” because they were “both serial sex addicts” who had “shared the same women.” He stated Andrew was “the only person I have met who is more obsessed with pussy than me.” Based on “reports” from mutual sexual encounters, Epstein described Andrew as “the most perverted animal in the bedroom.” He marvelled at Andrew’s depravity, calling him “the dirtiest mind I’ve ever seen,” concluding: “He likes to engage in stuff that’s even kinky to me – and I’m the king of kink!”
Lownie also shows evidence that Andrew’s interactions with Epstein began much earlier than the prince admits. Following Epstein’s death, Andrew claimed they met in 1999 and saw each other “probably no more than only once or twice a year.” However, Andrew’s private secretary indicated their friendship began in “the early 1990s,” according to Lownie. Flight logs from Epstein’s private jet, dubbed the Lolita Express, reveal that Sarah Ferguson, Andrew’s frequent companion, flew with her children on the aircraft as early as April 1998.
By 2000, Andrew had become a regular at exclusive American social events hosted by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, the publishing heiress who met Andrew at Oxford University in the 1980s. As their ties deepened, Andrew and Ferguson often stayed at Epstein’s luxurious New York and Florida estates.
The nature of these visits has generally been kept from public view, likely because of their true purpose.
“Whenever Andrew was in town, I’d be tasked with collecting young girls who were effectively prostitutes,” Epstein’s driver, Ivan Novikov, told Lownie. “Once I drove him and two girls around 18 years old to the Gansevoort Hotel in the Meatpacking District. Both girls were snorting cocaine. Prince Andrew was making out with one of them.”
During this time, Epstein and Maxwell ingratiated themselves with Britain’s upper aristocracy. A now-removed British news story reported that Andrew had invited Epstein and Maxwell to events at Windsor Castle and Sandringham in 2001, including Queen Elizabeth II’s 74th birthday in August. The article, scrubbed from the Evening Standard’s website, cited a friend of Ferguson’s who said Andrew’s sexual habits were so blatant he “travels abroad with his own massage mattress.” The story also noted Maxwell, described as “very manipulative,” introduced Andrew to a “sex aid entrepreneur” at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.
The same report described Andrew traveling in Phuket, Thailand with Maxwell, frequenting “sex bars in the area’s red light district,” and visiting Los Angeles with Brett Livingstone-Strong, a friend who openly admitted to drug dealing. At that time, Andrew was reportedly so infatuated with Epstein’s circle that he chose to stay at Epstein’s Miami beach mansion instead of celebrating his daughter Eugenie’s 12th birthday at Disneyland Paris, Lownie reveals.
Andrew’s fall from grace
In May 2007, Epstein began negotiating an unusually lenient plea deal in Florida after police uncovered substantial proof implicating him in a nationwide sex trafficking ring. For the first time, English-language media started to examine Epstein’s connection to Prince Andrew and its potential child abuse implications. Another since-deleted Evening Standard feature about their relationship noted Epstein’s Florida mansion was decorated with photos of nude girls and contained hidden cameras embedded in clocks.
The pressure escalated in December 2014, when court documents in Florida alleged Andrew was among several high-profile individuals who raped Virginia Giuffre under Epstein’s orchestration. The allegations included sexual encounters in London, New York, and Epstein’s private island, Little Saint James. Giuffre claimed she participated in a “disgusting” orgy involving Andrew, Epstein, and multiple girls “who all seemed and appeared to be under the age of 18.”
The papers also accused Andrew of lobbying for Epstein after his arrest to secure a lenient sentence. Epstein reciprocated by paying off Sarah Ferguson’s hefty debts. British media reacted with shock: one mainstream headline proclaimed, “Prince Andrew may have been secretly filmed with underage girl he is alleged to have abused.” That same day, a frantic Andrew emailed Maxwell, “Let me know when we can talk. Got some specific questions to ask you about Virginia Roberts.”
Buckingham Palace quickly issued a categorical denial, asserting “any suggestion of impropriety” by Andrew “with underage minors is categorically untrue,” and emphasizing he “emphatically denied the Duke of York had any form of sexual contact or relationship with Virginia Roberts.” Until Epstein’s death, the British press largely accepted the royal version. However, Andrew’s infamous November 2019 Newsnight interview reignited public doubts and intensified scrutiny.
During the hour-long interview, the Prince offered implausible excuses for his association with Epstein, failing to provide credible explanations regarding Giuffre. For instance, he denied her claim that he sweat profusely while dancing with her in a London nightclub, asserting he could not sweat due to a highly unlikely “adrenaline overdose” sustained during the Falklands war.
Andrew also attempted to rationalize a four-day December 2010 visit to Epstein in New York, during which paparazzi captured a young woman leaving Epstein’s townhouse and documented a casual stroll between Epstein and Andrew through Central Park. (The tweet below mistakenly dates the footage as 2011; it was filmed on December 6, 2010).
The prince claimed in the interview that the meeting was to formally sever ties with Epstein following his sex trafficking conviction. He said he felt compelled to end their relationship face-to-face due to his “tendency to be too honourable,” but struggled to justify why this required a four-night stay, including a dinner in his honor.
Andrew stated his choice to stay at Epstein’s mansion was “convenient,” seemingly disregarding the British consulate and numerous upscale hotels that could have served as alternatives to lodging with a convicted sex offender.
The interview sparked immediate outrage, with one royal commentator calling it a “nuclear explosion level bad” moment. Nevertheless, Andrew reportedly felt content with his self-damaging appearance, as The Guardian reported that he “was so pleased with how things had gone that he gave the Newsnight team a tour of the palace afterwards.”
Andrew’s British state protection crumbles
Shortly after the damaging interview, Andrew’s former girlfriend challenged his account of the 2010 Epstein visit, asserting the prince’s primary aim was to discover whether Epstein possessed compromising information on him. The two also discussed securing $200 million in funding for an enigmatic energy firm, Aria Petroleum, prompting Epstein to alert JP Morgan contacts that the prince intended to represent a Chinese business.
Following this, Andrew withdrew from the public eye. Under growing pressure from British military officials, he was stripped of his military honors. Charities distanced themselves, while polls showed most Britons supported extraditing him to the U.S. for questioning. In May 2020, Andrew permanently stepped down from all public roles due to his Epstein connections. Meanwhile, American authorities pushed for him to cooperate with Giuffre’s lawyers and federal investigators.
In his Newsnight appearance and later official statements, Andrew claimed he was willing to assist any investigation into Epstein’s abuses. Yet Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. prosecutor who headed Epstein probes in New York, reported being repeatedly stonewalled by Buckingham Palace. Simply contacting royal lawyers proved challenging, and the communications soon degraded into endless questions.
“What kind of an interview will it be? Are there any protections? Is there this? Is there that? And where do you want it to take place?” Berman recalled. “It was an unending email exchange, and it was obvious we were being given the run-around. He was not going to sit for an interview with us.” Eventually, Berman asked the State Department to send a mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) request to British police demanding an interview with the prince.
U.S. prosecutors “almost always obtained what we requested through MLAT,” Berman said. “But that was not the case with Prince Andrew. We got absolutely nowhere. Were they protecting him? I presume someone was.”
Andrew’s state-level cover started to collapse after a December 2020 Daily Mail investigation challenged Giuffre’s claim that Andrew had sex with her at 17 years old. His alibis for the relevant dates had been destroyed.
In August 2021, Giuffre’s legal team filed a lawsuit against Andrew in a U.S. court for “sexual assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress.” The suit raised the possibility Andrew would provide sworn testimony proving his reported inability to sweat. Other Royal Family members, including Sarah Ferguson and their daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, also faced potential questioning under oath. To avoid trial, the House of Windsor settled for up to $16.3 million.
Andrew Prince no more as scandals proliferate
For the first time, Buckingham Palace began distancing itself openly from Andrew. As Lownie documented, the media was informed that the Queen would no longer finance his legal battles. After years of protecting her son from the fallout of his excesses, fears of more damaging revelations likely motivated her decision.
Those concerns were justified, as Lownie uncovered emails Andrew sent to Epstein in February 2011—months after claiming he had cut ties with the financier following their four-day 2010 “farewell” meeting in New York.
In this correspondence, Andrew vowed to “keep in close touch,” stating, “we are in this together and will have to rise above it,” and promising, “we’ll play some more soon!!!” That same year, Sarah Ferguson expressed her thanks and affection toward Epstein in a separate secret email exchange. Sources told Lownie Epstein had supplied her with hundreds of thousands of dollars, far more than the £15,000 she officially claims having received from the convicted sex offender.
In a 2011 interview, Ferguson admitted “having anything to do” with Epstein was a “gigantic error of judgment.” She added, “I abhor paedophilia and any sexual abuse of children…what he did was wrong and…he was rightly jailed.” Shortly thereafter, though, she reached out to Epstein, assuring him she “did not, absolutely not, say the ‘P word’ about you.” Ferguson apologized for disappointing him, stating “you have always been a steadfast, generous and supreme friend to me and my family.”
This October 30, as the scandal surrounding Epstein engulfed the Trump administration, Buckingham Palace announced a stunning decision. Prince Andrew will lose his titles, honors, and residence, and will henceforth be known only as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor—effectively banished from the British Royal Family for life. While no official explanation accompanied this unprecedented step, it was clear the palace intended to purge Epstein’s taint from their lineage.
“These sanctions are considered necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him,” the royal statement read. “Their Majesties wish to emphasize that their thoughts and deepest sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.”
However, Andrew’s retreat from public view, loss of patronages, and reduction of official duties might be too late. After years of alternating between silence regarding his sexual abuse and outright denials, Buckingham Palace now faces the risk of further damaging revelations. As Lownie highlights in his recently published book, Entitled, emerging details about the prince’s misconduct could permanently tarnish the Royal Family’s reputation.
Original article: The Grayzone
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