Britain’s monarchy can’t escape the shadow of the Epstein scandal

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. LONDON—Prince Andrew, Duke of York, was preparing to board a flight to London in September 2010 when Jeffrey Epstein emailed asking to alter the pair’s plans for a quiet dinner in Buckingham Palace. The American financier, convicted in 2008 of soliciting a minor for prostitution, said he was accompanied by three women, including a Russian model.

“Should i bring them all. so as to add some life," he wrote. Andrew agreed.

Later that afternoon, Epstein wrote back to add one more guest, who he described as “Romanian, very cute." The next day, Epstein wrote: “great fun, more later." Andrew replied: “Yes please!" The get-together at the seat of the British royal family came just over a year after Epstein finished serving a 13-month-long sentence for his crime. It was one of several new revelations in a cache of emails and texts—many featuring erratic capitalization and punctuation—published by the Justice Department recently that have shed light on the extent of the relationship between Epstein and the younger brother of Britain’s King Charles III. The disclosures threaten to tarnish the image of the British monarchy.

Charles has been heckled over Epstein at recent public events, an almost unheard of act in the U.K. Buckingham Palace said in a statement that the king has “profound concern" about allegations against his brother and said the palace would cooperate with any police investigation. In 2022, Andrew reached a settlement with one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre, who alleged the prince abused her on several occasions in the early 2000s when she was a teenager, according to a court filing.