Jeffrey Epstein, Part Three: The Prince Andrew Problem
Virginia Giuffre took on 'Randy Andy' and won. So, now what happens?
(An audio version of this article, narrated by moi, is available below. If you haven’t read my previous Epstein pieces, you can catch up here for necessary background details.)
Right, this story is moving ridiculously fast. I’ve rewritten this piece so many times I’ve got carpal tunnel. What follows is accurate as of Saturday 1 November. If anything dramatic breaks after that, NOT MY PROBLEM. I DIDN’T KNOW. You can’t blame me. (Just like you can’t blame the hundreds of people who saw underage girls with Epstein and did precisely nothing. THEY OBVS DIDN’T KNOW. YOU CAN’T BLAME THEM.)
Let’s crack on.
Imagine this: I, Jo Usmar, was mates with a man who liked sex multiple times a day with girls under 18 – sometimes as young as 12. He’d send his consigliere to recruit them outside schools, at part-time jobs, on the street, or through ‘recommendations’. They were in his houses, on his planes, at his dinners. I was photographed with them. Then he was convicted of sex trafficking, but I thought “balls to that, he’s a sound bloke” and carried on palling about with him.
Wouldn’t you expect someone – family, friend, barista – to pull me aside and say: “Jo, maybe you should rethink your friendship with an old man who ‘likes’ children?”
That is what I find most surreal about the Andrew-Epstein saga, or, as columnist Marina Hyde calls it: “the endless slow-motion gilded-coach-crash that is the Duke of York”. Everyone clearly knew their relationship was a DEFCON 1-level shitshow, yet it’s only now the shit has spectacularly hit the fan that everyone’s conveniently remembered they have morals. People protected him for decades, yet now we’re meant to be all, “Hurray! Something’s being done!”? Um, no.
For anyone who’s had the pleasure of not knowing who this national shame-stain is, some background: Andrew is a member of the British royal family – second son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, brother to current monarch King Charles III. He held various titles, including the aforementioned Duke of York, and represented the monarchy at official events both in the UK and abroad for many years. He also served in the Royal Navy, where he trained as a helicopter pilot and saw active service during the Falklands War. He also held public roles promoting British trade, industry, and education.
He was a big deal, a recognisable royal doing important work for Britain. And he regularly fraternised with a man who publicly enjoyed the company of exceptionally young girls while semi-privately sexually assaulting and trafficking them to his friends. One of said girls was Virginia Giuffre.
From 2000-2002, sex-trafficking survivor, advocate and all-round legend Giuffre travelled with billionaire financier Epstein everywhere – and she looked her age:
When Prince Andrew arrived at the townhouse that evening, Maxwell was more coquettish than usual. “Guess Jenner’s [Virginia’s] age,” she urged the prince. The Duke of York, who was then forty-one, guessed correctly: seventeen. “My daughters are just a little younger than you,” he told me, explaining his accuracy. As usual, Maxwell was quick with a joke: “I guess we will have to trade her in soon.”
Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice, Virginia Giuffre
You only have to look at the photo of Giuffre at Naomi Campbell’s 31st birthday party in 2001 to realise anyone claiming ignorance about what was going on is lying. That’s a child. What did they think she was doing there? What mental contortions did they perform to convince themselves it was innocent?
I’m halfway through Giuffre’s book (published posthumously after she took her own life aged 41 in April of this year) and she is simply extraordinary. The horrors she endured and the courage she showed are gobsmacking. She took on her own family, billionaires, politicians, governments… and the royal family.
Which brings us back to Andrew, the man who has thrust the crown into a genuine existential crisis – and who doesn’t seem to think he’s done anything wrong.
Andrew, Virginia and Epstein: what you need to know
Virginia Giuffre says she was made to sleep with Andrew three times in 2001: in London (where the infamous photo of her, Andrew and Epstein’s partner Ghislaine Maxwell was taken), in New York, and on Epstein’s island during an orgy with eight other underage girls. She was 17.
Before Epstein’s first arrest in 2006, Andrew was openly pally with Epstein and Maxwell, travelling and socialising with them. Then:
2006: Two months after Epstein’s US arrest warrant was issued, Andrew invites him and Maxwell to his eldest daughter Princess Beatrice’s 18th birthday at Royal Lodge. Harvey Weinstein was there too. Lovely crowd.
Dec 2010: Andrew visits Epstein in New York after his 2008 conviction for “procuring a minor for prostitution”, staying four days at his palatial pad (which, according to Giuffre, had a heated sidewalk outside so it would never ice over. That’s how rich he was: he had underfloor heating installed on a public walkway.)
2011: Andrew steps down as UK trade envoy amid a dodgy-deals backlash and growing concern over his Epstein friendship. An email Andrew sent him at the time reads: “I’m just as concerned for you! ... We’ll play some more soon!!!!” (Exclamation marks all the author’s own.)
Still 2011: Andrew’s ex-wife, Sarah ‘Fergie’ Ferguson emails Epstein calling him a “steadfast, generous and supreme friend” and assuring him she “absolutely did not say the ‘P word’.” This, obviously, despite her disavowing him in public while 100% using the word “paedophile”. Oh, and also asking him if she can borrow more cash.
2015: Giuffre seeks to join a US victims’ rights case over Jeffrey Epstein’s 2008 “sweetheart deal” (please see previous article for details), alleging she had been trafficked to men including Prince Andrew; a judge strikes her claims from the record as legally irrelevant to the specific case – though they draw major public attention.
2019: Epstein is finally arrested and then promptly dies in jail, quickly claiming the crown for the dodgiest death in history. Andrew is once again thrust under the spotlight by association.
November 2019: Yes, it’s that Newsnight interview with personal hero Emily Maitlis, in which Andrew:
claims he doesn’t remember ever meeting Giuffre (despite photographic evidence and plane logs);
says he was at Pizza Express in Woking the night she claims they first slept together (weren’t we all?);
claims he couldn’t sweat at the time because of “an overdose of adrenaline in the Falklands War” so it couldn’t have been him she remembered being really sweaty;
says he only stayed with then convicted paedophile Epstein in 2010 to tell him the friendship was over in person as that was “the honourable thing to do.”
Just hours later, Buckingham Palace announces Andrew will be stepping back from royal duties “for the foreseeable future”. (I desperately want to have seen his face when someone broke the news that this interview – which he clearly thought was a triumph – had been a catastrophe of Hindenburg proportions.)
2021–22: Giuffre sues Andrew for sexual assault. He settles out of court for around £12 million (reportedly paid by the Queen from her private stash – thanks, ma!). There’s no admission of guilt, but he does lose his HRH and military titles.
2024: It’s rumoured that big bro King Charles stops paying Andrew’s security bill and annual stipend, adding up to millions. (Andrew still has security though and lives like a, well, Duke, so where’s the money coming from?)
Pre-30 Oct 2025: After Giuffre’s book drops, Andrew announces he’ll stop using his Duke of York title and Order of the Garter honours. No more garters?! Quelle horreur.
What’s happening right now
On Thursday evening, Buckingham Palace released an absolutely excoriating statement confirming Andrew is being stripped of all royal titles and evicted from Royal Lodge. He will soon be moving to a property on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, paid for by the King himself. Andrew’s ex, Fergie, who has lived with Andrew since 2008 despite their 1996 divorce, will have to find her own digs.
“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. 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.
“Their majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.”
I mean. There are only two ways to read this:
First: They now think he’s guilty of sexually abusing Virginia Giuffre when she was a minor.
Second: They don’t think he’s guilty of that, but of catastrophically bad judgement in being pals with a paedophile.
If it’s the first option – well, congrats. Thank God. Get on with it. But if it’s the second? They knew he was friends with a convicted child sex offender back in 2010. Everyone did. So why are they only upset about it now? Heaven forbid a publicly-funded institution only acts on knowledge they’ve had for years because it’s become public.
So either they think he’s guilty, in which case shouldn’t there be larger consequences than moving to a cushty pad on a beautiful estate? Or they don’t, and think he’s simply a buffoon with bad taste in friends, in which case isn’t this public shaming a bit harsh, bearing in mind they never cared about Epstein before?
Why he’s being kicked out of his house
Andrew has lived at Royal Lodge in Windsor – which everyone always breathlessly describes as having 30 rooms (30! Not 29, 30!) – since 2003 under a 75-year “peppercorn rent” lease, meaning he pays zilch and has paid zilch for 20 years. He secured the lease after paying around £8.5 million for maintenance and upkeep when he first took the property on.
Attention has turned to his house, titles, and finances because, frankly, there’s nothing else left. As Giuffre writes in her book: “Everything that had happened to me in Epstein’s world had only confirmed that certain privileged men existed in a limited space outside the law, no matter how dastardly their behavior.”
Legal consequences look unlikely. While the US House Oversight Committee continues to investigate and does have subpoena powers, hauling the King’s brother to testify would be an extraordinary diplomatic slap in the face.
More frustratingly, reports confirm Andrew has resisted this censure with every ounce of his being. Sources told The News Agents podcast that it took King Charles asking him if he wanted to single-handedly destroy the royal family for Andrew to consider leaving his house. The man is supremely arrogant. As Giuffre writes: “He was friendly enough, but still entitled – as if he believed having sex with me was his birthright.”
You can’t shame someone who’s never met the emotion. Instead, you take away what they love: their prestige, money and power. Which brings us to everyone’s next focus: where does Andrew’s money come from?
Good question. No one knows. Not even King Charles.
How does someone with a £20k Navy pension afford an £18m Swiss chalet, upkeep on a 30-room estate (30 rooms!), and a live-in ex-wife with notoriously spendy tastes? For decades, no one’s dared or cared to ask. But the mood’s shifting.
Even Westminster’s weighing in: Keir Starmer has said Andrew’s housing should be scrutinised and Tory Robert Jenrick said Andrew should “make his own way in life”. While this may sound like small potatoes to you and me, there’s an unwritten rule that politicians should never criticise the royal family in public, so this is actually a big deal.
Cue Charles acting decisively and fast.
It’s integral the royal family get ahead of this – because it’s probably not over. The drip-drip of information being released from the Epstein files (THE FILES! THE FILES!) by the US House Oversight Committee suggests more Randy Andy revelations may be coming. At least if he’s sequestered away, Charles can say, “I’ve done more than most” – which, to be fair, is true.
What happens next?
My bet: Andrew is hidden away in a Sandringham bunker while the royals distract us with handshakes, photo ops and good time stories. They’ll be on a mission to prove the monarchy’s value and paint Andrew as a rogue bad apple. It might even work if the story dies down.
However, if the US investigation keeps dropping bombs, pressure will continue to mount. There’s no denying the royal family is in a pickle. Even discounting Epstein, there’s a lot for people to be upset with Andrew about – allegedly misusing official resources to investigate Giuffre, fraternising with Chinese spies, and his extraordinarily dodgy trade deals to name just three. He’s also still eighth in line to the throne, meaning a highly-targeted typhoon could make Andrew our Head of State. IMAGINE.
And, while I think it unlikely, he may be summoned to testify before Congress. If he talks, shit will hit the fan like you wouldn’t believe. If he doesn’t, he looks like the worst person on the planet. Either way, the story stays alive and someone, maybe, possibly might be held to account for this whole awful disgusting horror story.
I go back to my first point though: there must be a reason he’s been able to live a life of largess for so long, despite everyone knowing these things for years. What must he have seen at Epstein’s? What must he know? How scared must others be of what he may say if put under increasing pressure? Perhaps that’s the most terrifying question of all. And perhaps that’s exactly why Andrew Mountbatten Windsor – prince or not – will never truly face justice.
Just One More Thing
Giuffre’s book is a tough read, but remarkable and necessary. She explains how abuse traps people. How it intertwines with love, shame, and dependency. It shows why victims struggle to leave. Power, coercion and control are often just as – if not more – destructive than physical abuse.
She writes that, as an adult, she kept hoping someone else would come forward, that it wouldn’t have to be her. Haven’t we all thought that, in smaller ways? She reminds us that change can start when one person stops waiting.
Indeed, her brother Sky Roberts told the BBC: “This normal girl from a normal family has taken down a prince. We are so proud of her.”
Ach, rest in peace, Virginia Giuffre, you legend. You were braver than you should ever have had to be. Thank you.
*Exceedingly modest reminder that I have written eight bestselling mental-health books which have been translated into dozens of languages. I’ve also written a book about the TV show Friends which would make a delightful gift for any Friends obsessives. All are available to buy online or at your local bookshop.
It’s bizarre to look back to the 80s when the press lapped up “Randy Andy” with such relish. And it’s particularly pleasing to see the royal string-pullers get in a tizz when they tipped off the press for a photo-op of Charles visiting Andrew, only to get cold feet when helicopters were flying over the estate. They’re desperate to control the narrative either because there’s more revelations to come or they’re not too keen on their finances being put under the spotlight.
Another great post, Jo.