Additional Coverage:
- A timeline of former Prince Andrew and Ghislaine Maxwell’s friendship shows they often traveled and partied together (businessinsider.com)
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor Arrested Amid Renewed Scrutiny of Epstein Ties
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office. The arrest comes as his past relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein faces renewed scrutiny. Mountbatten-Windsor was previously stripped of his royal titles due to his association with Epstein and a civil lawsuit alleging sexual assault.
While many questions linger about the extent of Mountbatten-Windsor’s connection to Epstein, the former royal has stated that Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite now serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex-trafficking underage girls for Epstein, introduced them.
Maxwell and Mountbatten-Windsor were reportedly close friends throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, frequently appearing together in New York and London social circles. Sources interviewed for the 2022 ITV documentary “Ghislaine, Prince Andrew and the Paedophile” even suggested that Buckingham Palace staff believed the two dated during the early 2000s.
It was during this same period that Virginia Giuffre, an Epstein victim who tragically passed away by suicide in April 2025, alleged that Epstein and Maxwell coerced her into sexual encounters with Mountbatten-Windsor on multiple occasions when she was 17.
Giuffre filed a lawsuit against Mountbatten-Windsor in 2021, accusing him of sexually assaulting her at Maxwell’s London residence, Epstein’s New York home, and on Epstein’s private island. Mountbatten-Windsor consistently denied these allegations, claiming he had no recollection of ever meeting Giuffre. Nevertheless, a settlement for an undisclosed amount was reached in 2022, and he subsequently lost his royal patronages, military, and royal titles.
His arrest on Thursday stems from ongoing questions surrounding his interactions with Epstein, a connection largely facilitated by his friendship with Maxwell.
Here’s a timeline of their friendship, as compiled from news reports and interviews over the years:
A History of Friendship: Mountbatten-Windsor and Maxwell
Mountbatten-Windsor revealed in his November 2019 BBC Newsnight interview that he had known Maxwell since her university days. Maxwell, a graduate of Oxford University in 1985, came from a prominent family; her father, Robert Maxwell, owned the Daily Mirror newspaper and served as a Member of Parliament before his death in 1991.
Close Company in the Late ’90s and Early 2000s
The late 1990s and early 2000s saw Maxwell and Mountbatten-Windsor frequently in the public eye, with their social outings in both New York and London extensively covered by the press.
- February 1999: Flight logs obtained by the Daily Mirror show Mountbatten-Windsor and Maxwell traveling together on Epstein’s private jet to his Caribbean island, Little St. James.
- Late Summer/Early Autumn 1999: Mountbatten-Windsor hosted Maxwell and Epstein at Balmoral, according to a model who attended and later spoke to the Daily Mail.
- February 2000: Mountbatten-Windsor vacationed at Mar-a-Lago with Maxwell before attending a New York fashion show, as reported by The Evening Standard in 2001.
- April 2000: The Evening Standard also reported another trip to New York where Mountbatten-Windsor “socialized with Ghislaine.”
- May 12, 2000: Flight logs indicate Mountbatten-Windsor flew on Epstein’s private jet from New Jersey to Palm Beach, Florida, with Maxwell also onboard.
- June 21, 2000: Epstein and Maxwell attended a party at Windsor Castle, partly to celebrate Mountbatten-Windsor’s 40th birthday, according to the BBC.
- June 22, 2000: Mountbatten-Windsor and Maxwell were photographed together at the Royal Ascot.
- September 2000: The two were pictured arriving in the same car at the Wiltshire wedding of Mountbatten-Windsor’s former girlfriend, Aurelia Cecil, the BBC reported.
- October 31, 2000: Mountbatten-Windsor and Maxwell were photographed together at Heidi Klum’s Halloween party in Manhattan.
- December 2000: Mountbatten-Windsor hosted Maxwell and Epstein at Sandringham for a “straightforward shooting weekend,” as per his 2019 BBC Newsnight interview.
- January 2001: The Evening Standard reported a trip to Thailand with Maxwell.
- March 2001: Virginia Giuffre alleged her first meeting with Mountbatten-Windsor occurred at Maxwell’s townhouse, arranged by Maxwell and Epstein.
During this period, Maxwell and Epstein were believed to be in a romantic relationship. Cimberly Espinosa, who worked for Epstein’s company from 1996 to 2002, largely as Maxwell’s executive assistant, testified at Maxwell’s 2021 child-sex-trafficking trial that she initially thought Epstein and Maxwell were dating but believed they broke up in the last two years of her employment.
Buckingham Palace Suspicions of an “Intimate Relationship”
Paul Page, a former royal protection officer, shared in the ITV documentary that he first encountered Maxwell in 2001. He stated that Buckingham Palace staff suspected an “intimate relationship” between Mountbatten-Windsor and Maxwell due to the frequency of her visits.
“From the way she was allowed to enter and exit the palace, at will, we realized… suspected that she may have had an intimate relationship with Prince Andrew,” Page recounted. “A colleague of mine remembered her coming in four times in one day from the morning till the evening – she kept coming in and out, in and out.”
Euan Rellie, a banker who also befriended Maxwell during university, echoed this sentiment in the documentary, stating, “I got the sense that Prince Andrew and Ghislaine had probably been girlfriend and boyfriend in the past. They had an easy warmth around each other.” Mountbatten-Windsor’s press office did not respond to Business Insider’s request for comment on these claims at the time of the documentary’s release.
Maxwell Behind Bars, Mountbatten-Windsor Under Arrest
Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest on Thursday for suspected misconduct in public office led to his release hours later, with police confirming an ongoing investigation. This month, following the release of documents from the U.S. Justice Department’s investigation into Epstein, the UK’s Thames Valley Police began examining claims that Mountbatten-Windsor shared confidential trade reports with Epstein in 2010, when he served as a trade envoy.
Mountbatten-Windsor has consistently denied all allegations against him, stating in 2019, “At no stage during the limited time I spent with him did I see, witness or suspect any behaviour of the sort that subsequently led to his arrest and conviction.” He has not publicly commented on the recent allegations of misconduct in office.
Hours after the arrest, King Charles, Mountbatten-Windsor’s brother, issued a statement asserting, “The law must take its course.” The family of Virginia Giuffre also released a statement, expressing, “Today, our broken hearts have been lifted by the news that no one is above the law, not even royalty.”