THE prince andrew hosted them Jeffrey EpsteinGhislaine Maxwell and Harvey Weinstein at Royal Lodge, the luxury residence in which he has lived rent-free for over 20 years and from which talk and pressure to leave is intensifying.
Epstein, who was convicted of pimping and had an assistant named Maxwell who “fished” for girls – often underage – visited the Royal Lodge in Windsor for the 18th birthday of Prince Andrew’s daughter, Beatrix, in 2006. Two months earlier, authorities in the US had issued an arrest warrant for Epstein on charges of sexual assault. to minor.
Although the three’s visit to the royal mansion had been known, now with the resurgence of the Epstein scandal it has been revealed that Andrew had hosted them at the Royal Lodge. Epstein was arrested by police in Florida eight days after the royal reception.
When asked by BBC Newsnight in 2019 why he invited Epstein to his daughter’s 18th birthday two months after the US arrest warrant was issued, Andrew said:
“I certainly didn’t know when the invitation was issued what was going on in the United States and I didn’t know until the media reported it because he never said anything about it.”
Andrew renounced the royal titles of earlier this month as his relationship with Epstein comes under fire again after the publication of Virgina Giuffre’s memoir, in which she writes that she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew three times.
Andrew, who reached a financial settlement with Giuffre in 2022, has repeatedly denied any accusations. In 2019, he told BBC Newsnight that he did not remember meeting her “at all” and that they “never had any kind of sexual contact”.
According to the BBC, Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell appear to have been regular visitors to the royal residences in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
A photo of the couple at Balmoral Castle in Scotland was released by prosecutors during Maxwell’s pimping trial.
It is believed to have been taken in 1999, when Andrew allegedly invited the couple to stay there.
In 2000, pedophile stockbroker Epstein was a guest at Windsor Castle, and the prince hosted a birthday bash for Maxwell at Sandringham, the monarch’s private country home in Norfolk.
Ghislaine Maxwell also visited Buckingham Palace on a private tour in 2002.
A photo of her sitting on the monarch’s throne next to actor Kevin Spacey came into the hands of the Daily Telegraph almost two decades later.
Finance under the microscope
At the same time new questions are being raised about how Andrew is able to financially support his lifestyle, despite having relinquished royal duties and now his title.
The revelation that he was only paying a nominal annual rent for his Windsor mansion, Royal Lodge, has heightened questions about his living conditions.
It has emerged that Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson have apparently agreed to leave the 30-room royal mansion known as Royal Lodge where they live following the public outcry, but it is said that on the condition that they receive from a new house each.
Andrew wants Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s former home, Frogmore Cottage, while Sarah Ferguson wants Adelaide Cottage, the Windsor residence Prince William and Kate Middleton will vacate next month after moving to Forest Lodge.