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. Although the terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed, it was reported to be a multimillion-dollar settlement. There is intensifying media scrutiny over whether then-Queen Elizabeth and the royal family financed the settlement. Buckingham Palace declined to comment.
Andrew hasn’t publicly commented on the recently released emails, but has previously denied wrongdoing. He was stripped of his royal titles last year, and in recent weeks was kicked out of his mansion on the grounds of Windsor Castle outside London. The ex-prince, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor , didn’t reply to emails seeking comment.
In 2019, Andrew gave an interview to the BBC in which he said he had ended all contact with Epstein since early in 2010. He came off as unapologetic, saying he was unaware of any criminal behavior by Epstein and had no recollection of ever meeting Giuffre. Soon after, the queen ordered him removed from his duties as a member of the royal household.
The newly disclosed documents show that Epstein, in the years after he got out of jail, helped the prince and his indebted ex-wife Sarah Ferguson manage their finances and scout new business. In return, Epstein used his regal connections to impress business contacts as well as young women.
The new tranche of emails shows Epstein remained in communication with Andrew as late as 2018, via messages passed by a close business associate, David Stern, who was working as a business adviser to Andrew. “give him a hug,” Epstein emailed Stern, when he was on his way to Singapore to meet Andrew in June 2018.
Stern, who recently resigned from his position as an adviser to Cambridge Judge Business School in the wake of the emails, didn’t respond to requests seeking comment. Sarah Ferguson didn’t respond to emails requesting comment. She has said previously that she was taken in by Epstein’s “lies.”
‘The Duke’
Andrew, Queen Elizabeth’s third child, had known Epstein on-and-off since 1999. Despite Epstein’s conviction, it was Andrew who re-initiated contact shortly after the disgraced financier left a Florida county jail, the emails show.
Months after Epstein was released in 2009, he received an email from a man listed in his contacts as “The Duke.”
“It has been far too long,” wrote Andrew, who went on to ask if he could use Epstein’s apartment in Paris for the weekend. “If this is either inappropriate or unavailable then I apologise for asking,” he explained.
Epstein quickly replied: “Will organize…”
Sarah Ferguson had also been in touch. Ferguson, who divorced Andrew in 1996 but remained on friendly terms, visited Epstein while he was serving his sentence, according to the emails. Three weeks before Epstein’s release, she sent him an email detailing how she was in debt after a U.S. wellness business she had launched collapsed.
“I have been so so sad,” she wrote. Days after he walked out of jail, Ferguson brought her two daughters for lunch with him at his home in Palm Beach.
To help fix her financial affairs, Epstein introduced her to Stern, who ran an advisory business called Asia Gateway and previously worked at Deutsche Bank , according to a biography he wrote in a business pitch. He collected details of the Duchess of York’s debts—putting them at $6.6 million in an email to Epstein in September 2009—and worked on a plan to consolidate them. “Its time to be serious, be very tough…like a girlfriend that has cheated,” Epstein advised Stern.
In early 2010, Ferguson emailed Andrew, suggesting Stern could help the prince with a nascent plan to create a wealth fund in China. Stern and the prince then started discussions about working together. In emails, Stern referred to Epstein as his “boss” and said “I do what he tells me.”
Stern wrote to Epstein in July 2010 about an idea to open a private wealth manager in London that would attract rich Chinese customers. “We very discreetly make PA part of it and use his ‘aura and access,’ ” Stern wrote, referring to Prince Andrew. Later that year, Stern accompanied Andrew on official trips to China to visit Beijing and Shenzhen, taking direction from Epstein on whom the prince should meet there.
Andrew also gave Epstein a window into U.K. government activity. He forwarded to Epstein confidential government briefings on several of the Asian countries he visited as trade envoy.
That fall, Epstein emailed Jes Staley , then CEO of the investment banking unit of JPMorgan Chase, about Andrew’s interest in a role with the bank in China, setting off a string of meetings between Stern and JPMorgan executives about a potential joint venture to be headed by Stern.
Staley, a close confidant of Epstein, showed an active interest in the idea, according to the emails. Stern met JPMorgan executives in Europe and visited Hong Kong and Beijing. The plan was to pay Stern and Andrew through a company called Witan, named after “Witenagemot,” an ancient council that advised Anglo-Saxon kings. However, the plan never came to fruition.
JPMorgan declined to comment. Staley didn’t answer a request for comment, but has previously said he knew nothing about Epstein’s crimes.
In July 2013, Stern emailed Epstein saying that he and Andrew met with Howard Lutnick, then chief executive of Cantor Fitzgerald. Emails show draft agreements for a joint venture, sharing revenue from Andrew introducing sovereign-wealth funds and rich associates to the firm. A draft agreement discussed a £1 million advance to the prince. The emails didn’t show if the plan ever happened.
A Cantor spokesperson said: “Cantor Fitzgerald has never had any business dealings with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.”
An official at the Commerce Department, which Lutnick now heads, said Lutnick never did any business with Andrew in his professional life. The department previously said Lutnick and his wife met Epstein in 2005 and had very limited interactions with him over the next 14 years. In congressional testimony recently, Lutnick acknowledged visiting Epstein’s private island with his family in 2012.
‘Amazing night’
In August 2010, a month before Epstein brought the four women to Buckingham Palace, he emailed Andrew: “I have a friend who i think you might enjoy having dinner with.” Andrew replied, “delighted to see her.”
“she 26, russian, clevere beautiful, trustworthy and yes she has your email,” Epstein added. The day after the proposed dinner with the prince in London, the woman, named Irina, emailed Epstein to say “I had an amazing night.”
British police say they are now assessing reports that a woman was taken to an address in Windsor “for sexual purposes” in 2010. They are also reviewing evidence in the released emails that Andrew forwarded confidential government information to Epstein.
In recent days, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Andrew should face police questioning. “Britain cannot escape its role in enabling this web of exploitation,” Brown wrote.
In late 2010, Andrew visited Epstein in New York for a week, where the two were photographed walking together in Central Park, and were, according to emails, scheduled to attend a private viewing of “The King’s Speech”—an Oscar-winning movie about Andrew’s grandfather, King George VI. When Andrew returned to England, he wrote to Epstein: “God it’s cold and dank here! Wish I was still a pet in your family!”
It was the high water mark of their relationship. In early 2011, British tabloids published a photo of Andrew with his arm around Giuffre, then 17 years old. Amid a media outcry, Andrew left his position as U.K. trade envoy. Andrew didn’t seem too concerned at first. “Don’t worry about me!”, he wrote to Epstein. “we’ll play some more soon!!!!”
As the media frenzy intensified, Epstein kept tabs on the prince by communicating about “PA” with Stern.
Despite the media spotlight, Epstein continued to try to organize private meetings for the prince. “I have a very beautiful friend comoing to london on tues. ANdrew might want to have her for a dinner,” Epstein wrote in October 2013 to Stern. The emails don’t show whether the dinner took place.
Stern meanwhile kept Epstein informed of trips he made with Andrew in 2018 to Tokyo and Singapore to meet the then-prime minister. In March 2018, a contact of Epstein’s texted that he was going to Buckingham Palace for a reception. “Shall I give your regards to our host, the Duke of York ??”
“Yes,” Epstein replied.
A year later, Epstein was found dead in jail.
Write to Max Colchester at Max.Colchester@wsj.com and Margot Patrick at margot.patrick@wsj.com
