As Prince Andrew gives up royal titles, recalling his links to Jeffrey Epstein and fall from grace

In 2021, an American woman named Virginia Giuffre sued Andrew, saying that financier and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his companion, Ghislaine Maxwell, arranged sexual encounters with the prince starting when she was 17. Giuffre died by suicide in April this year at the age of 41.

On Sunday, the BBC reported that the Metropolitan Police was looking into media reports that Andrew tried to obtain personal information about Giuffre through his police protection. Here is what to know about Andrew’s life and role in the UK royal family, and the accusations against him.

Who is Prince Andrew?

Born in 1960, Andrew is the third child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. He has served in the Royal Navy and engaged in training for flying helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. After completing his military career in 2001, he worked as the United Kingdom’s Special Representative for International Trade and Investment, promoting Britain as a destination.

He married Sarah Ferguson in 1986 and had two daughters, but the couple separated after 10 years.

Andrew’s public life has been marred by allegations of inappropriate and racist behaviour towards staff and others around him, and more recently, he became embroiled in a case linked to an alleged Chinese spy. But by far, the most criticism he has faced concerns sexual misconduct and assault allegations, and his friendship with Epstein.

What are the allegations against Prince Andrew?

Giuffre, around the age of 16, began working at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, owned by current United States President Donald Trump. Her father was an employee who helped her secure a job as a housekeeper. In her soon-to-be-released posthumous memoir, Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice, she wrote about the incidents involving Epstein.

She said that Epstein’s associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, saw her at the resort and offered her a job as a masseuse for him, later taking her to meet him. From the very first encounter, Epstein manipulated her to engage in sexual and inappropriate acts, and then took her on to travel the world with him.

In a book excerpt published in The Guardian, she wrote, “How can you complain about being abused, some have asked, when you could so easily have stayed away? But that stance discounts what many of us had been through before we encountered Epstein, as well as how good he was at spotting girls whose wounds made them vulnerable… A master manipulator, he threw what looked like a lifeline to girls who were drowning… And then, he did his worst to them.”

She wrote she was introduced to Andrew in 2001, when she was 17 and he was 41. Maxwell told him not to refuse what he would ask of her. “He was friendly enough, but still entitled – as if he believed having sex with me was his birthright,” Giuffre wrote.

In February 2022, Andrew settled the lawsuit she filed against him for an unknown sum, without admitting any guilt or wrongdoing. According to The Guardian, he also pledged to “demonstrate his regret for his association” with Epstein, by supporting the “fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims”.

Separately, last year, reports of an alleged Chinese spy having access to high levels of the UK government came out, with allegations of the man leveraging a close relationship with Andrew. He said he “ceased all contact” with the man after receiving advice from the government, but did not specify when that happened.

What has been the scope of Andrew’s public engagements of late?

In a 2019 BBC interview, Andrew first spoke at length publicly about his friendship with Epstein, who died by suicide in a jail cell that year. He said he never met Giuffre, despite a photograph showing them together. His explanations were widely publicly criticised.

Later that year, Andrew said in a statement that “The circumstances relating to my former association with Jeffrey Epstein has become a major disruption to my family’s work and the valuable work going on in the many organisations and charities that I am proud to support. Therefore, I have asked Her Majesty if I may step back from public duties for the foreseeable future, and she has given her permission.”

He added, “I continue to unequivocally regret my ill-judged association with Jeffrey Epstein. His suicide has left many unanswered questions, particularly for his victims, and I deeply sympathise with everyone who has been affected and wants some form of closure.” Since then, he has significantly curtailed his public work, even as he resided in royal housing and retained titles.

A report in The Guardian said that the recent decision came as a result of “concern” and “anxiety” among the royals “about the continual headlines causing serious reputational risk to the monarchy” with the upcoming memoir.