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Files released by the US Justice Department reveal that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Prince Andrew, offered a troubled member of his staff a $60,000 payment from Jeffrey Epstein as media reports emerged about their continuing relationship.
This exchange occurred in February 2011 after the News of the World – which closed later that year – published photographs of Epstein and Mountbatten-Windsor walking in Central Park, New York in December 2010.
The meeting was controversial because Epstein had already been convicted of prostitution at an early age and had been in prison and under house arrest.
The files, part of a tranche of 3 million pages of documents relating to Epstein released by the DoJ on Friday, show the two considered how to respond after the story broke, with Mountbatten-Windsor writing: “It feels like we’re in this together and we have to rise above this!”
They show that Epstein was led to believe that a staff member – identified only as “Jay” – had provided his story to the News of the World and reached an agreement on a $60,000 payment for Jay to leave Epstein’s staff. Epstein was wary of making direct severance payments.
Epstein wrote, “I have no confidence in him at all, and if the payment from me were disclosed to the press at this time it would look like payment for a small piece of crap.”
Mountbatten-Windsor offered to pay voluntarily but suggested that payment should be through lawyers.
“I assume it might be coming from a law firm for protection?” He has written.
Epstein wrote that the payment should involve “nothing direct” and that the former employee should sign “some kind of general release” – a commitment not to take further legal action.
The former prince’s help for Epstein is one of several transactions documented in the files following Epstein’s 2008 child prostitution conviction, which appear to contradict Mountbatten-Windsor’s account of the pair’s relationship after Epstein was found guilty of the crime.
Mountbatten-Windsor said in a BBC television interview in 2019 that the meeting captured in a December 2010 News of the World photograph was her last meeting with Epstein, before she broke all contact with Epstein. They also said that they met for the first time after the disgraced financier was convicted in 2008.
The files show that the two indeed maintained regular contact, discussing potential business deals and social meetings, including where Epstein offered to bring the three women to Buckingham Palace. In late December 2010 Mountbatten-Windsor referred to Epstein’s circle as “my American family”.
Epstein appears to have contacted Mountbatten-Windsor, who was stripped of all her titles last October, with at least two women during 2010 in language that they might be sexually interesting to him.
Epstein emailed Mountbatten-Windsor in August 2010, saying he had a 26-year-old “friend”, identified only as “Irina”, with whom he thought the former prince would enjoy having “dinner”.
The exchange occurred shortly after Epstein’s release from house arrest following his imprisonment. Mountbatten-Windsor, signing as Duke of York – his then title – wrote to him: “How are you? Good to be free?”
In June 2010, Epstein gave Mountbatten-Windsor the contact details of another woman, whom he described as a beautiful Russian.
The files also reveal that Epstein wrote to Mountbatten-Windsor during a visit to London in September, suggesting she visit Buckingham Palace with some women. Mountbatten-Windsor replied “How long and how many?” – although it is unclear whether they actually met or not.
Mountbatten-Windsor has consistently denied any wrongdoing in her relationship with Epstein.
