Prince Andrew is facing renewed scrutiny over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein after newly published emails show he was still in contact with the disgraced financier well after claiming otherwise. In a 2011 message sent the day after a photo surfaced showing Andrew with a teenage Virginia Giuffre, Andrew told Epstein, "We are in this together," the Guardian reports. He added that they should "keep in close touch" and expressed a desire to "play some more soon." This contradicts Prince Andrew's 2019 statement to the BBC, in which he insisted he cut off all contact with Epstein in December 2010.
""I'm just as concerned for you! Don't worry about me!" the prince wrote to Epstein after the photo was published. "It would seem we are in this together and will have to rise above it. Otherwise keep in close touch and we'll play some more soon," he wrote, adding five exclamation marks. Giuffre, who died by suicide earlier this year, said she was trafficked by Epstein and sexually abused by Andrew when she was 17. In 2022, the prince settled her lawsuit against him, though he did not admit wrongdoing.
Part of the email surfaced earlier this year in a court case involving ex-Barclays chief Jes Staley, who is accused of giving misleading statements about his own relationship with Epstein. In his BBC interview, Andrew claimed he had ceased contact after learning Epstein was under investigation in 2006 and only met him in 2010 to end the friendship. "I had to show leadership and I had to go and see him and I had to tell him 'that's it,'" he said.
story continues below
Sources tell the Times of London that Andrew's brother, King Charles III, has told him he won't be welcome at the royal family's Christmas events this year and he would prefer him to be "invisible" at future gatherings. Sarah Ferguson, Andrew's ex-wife, is also facing repercussions from a 2011 Epstein email.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
