Prince Andrew told Jeffrey Epstein ‘we’re in this together’ in 2011 email | Prince Andrew
“We are in this together,” Prince Andrew said in an email to Jeffrey Epstein after a photo of the British royal hugging young Virginia Giuffre was first published in 2011.
The email will put further pressure on the Duke of York and the royal family, as he previously told the BBC he had cut off contact with the pedophile financier at this point.
Correspondence between the King’s younger brother and the convicted sex offender published in the Mail on Sunday and the Sun on Sunday appears to suggest this is not the case.
Andrew emailed Epstein on February 28, 2011, the day after the famous photo of duke Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell was made public. He told Epstein to “stay in close contact” and expressed a desire to “play some more soon.”
Andrew told the BBC’s Newsnight program in 2019 that he broke off his friendship with Epstein in December 2010 after the two men were photographed walking together in New York.
But in a message to Epstein after the photo was published, she wrote: “I’m worried about you too! Don’t worry about me! Looks like we’re in this together and we’ll have to get through this. Otherwise, stay in close contact and we’ll play some more soon!!!!”
He is said to have signed: “A, HRH The Duke of York, KG.”
Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal prison in Manhattan in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. It was stated that the death was suicide.
He had previously pleaded guilty to charges of promoting prostitution and encouraging a minor to engage in prostitution in 2008, for which he served time in prison.
In January this year, part of an email from the Duke of York was revealed in court documents. At the time, it was reported that he was “from the royal family”.
This allegation related to a claim made by the Financial Conduct Authority, the UK banking regulator, and appeared in court documents for a case involving former Barclays chief executive Jes Staley. Staley was disputing the watchdog’s finding that she made a misleading statement about the nature of her relationship with Epstein.
Andrew told journalist Emily Maitlis in an interview on Newsnight in November 2019: “I’ve cut off contact with him [Epstein] “When I learned he was under investigation, it was in late 2006, and I did not contact him again until 2010.”
“I needed to show leadership, I needed to go see him and tell him ‘this is it,'” he later said in December 2010.
Buckingham Palace and the Duke of York’s office have been contacted for comment.
Also this weekend, it was revealed that Tony Blair met with Epstein in Downing Street during his premiership, on the advice of Peter Mandelson, who was sacked as US ambassador last month.
Blair’s meeting was revealed in documents released at the National Archives and preceded Epstein’s criminal conviction. Epstein visited Blair on 14 May 2002.
Mandelson was a Labor MP at the time and resigned from the government for the second time amid controversy. In an email before the meeting, he described Epstein as a “truster” and “friend” to Jonathan Powell, Blair’s chief of staff and now the UK national security adviser.
