That photo of Andrew with his arm around Virginia Giuffre IS REAL and I introduced them, admits Ghislaine Maxwell in damning emails that blow Pizza Express alibi apart

A bombshell email has confirmed the infamous photo of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor with his arm around his chief accuser is real, it emerged today.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor had long been discussing the authenticity of the photo taken in close contact with Virginia Giuffre when she was only 17 years old.

And his claim that the damning 2001 image might have been fake was at the heart of the defense he tried to put forward in the disastrous Newsnight interview.

But today an email has emerged from disgraced socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, in which she not only introduces the former Prince to Giuffre, but also says she ‘factually records’ that the photo was taken at her London home the same night.

His confession, revealed by the Daily Mail, will be a huge blow to Andrew and will shatter his controversial Pizza Express ‘alibi’.

This was done in a series of 2015 emails released last week by the US Department of Justice in a tranche of more than three million documents related to Jeffrey Epstein.

Disgraced socialite Maxwell, who prepared a statement to respond to media reports about the escalating allegations, sent an email to Epstein asking for his approval.

‘When I was in London in 2001 I met a few friends, including (redacted) Prince Andrew,’ he wrote.

Ghislaine Maxwell wrote a draft statement that she sent to pedophilia financier Epstein, confirming that she had introduced Andrew to Guiffre when he was a tennager.

‘A photo was taken which I think he wanted to show to his friends and family.

“I never asked (improved) him to give her a massage,” he added in his draft statement.

In the body of the email she said: ‘For the record,’ and added: ‘Prince Andrew came to my house to visit me – (redacted) was at the house and they met.’

But he claimed he had ‘no knowledge’ that Ms Giuffre had ‘engaged in sexual activity’ with Andrew or any other ‘celebrity’.

Epstein responded by saying his statement left ‘too many unanswered questions’, adding: ‘Him and Andrew?…What’s going on here?’ Why is he there?’

Maxwell insisted she needed to testify “as soon as possible” and said she was advised to say: “I was not aware of a massage being given at my home with Andrew.”

‘They need to stay with Virginia to meet and refute these allegations. I need this as soon as possible.’

In the email, titled ‘First draft of privileged joint defense agreement’, Maxwell claims she was forced to speak out due to ‘salacious allegations’ against her.

It says: ‘The allegations made against me by (redacted) are false. ‘I repeatedly stated that these were not true and waited for the opportunity to prove this in court.’

Seeking to discredit Giuffre, who committed suicide last year aged 41, Maxwell said: ‘The salacious allegations she makes are untrue and made entirely for financial gain.’

‘The relentless media harassment that I, Alan Dershowitz and Prince Andrew have been subjected to over the past week has become intolerable and violates any justifiable sense of natural justice.’

He claims he plans to immediately refer ‘both the harassment and the unfair and unfounded allegations’ to the Press Complaints Commission.

Maxwell, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for her role in luring underage girls for her ex-boyfriend Epstein, said she found the allegations against her ‘extremely hurtful’.

He concludes his statement: ‘In the end (redacted) she claims to be the sex slave of the rich and famous, but the truth is that she works as a waitress in a burger bar.’

The emails were written just days after Ms Giuffre first launched her bombshell legal claim in the US in January 2015, accusing Maxwell of recruiting her as a ‘sex slave’.

Allegations that she was forced to have sex with the former prince were at the center of her case.

The correspondence directly contradicts repeated denials that the meeting took place in London, where both Andrew and Maxwell sought to cast doubt on the authenticity of the image.

In his disastrous 2019 Newsnight interview, Andrew claimed Maxwell was not at his home but at a Pizza Express in Woking.

‘I was with the kids and took Beatrice to a Pizza Express in Woking for a party, I think around 4 or 5pm in the afternoon,’ he said.

When asked 18 years later why he remembered a meal at Pizza Express, he said: ‘Because it’s unusual for me to go to Pizza Express in Woking, it’s very unusual for me…

‘I’ve only been to Woking a few times and I remember it strangely clearly,’ he claimed.

Andrew and his allies have long sought to cast doubt on the authenticity of the image showing him holding Ms. Giuffre, then 17, known as Virginia Roberts.

Despite claiming they had never met, the former duke paid Ms Giuffre millions to settle a civil sexual assault claim in 2022.

Maxwell initially denied the image was fake during an interview in a US prison, but emails she sent to Epstein confirmed the image’s authenticity

Maxwell also said in an interview from prison that the picture was fake, while those close to Andrew insisted his fingers were ‘chubbier’ and longer than depicted.

Convicted pedophile Epstein’s partner also claimed in interviews with the US Department of Justice that he had no recollection of the pair meeting at his home.

The picture was revealed by The Mail on Sunday after Ms Giuffre insisted she had slept with Andrew in London; The disgraced former prince vehemently denied this claim.

Ms. Giuffre said convicted pedophile Epstein took the photo with a disposable camera before the group went to dinner and then to the Tramp nightclub.

She claimed she was forced to have sex with Andrew that night at Maxwell’s home, at Epstein’s home in Manhattan and on his private island in the Caribbean, Little St James.

The latest revelations will create new humiliation over Andrew’s shameful ties to Epstein; these connections had previously led to him being stripped of his titles.

He and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson were also forcibly removed from the Royal Lodge at the Windsor estate where they had lived for more than two decades.