Epstein email confirms authenticity of the photo of Andrew with Virginia Giuffre
The message, reported by the BBC, contains a line in which Epstein wrote: “Yes she [Giuffre] was on my plane and yes she had her picture taken with Andrew.”
An email from Jeffrey Epstein appears to acknowledge that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was photographed with Virginia Giuffre, according to newly disclosed correspondence released this week.
The message, reported by the BBC, contains a line in which Epstein wrote: "Yes she [Giuffre] was on my plane and yes she had her picture taken with Andrew."
The email suggests that Epstein, alleged to have taken the photograph, confirmed its authenticity - contradicting the former prince's repeated claims that he never met Giuffre and that the image may have been manipulated.
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The July 2011 message is among more than 20,000 pages of emails from Epstein's estate made public on Wednesday. Giuffre, a key accuser in the sex offender's network, has alleged that Andrew had sex with her on three occasions when she was a teenager.
Andrew has long denied the allegations and reached an out-of-court settlement with Giuffre in 2022 without admitting liability or offering an apology.
The correspondence from Epstein was sent to his publicist, Peggy Siegal, shortly after Giuffre was named in a Mail on Sunday report that also published the now infamous photograph showing her alongside Andrew and Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence in the US for sex trafficking.
In a widely scrutinised 2019 BBC Newsnight interview, Andrew questioned the photo's authenticity, saying: "Nobody can prove whether or not that photograph has been doctored but I don't recollect that photograph ever being taken."
The newly released documents, shared by Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee, also indicate that Andrew and Epstein were in touch months after Andrew claimed to have severed ties with the financier.
On 4 March 2011, Maxwell appears to have forwarded a Mail on Sunday query to Epstein regarding allegations that Andrew had sex with a young woman introduced to him at Maxwell's London home in 2001. Epstein then appears to have forwarded the correspondence to Andrew, using a redacted address labelled "The Duke".
Andrew responded: "Please make sure that every statement or legal letter states clearly that I am NOT involved and that I knew and know NOTHING about any of these allegations. I can't take any more of this my end."
The Mail on Sunday later published the allegations along with the photograph, claiming that girls were instructed to sit on Andrew's knee at Epstein's New York residence, and that he allegedly groped them and took part in sexual activities on Epstein's private island.
The documents further show Epstein's efforts to undermine Giuffre's credibility. In the same July 2011 email, he wrote: "The girl who accused Prince Andrew can also easily be proven to be a liar. I think Buckingham Palace would love it. You should task someone to investigate the girl Virginia Roberts, that has caused the Queen's son all this agro [sic]."
The latest disclosures follow a request by Democrats in the US Congress for Andrew to provide testimony as part of their ongoing investigation into Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.
Congressman Suhas Subramanyam, a member of the House Oversight Committee, told BBC Newsnight that Andrew has yet to respond to the committee's invitation, noting: "He doesn't have to get on a plane to testify, he can do it remotely."
Earlier this month, Andrew was stripped of all remaining titles after Giuffre's posthumous memoir ignited renewed scrutiny of his association with Epstein and Maxwell.
