Andrew Mountbatten Windsor reportedly “refused” to sign off any Royal Family statements that included tributes to Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, it has been claimed. Andrew, formally known as Prince Andrew before he had all his royal titles stripped by King Charles just days ago, was previously friends with the late convicted paedophile Epstein.
While Andrew has always denied all accusations he faced as a result of his association to Epstein, it has been reported in The Times that he used to not approve of any royal statements that paid tribute to Epstein’s victims. This suggests that Andrew, 65, had very little say in the statement from Buckingham Palace on Thursday, which made it clear that King Charles and Queen Camilla have “utmost sympathies” with any victims of abuse.
Before this, a statement by Andrew on October 17 – which revealed he would no longer use his titles, which he has since formally lost – did not mention any victims of Epstein, but instead just reiterated how the royal denies any accusations against him.
As reported by The Times, a friend of the King and Queen said that most previous statements before Thursday that had mentioned Epstein’s victims had these references removed before being made public, with Andrew reportedly not approving them.
For example, there was no mention of the victims in a 2022 Palace statement about Andrew losing his military affiliations and royal patronages.
However, the former prince did say he sympathised with those affected by Epstein in a 2019 statement confirming he was no longer going to be a working royal after his 2019 BBC Newsnight interview.
A friend of Their Majesties told The Times: “There has long been a sense from the family that the voices of the victims needed to be heard in these procurements, because they feature so heavily in this saga and because there is no credible way the Queen and the Duchess of Edinburgh can continue to do the work they do in the areas of sexual abuse if they can’t point to that.”