Prince. Epstein. Arrest. How Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor fell from grace

LONDON − Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has suffered a sharp fall from grace over the last decade culminating − for now − in his arrest by British police over allegations of misconduct in public life over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

The BBC first reported the development, later confirmed by police and King Charles.

The former prince, the king’s brother, has faced multiple allegations connected to his links to Epstein, the convicted sex offender and accused sex-trafficker. The United Kingdom’s Thames Valley Police did not on Feb. 19 release any details of its investigation into Mountbatten-Windsor. However, the police force has previously said it was assessing an allegation that he shared confidential government information with the late sex offender.

Could former Prince Andrew go to jail? Royal experts answer burning questions

Mountbatten-Windsor has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing over his friendship and ties to Epstein.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Jeffrey Epstein: How it started

In a 2019 BBC interview, then Prince Andrew said he first got to know British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell − the daughter of media tycoon Robert Maxwell − when she was studying at Oxford University in the 1980s. He was then introduced, he said, to Epstein by Maxwell in 1999. At the time, Epstein and Maxwell were in a relationship.

Mountbatten-Windsor, Maxwell and Epstein appear to have developed a strong bond that continued, according to files released by the U.S. Department of Justice, even after Epstein’s 2008 conviction on child sex offenses.

A former prince and Epstein: How it escalated

In 2019, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, filed a lawsuit in a U.S. court alleging that Epstein trafficked her to have sex with Mountbatten-Windsor three times when she was 17, thus a minor under U.S. law.

Mountbatten-Windsor repeatedly denied the allegations. However, he also decided to settle with Giuffre out of court over it. However, the accusations of sexual abuse came roaring back when Giuffre died by suicide in April 2025 and when her memoir, “Nobody’s Girl,” was posthumously published six months later.

Epstein pulled strings: He paid tuition across world for kids of powerful

In her memoir, Giuffre says of the then-prince that he was “friendly enough, but entitled – as if he believed having sex with me was his birthright.” The late Queen Elizabeth II – his mother – stripped her son of his military titles and royal patronages in 2022. He was also asked to stop using “His Royal Highness” title in any official capacity. He gave up his last remaining titles, including that of prince, in 2025 as questions about his private life intensified.

Six years after Jeffrey Epstein’s death: Hundreds of women push for justice

He also agreed to be known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, not Prince Andrew. He agreed to move out of Royal Lodge, the huge mansion he lived in for more than two decades on the grounds of Windsor Great Park, outside London, for the royal family’s Sandringham estate, in Norfolk, England, late last year.

What the Epstein files say about Andrew, a former prince

The U.S. Justice Department released more three million more documents related to Epstein as part of its investigation into him. They email include exchanges, several thousand videos and tens of thousands of photos.

Several images released in the dossier of Epstein show Mountbatten-Windsor in compromising positions, including one where he is crouched on all fours over a woman whose identity has been redacted.

Mountbatten-Windsor has denied committing any sexual offenses.

The U.K.’s Thames Valley police did not provide specific details of the allegations about the former prince’s alleged misconduct in private life that led to his arrest on Feb 19. It is not connected to alleged sex offenses.

Previous reporting by the BBC and others have alleged that Mountbatten-Windsor may have shared confidential governments reports connected to investments in Afghanistan and His Majesty’s Treasury department. It is not immediately clear if that information was shared directly with Epstein or other business associates.

And U.K. police have not confirmed that reporting.

Separately, Thames Valley police has said it is still assessing another allegation against the former prince that Epstein sent an adult woman, who is not British, to the U.K. in 2010 for a sexual encounter with him.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor fell from grace