Ex-Prince Andrew moves out of longtime home amid new Epstein files allegations
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Britain’s Prince Andrew, has moved out of the family home much sooner than anticipated. It comes days after the U.S. government’s release of millions more Epstein files, which included never-before-seen photos of the disgraced royal.
The brother of King Charles III, Mountbatten-Windsor has lived in the Royal Lodge in Windsor for decades. After King Charles stripped him of all royal titles in October, it was announced Mountbatten-Windsor would vacate the Royal Lodge, but not until the spring. At the same time, it was announced he’d be moving to Sandringham, the king’s estate in Norfolk, England.
An unnamed source familiar with the matter told ABC News that Andrew has moved there. British media outlets have reported that he will live temporarily in Wood Farm Cottage on the grounds while his permanent home, Marsh Farm, is under repair.
Already an issue
The move puts an end to years of contention between the brothers. King Charles has tried to evict Mountbatten-Windsor from Royal Lodge, where Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother lived until her death in 2002, several times.
When he took the crown in 2022, King Charles tried to move his brother into a smaller house on the Windsor Castle estate. Mountbatten-Windsor refused, saying he had a lease on the property through 2078. While The Times reports he paid £1 million to obtain the lease ($1,366,650 U.S.), his rent was “one peppercorn, if demanded.” He never paid while living there.
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Queen Victoria purchased Sandringham in 1862 for Edward VII.
The lease agreement also stipulates that if Mountbatten-Windsor were to give up the lease early, he would be entitled to a “compensatory sum” of £185,865 ($254,117.42 U.S.) every year until the end of the agreement in 2028. It is not yet clear if he will be getting that now that he has vacated the property.
Sexual abuse allegations
News of the move comes as newly-released documents from the Jeffrey Epstein files have reinvigorated public scrutiny over Mountbatten-Windsor’s ties to the late convicted sex offender.
Thames Valley Police announced they’re investigating new allegations that a second woman was flown to the United Kingdom by Epstein for a sexual encounter with Mountbatten-Windsor.
“We’re talking about at least one woman who was sent by Jeffrey Epstein over to Prince Andrew. And she even had, after a night with Prince Andrew, a tour of Buckingham Palace,” the woman’s lawyer told the BBC.
Police said in a statement, “We are aware of reports about a woman said to have been taken to an address in Windsor in 2010 for sexual purposes. We are assessing the information in line with our established procedures.”
“At this time, these allegations have not been reported to Thames Valley Police by either the lawyer or their client,” the department told People.
According to a BBC report, the alleged encounter took place at Royal Lodge in 2010, when the woman was in her 20s.
Mountbatten-Windsor has long denied any wrongdoing, including allegations made by Virginia Giuffre, who claimed she was flown to Britain to have sex with Andrew in 2001, when she was just 17 years old. Giuffre died by suicide last year.
The new Epstein documents released by the Department of Justice included photos of Mountbatten-Windsor kneeling over a woman with her face redacted. They also included emails showing Mountbatten-Windsor and Epstein maintained regular contact for more than two years after Epstein was found guilty of child sex crimes.
Mountbatten-Windsor has previously denied that he still had ties with Epstein after he was convicted, except for a visit to New York in 2010 to end their relationship.
Other revelations
Mountbatten-Windsor isn’t the only high-profile figure to face new or renewed scrutiny with this latest DOJ document dump.
Hollywood director Brett Ratner is speaking out after he appeared in photos released with the latest batch of documents. The “Melania” director can be seen sitting with the late sex offender and two women whose identities have been obscured.
Ratner told Fox News the woman he’s embracing in the photo is his former fiancée.
“About 20 years ago, I had a girlfriend. I was in love with her. We were engaged. She was my fiancée. We went to an event, and we were sitting on the couch, and the photo was taken at that event,” he said.
When it comes to Epstein, specifically, Ratner added, “I didn’t have a personal relationship with him. I didn’t know him.”
The photos featuring Ratner do not indicate any wrongdoing on his part.
Billionaire Elon Musk has also been linked to Epstein in the newly-released files. Email exchanges starting in 2012 indicate they spent time together in the Caribbean around the holidays. They also imply Musk may have visited Epstein’s infamous island at least once.
Musk responded to the release in a post on his X platform Saturday, saying he was one of the people calling for the files to be made public.
“No one pushed harder than me to have the Epstein files released and I’m glad that has finally happened,” he wrote. “I had very little correspondence with Epstein and declined repeated invitations to go to his island or fly on his ‘Lolita Express’, but was well aware that some email correspondence with him could be misinterpreted and used by detractors to smear my name.”
In July 2013, Epstein appears to have sent himself an e-mail in which he alleges Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates contracted a sexually transmitted infection from “sex with Russian girls.” It also suggests Gates sought to obtain antibiotics to treat the infection to “surreptitiously give” them to his then-wife, Melinda Gates.
In a statement to CBS News, a spokesperson for Bill Gates said, “These claims are absolutely absurd and completely false. The only thing these documents demonstrate is Epstein’s frustration that he did not have an ongoing relationship with Gates and the lengths he would go to entrap and defame.”
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