Andrew suggested Epstein ‘catch-up’ months before New York meeting, emails show

Andrew Mountbatten Windsor told disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein it would be “good to catch up in person” months after the paedophile was released from prison for prostituting minors, court documents show.

In an email on April 15 2010, following a suggestion from Epstein that the then-prince should meet American banker Jes Staley, Andrew said he would try to “drop by” New York later in the year.

The two were later pictured together in Central Park in New York in December 2010 in a meeting Andrew claimed in his 2019 Newsnight interview was to break off their friendship.

The email was released on Friday in unsealed court documents from a 2023 legal battle between the US Virgin Islands, where Epstein owned a private island, and JP Morgan over its alleged dealings with the financier, which the bank settled.

It comes a day after the King took the dramatic decision to formally strip his brother of his Prince and Duke of York titles and HRH style, a move that effectively ends his public life.

In the exchange, Epstein, who was released from prison in July 2009, suggests Andrew should meet former JP Morgan executive Mr Staley in London on April 22 2010.

Andrew replied: “I would love to but sadly heading into the stans today and back via Kiev next Fri/Sat, so will miss him.

“But I will make sure I meet him soon on another trip.

“Also I have no immediate plans to drop by New York but I think I should at some stage soon.

“I’ll look and see if I can make a couple of days before the summer.

“It would be good to catch up in person.”

The documents show Epstein then forwarded the email to Mr Staley, who was subsequently banned from holding senior roles in the financial sector by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in 2023, after it found that he misled the regulator over the nature of his relationship with the disgraced financier.

In the 2019 Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis, the former prince claimed his visit to New York to see Epstein in 2010 was the “wrong decision” but he wanted to end their friendship in person.

He said: “I wanted to make sure that if I was going to go and see him, I had to make sure that there was enough time between his release because it wasn’t something that I was going into in a hurry but I had to go and see him, I had to go and see him, I had to talk.”

When asked by Maitlis if he regretted the “whole friendship with Epstein”, the duke replied: “Now, still not and the reason being is that the people that I met and the opportunities that I was given to learn either by him or because of him were actually very useful.”

The disgraced royal will now effectively have the status of a commoner and be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.

Andrew has also agreed to leave Royal Lodge in Windsor and it is understood he is to move into an undisclosed private residence on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk as soon as practicable.

The former duke had tainted the reputation of the royal family with his association with Epstein and, for many years, was dogged by allegations he sexually abused Virginia Giuffre, who took her own life in April, after she was trafficked by the financier.

He has strenuously denied the allegations.