Romantic emails between Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Ghislaine Maxwell in which they told one another they loved each other is adding to speculation that the pair were romantically involved.
Affectionate exchanges in which they refer to each other by names including ‘darling’ and ‘sweet pea’, while stating they ‘long for’ one another are reigniting claims from friends and even a former royal protection officer that they were in fact lovers.
The conversations have emerged as part of a new tranche of Epstein documents released last night.
More than three million more documents were published by the US Department of Justice, although many of them are heavily redacted.
Among the files are thousands of photographs and videos, including several pictures showing disgraced royal Andrew crouching over a woman lying on the floor and touching her stomach.
Other emails show how Andrew’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, 66, described paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein as the ‘brother I have always wished for’.
Emails between Andrew, 65, – who went by the moniker The Invisible Man – and Maxwell in 2002 tell how he sought Maxwell’s ‘permission’ to spend time with his ex-wife and children instead of travelling to the US.
Andrew has previously denied having a close friendship with Maxwell, 64. He married Ferguson in 1986 before the pair separated in 1992 and divorcing in 1996.
In an email signed ‘A’, the sender says: ‘As the planning is getting more difficult over the bank holiday weekend here I am thinking now I might join Sarah and the kids in Sotogrande for a few days which would be very important and a good thing for the girls, rather than trek across the pond.
Romantic emails between Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Ghislaine Maxwellin which they told one another they loved each other is adding to speculation that the pair were romantically involved
Disturbing new images released as part of last night’s Epstein files appear to show Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor crouching on all fours over a female lying on the floor
In emails from 2002, Andrew said he was ‘longing to see’ Maxwell in gushing correspondence which has reignited speculation over the pair’s relationship
Andrew earlier asked for Maxwell’s ‘permission’ to skip a trip to see her in the US and spend time with his ex-wife and children instead
‘Please will you give me permission to do so and I am conscious of the ‘better offer’ syndrome but in this case it wouldn’t be that… I think!’
It was in response to Maxwell discussing plans for an upcoming trip in which she told how Andrew would ‘be free to go out with’ a man named Phillip in Miami ‘for some fun’.
In her reply dated August 24, Maxwell said ‘Andrew sweet heart – I fully understand if you want to spend time w/Sarah and the kids. I will not be remotely offended – sad not to spend time w/you and sad not to see you but at this point w/precious holidays and few days off I agree that this idea of coming to the Island looks less appealing’.
In a suggestive follow-up sent on August 25, Maxwell said: ‘No problem, (redacted), who is now coming and 5 other stunning red heads will all just have to play with ourselves.’
She concluded the message: ‘I shall miss you. I love you lots. Gx.’
In a reply on August 27, Andrew said: ‘I am very sad at not coming to join you but I am so glad to be able to see more of my kids that the compensation is justified.
‘But whatever I love you and am longing to see you when either you or I are in the same part of the world.’
He added: ‘Look forward to catching up with you before you disappear to some exotic place and please don’t catch anything nasty on your travels!
‘Masses of love and thanks, A xxx.’
Later that year, on October 28, an email believed to be from Maxwell asked Andrew about speculation he might have more children – Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice were 12 and 14 at the time.
A mugshot of Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year jail term for sex trafficking, was also released as part of the files
Maxwell referred to Andrew as ‘sweet pea’ amid claims they were once lovers
Andrew was seen behind the wheel of a Range Rover in Windsor on Saturday morning – hours after the release of the files
Andrew waves as he is seen horseriding in Windsor on Saturday morning
The emails saw the pair call each other pet names and sign off with ‘love’
Maxwell also comforted Andrew after the death of the Queen Mother in March 2002
In an email exchange in October 2002, believed to be between Maxwell and Andrew, the former prince denies he plans to have any more children before signing off ‘masses of love’
In three images released by the US DOJ last night, a man who appears to be Andrew, can be seen crouching over the person who is sprawled face up with their arms spread out
It is unclear where the images where taken and no further context is given
‘I am in LA on my way to Hawaii. Is it true you are having more children? I shall have to refer to you as super sperm!’ the sender wrote, signing off ‘Gx’.
In reply, Andrew wrote: ‘No I am not having any more children and don’t believe everything you read in the papers!
‘Sarah said that she’d like to have another child if she could and if too old might adopt one instead, in answer to a throw away question in a week long trek around Sierra Leone a couple of weeks ago that appeared in the Observer Magazine this weekend.
‘In fact a very good article considering the difficulty factor of the journalist! What are you going to do to help me then? Masses of love A xxx.’
In 2005 Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20 year jail term in the US for sex trafficking associated with Epstein, received an email from ‘The Invisible Man’ again dubbing her ‘darling’.
‘Darling Oops!’ Andrew wrote. ‘I will be arriving in LA on flight number QF 025 at 1045 on Sunday 2nd October.
‘I am then in your hands (Literally) until Saturday/Sunday, when I have to return to London, either from LA or New York.’
Following further discussion of flight times, Andrew signed off: ‘Let me know if this is OK. Love you A xxx.’
Other exchanges between the pair show how she comforted the former prince after the death of the Queen Mother.
Writing on March 31, 2002, one day after her death, Maxwell affectionately dubbed Andrew ‘sweat [sic] pea’, adding: ‘Sorry you had to rush home, and also under such sad circumstances.’
Andrew has previously denied having a close friendship with Ghislaine Maxwell (pictured)
A picture of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor lying across a row of women in a photo during a black-tie event with Ghislaine Maxwell was released as part of the Epstein files in December
Elsewhere in the files released on Friday, Sarah Ferguson (left) called Epstein the ‘brother I have always wished for’ while Andrew invited him to Buckingham Palace days after the end of the convicted paedophile’s sentence
The following day Andrew replied and promised ‘I will ring you later today to chat’, signing off the email with ‘A’ and three kisses.
Today royal historian Andrew Lownie, author of a bombshell biography of the former Duke and Duchess of York published last year, Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, told the Daily Mail Maxwell and Andrew were ‘lovers’.
‘They were lovers, they had been lovers,’ he said. ‘They have known each other for years. It was a very close relationship.
‘Ghislaine was Epstein’s right-hand woman. She was very, very close to Andrew.
‘She was providing girls for Andrew, in effect, along with Epstein, and she’d done that before.’
Andrew has always denied any wrongdoing in relation to his relationship with Epstein.
Commenting on whether the scope of Andrew and Sarah’s relationship with Epstein is now known, he added: ‘I’m sure there’s worse to come.’
Euan Rellie, a banker who has known Maxwell since university, previously told a documentary how the couple often appeared ‘intimate’, adding they had an ‘easy warmth’ around each other.
‘I got the sense that Prince Andrew and Ghislaine had probably been girlfriend and boyfriend in the past,’ he added during the 2022 ITV documentary.
Former royal protection officer Paul Page also hinted that the relationship between Ghislaine and Maxwell was more than friendly.
Describing how he first met the convicted sex trafficker a quarter of a century ago, he said: ‘I first met Ghislaine Maxwell in 2001. From the way she was allowed to enter and exit the palace at will, we realised and suspected that she may have had an intimate relationship with Prince Andrew.
‘A colleague of mine remembered her coming in four times in one day. She kept coming in and out, in and out.’
Elsewhere in the files, emails show how Andrew invited Jeffrey Epstein to dinner at Buckingham Palace days after his house arrest ended. He promised ‘lots of privacy’ to the paedophile shortly after he was granted his freedom following a conviction for soliciting a minor.
It is not clear if the offer was taken up. But just two days later, the pair were back in email contact, with Epstein asking the then-prince ‘g [Ghislaine Maxwell] is here with me…what are you doing?’
Andrew replied to say he had a ‘lunch with a Saudi Prince and then out to secret intelligence firm’, before telling Epstein: ‘Delighted for you to come here to BP [Buckingham Palace]. Come with whomever and I’ll be here free from 1600ish.’
The exchange came during what must have been one of Epstein’s first sojourns outside the US, having served a 13-month sentence for sex crimes mostly in his Palm Beach mansion following a sweetheart plea deal with prosecutors.
The previous month, Epstein had offered to set up a dinner for Andrew with a ‘clever, beautiful and trustworthy’ 26-year-old Russian woman, saying: ‘She has your email.’
The prince, who would have been 50 at the time, replied that he would be ‘delighted to see her’. And he cheerfully asked the convicted child sex predator, whose house arrest had finished just days earlier: ‘Good to be free?’
There are also new emails relating to Sarah, formerly the Duchess of York, and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie – including pictures of them from Andrew’s electronic Christmas cards.
Several emails refer to the well-chronicled debts of Sarah – who took money from Epstein to help pay them off. One email sent in August 2009 shows her thanking him for being ‘the brother I have always wished for’.
In another email, Ms Ferguson calls Epstein ‘my dear spectacular and special friend’ and ‘a legend’, adding he is the ‘brother I have always wished for’.
