Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor ‘had consensual sex’ with Virginia Giuffre, an unredacted email to Jeffrey Epstein has said.
The paedophile financier did not correct a journalist who stated it as a fact that the former Duke of York slept with the trafficking victim, who took her own life last year.
Epstein was warned that he needed to distance himself from the then Duke of York because he ‘had consensual sex’ with Virginia, an email said.
Andrew has vehemently denied sleeping with Ms Giuffre – and insisted he could not recall meeting her – but paid her $12million to settle her sexual assault lawsuit in 2022.
A private email between Epstein and a journalist contains the first written corroboration that Andrew had sex with Virginia, then known by her maiden name Roberts. Details of her death have also emerged in the files today.
Epstein did not deny the claim in an exchange on January 16 2015 where he moaned to New York Times reporter Landon Thomas Jr that his reputation had ‘taken a hit’ following Ms Giuffre’s claim in Florida court filings that she was trafficked by him for sex with Andrew in the early 2000s, when she was 17.
Two weeks earlier, on January 3 2015, Buckingham Palace had issued an unprecedented statement that ’emphatically denied that the Duke of York had any form of sexual contact or relationship with Virginia Roberts’.
But Thomas Jr advised Epstein to undermine Andrew and confirm publicly that he had sex with Virginia Giuffre, then Virginia Roberts, because the royal was ‘keeping the story alive’.
He said: ‘I think the big issue is separating yourself from Andrew.
‘I mean in the end he had consensual sex with VR. And VR worked for you. The rest is atmospherics. You have moved on! People don’t know that and cant accept that unless you say as much’.
Andrew had sex with Virginia Giuffre, an email exchange between a reporter and Jeffrey Epstein said
New York Times journalist advised Epstein to separate himself from Andrew. ”I mean in the end he had consensual sex with VR. And VR worked for you. The rest is atmospherics’, he said, with Virginia, referred to as VR: Virginia Roberts, her maiden name when she worked for Epstein. Epstein listed 8 reasons why he was not guilty of sex trafficking
Epstein, pictured in the Epstein Files, conceded his reputation had taken a bashing after Virginia’s lawsuit
Thomas Jr had said: ‘I mean I can see why a statement might help in some way — but its [sic] Andrew (not Clinton and the rest) that is keeping the story alive’.
Epstein did not respond to his advice or his claim that Andrew had consensual sex with Virginia – and instead made a point about the currency markets.
Weeks earlier, in a December 2014 Florida court filing, Ms Giuffre described being trafficked to Andrew for sex by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at least three times in 2001 when she was 17.
The convicted sex offender conceded to Thomas Jr that his ‘reputation has admittedly taken a hit’.
He then said that he had kept quiet to protect an unnamed girlfriend who he had ‘tried to keep her out of my mess’ – but suggested that he was considering a statement.
Epstein then listed eight reasons why claims he was a sex trafficker were false, adding that it was ‘crazy’ to suggest he would ever ask for ‘underage’ girls.
He said: ‘I was never alone at the house. staff, friends etc., no girl ever complained, not once’.
Details of the tragic death of Virginia Giuffre are also in the Epstein Files
Epstein said that people who worked for him had massaged men and women, but never sexually, and they also worked for him answering phones and serving coffee.
The email exchange between the two men first emerged in December 2025, however, names were blanked out.
But an unredacted version naming Virginia Roberts, referred to as VR, has now been found in the latest tranche of 3million Epstein Files just released by the Department of Justice in the United States.
Landon Thomas Jr no longer works for the New York Times.
The Epstein Files suggest that he had warned Epstein when other journalists were ‘digging around’ for stories on him, including John Connolly, who released the book Filthy Rich in 2016.
He claimed to Epstein that he told people that he was ‘a hell of a guy’.
But he left the NYT after it was claimed he had asked Epstein to make a $30,000 charitable donation to a Harlem cultural centre in 2017.
It came as a leading lawyer warned that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor could face prosecution for a ‘great many’ sexual offences because of the Epstein Files including sex trafficking, sexual exploitation and even prostitution.
Police are yet to turn up in Sandringham where the former prince is in hiding.
Marcus Johnstone, a leading criminal defence lawyer specialising in sex crime, claims the former prince may now be investigated over allegations he allowed sex trafficking victims into Buckingham Palace.
Police will be looking for evidence proving Andrew ‘knowingly facilitated their exploitation’, he said.
Detectives could also investigate Andrew for the offence of misconduct in public office when he was a UK trade envoy.
Files reveal he passed on a confidential Treasury briefing on Iceland’s financial crisis and also forwarded messages about taxpayer-owned Royal Bank of Scotland. The King’s brother even allowed Epstein to organise meetings for him during an official trade mission to China.
There are now claims a woman who could have been a trafficking victim was flown in on Jeffrey Epstein‘s ‘Lolita Express’ and smuggled into the Palace to see Andrew using the codename ‘Mrs Windsor’.
Mr Johnstone said: ‘Andrew could technically face action for a great many alleged sexual offences, including sex trafficking, sexual exploitation or even prostitution legislation – though much of this depends on what he knew and what can be proven he knew beyond all reasonable doubt.
‘It may not even be beyond the realms of possibility that a Royal Palace was used as a brothel, but proving this is a much more challenging task entirely’.
Epstein’s Boeing 727–100 private jet, which he used to host orgies and traffic girls, landed around 90 times in the UK – including after his conviction for child sex offences in 2008, the Epstein Files reveal.
At least one Epstein victim was allegedly flown into Britain on board and then taken to Andrew at Buckingham Palace. The disgraced former Duke of York allegedly told aides: ‘Mrs Windsor will arrive shortly, please let her in and show her up’ while a former police protection officer said they were ‘not allowed’ to know their names.
Mr Johnston, MD for PCD Solicitors, told the Daily Mail: ‘Questions must certainly be asked as to what he knew of the status of many of the women he allegedly hosted at parties and on his property, ferried on some 90 flights to the UK – but criminal action would require the collaboration of the alleged victims, and proof that Andrew knowingly facilitated their exploitation’.
Andrew features a number of times in the Epstein files, including images apparently showing him crouching over an unidentified woman in what appears to be Epstein’s New York mansion
He added: ‘If Andrew were to face criminal prosecution, then it is my view that this would most likely take place in the United States. The American authorities could make a normal extradition request via the Home Office, and Andrew would be compelled to travel to the U.S. if this were approved by an English court.
‘However the English court would have to be satisfied that the alleged offence is also a crime in this country – and Andrew’s lawyers would undoubtedly argue that it would be effectively impossible to face a fair trial in an American court, considering the severity of ongoing media attention.
‘If further disclosures are made by [Ghislaine] Maxwell or any alleged victims of the “Lolita Express”, then that might tip the balance and a prosecution is not off the cards’.
Andrew has denied wrongdoing in relation to allegations of sexual misconduct.
Dame Maggie Oliver, a former detective who helped expose the Rochdale grooming scandal, has joined those calling for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to be interviewed over the true extent of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
She told the Daily Mail that Andrew should not be protected from the law because of his royal status.
King Charles said last week he is ‘ready to support’ police as they consider allegations against his brother – but officers are still yet to question Andrew.
Charles’ good friend, the broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby, has claimed that the monarch ‘would very much like’ his brother to testify before the US Congress, adding that Charles will be ‘appalled’ by the allegations Andrew faces.
‘I would strongly believe, I can’t say with 100 per cent certainty, but I strongly believe that he would very much like him to stand up and testify, but knows to stand up and say that is a hiding to nothing,’ Mr Dimbleby told BBC Newsnight.
Detectives could also investigate Andrew for the offence of misconduct in public office over allegations he forwarded confidential reports while representing the Government abroad.
Emails show that the King’s brother allowed Epstein to organise meetings for him during an official trade mission to China.
Photographs also show him socialising with a Chinese model during the 2010 trip.
Files reveal that earlier that year he passed on a confidential Treasury briefing on Iceland’s financial crisis to a banker friend. He also forwarded messages about taxpayer-owned Royal Bank of Scotland to his adviser David Stern, who sent them on to Epstein.
Andrew even tried to arrange a meeting with Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi for Epstein, at the sex offender’s request, although it did not go ahead.
Police chiefs are already assessing claims that a woman was sent to the UK for a sexual encounter with him at his Windsor home by his close friend Epstein.
Adding to the pressure, the country’s top prosecutor said on Sunday that the 65-year-old former Duke of York was not ‘above the law’.
Andrew’s time as a trade envoy should be investigated for possible corruption, a former business secretary has said today.
Documents released by the US Department of Justice appeared to show the former prince sharing confidential reports from his role as the UK’s trade envoy with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Sir Vince Cable, whose time as business secretary between 2010 and 2015 overlapped with Andrew’s envoy role, said the activity was ‘totally unacceptable’.
He also told the BBC: ‘We need a police or DPP (director of public prosecutions) check on whether criminal corruption took place and a government investigation into how this was allowed to happen.’
