The Image No Royal Wanted To See
The photograph looks like a fever dream from the worst chapter in modern royal history. A man who appears to be Prince Andrew is on all fours over a woman lying flat on the floor, her arms stretched out, her face blurred.
In one frame, he looks straight into the camera. In another, his left hand rests on the woman’s stomach. He is barefoot, dressed casually in jeans and a white polo shirt, a silver watch glinting on his wrist.
The disturbing images are part of a huge new release of Jeffrey Epstein files from the US Department of Justice. For a royal family still desperate to move on, they drag Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor right back into the eye of the scandal.
What the New Epstein Files Reveal
US officials recently released more than three million additional documents tied to the Epstein investigation. Deputy attorney general Todd Blanche said there had been “extensive redactions” across the files.
Those redactions cover personally identifiable details of victims, medical records, any depictions of child sexual abuse material, anything that might jeopardise ongoing investigations, and any images showing death or physical abuse.
Faces of women are blurred, except for convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. The faces of men, however, are not. Which is why the man believed to be Prince Andrew in the floor photographs is clearly visible, even though no time, place, or additional context is provided.
Like much of the material in these releases, the photos appear without explanation. They sit alongside thousands of references to Andrew’s name, and to other powerful figures, including Lord Mandelson and Bill Gates, creating a grim collage of influence, access, and secrecy.
The Floor Photos and a Growing Visual Trail
In the three images at the centre of this latest storm, a man resembling the former Duke of York crouches over the woman, whose arms are stretched out as she lies face up. Another person is visible in the background, lounging in a leopard-print chair with their feet on a table, their blurred face turned away from the camera.
Investigators give no indication of when or where the shots were taken. There is no caption, no explanation, only implication. They join an earlier, already infamous image from the files that appeared to show Andrew lying across the laps of five women at Sandringham.
Alone, each photograph is a frozen moment. Together, they build a powerful and deeply uncomfortable visual record that keeps Andrew tethered to Epstein s world long after the financier s death.
Emails That Undercut Andrew’s Public Story
Alongside the images, the latest file dump includes emails that sit awkwardly beside Andrew’s carefully crafted public narrative.
In his now notorious “Newsnight” interview with Emily Maitlis in November 2019, Andrew insisted that he had travelled to New York in 2010 to end his friendship with Epstein, calling it “the right thing to do” after the financier’s conviction for sex offences.
The newly released correspondence suggests something very different. In one email, sent shortly before they met in New York, Andrew tells Epstein there are “some interesting things to discuss and plot”.
In another, he writes: “See you tomorrow afternoon. Really looking forward to seeing you and spending some time with you after so long.” It sounds like a reunion between old friends, not a final confrontation.
Later, after their contact continued, Andrew sent Epstein a “Happy Christmas” email addressed to “Dear J”, adding that it had been great to spend time with his “US family”. For viewers who watched him insist on television that he was trying to sever ties, the contrast is stark.
The Buckingham Palace Invitation
One of the most explosive revelations in this batch of files is an invitation from Andrew to Epstein to dine at Buckingham Palace shortly after Epstein’s house arrest ended.
According to the documents, Andrew promised Epstein “lots of privacy” at the palace, offering a secluded royal backdrop to the convicted sex offender’s return to social life.
In an email, Epstein writes to the then-prince, referencing Ghislaine Maxwell: “g [Ghislaine Maxwell is here with me…what are you doing?]” Andrew responds with his plans: he has a “lunch with a Saudi Prince and then out to secret intelligence firm”, before adding the offer that now hangs heavily in the files.
“Delighted for you to come here to BP [Buckingham Palace]. Come with whomever, and I’ll be here free from 1600ish,” he wrote.
The exchange appears to have taken place during one of Epstein’s first trips outside the US after serving a 13-month sentence, mostly at his Palm Beach mansion, under a controversial plea deal. Whether the Buckingham Palace dinner actually happened is not clear from the documents.
The Russian Woman Epstein Wanted To Introduce
The emails also capture the tone of casual intimacy between the prince and the disgraced financier.
In one message, Epstein offers to arrange dinner for Andrew with a “clever, beautiful and trustworthy” 26-year-old Russian woman, adding: “She has your email.”
Andrew, who would have been around 50 at the time, replied that he would be “delighted to see her”. He then cheerfully asked Epstein, whose house arrest had ended only days earlier: “Good to be free?”
It is a brief exchange, but in the context of Epstein’s crimes and the later implosion of Andrew’s reputation, it reads like a tiny, damning snapshot of a friendship that continued even after conviction and incarceration.
A Woman Who Says She Refused Him
The files also contain a statement from an unnamed woman, submitted in 2021 to a private investigations team and later passed to Ghislaine Maxwell’s defence lawyers.
“I was only involved with Jeffrey for a year,” she said in the statement, according to the documents.
“I never saw him like a creepy guy. There were never any young girls. I saw Prince Andrew and Donald Trump. [Epstein] wanted me to give Prince Andrew a massage, but I didn’t feel good about that. I wonder if he was offering me to him to do more.”
Her account has not been tested in court, and the files do not record any response from Andrew. The prince has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein and has not been charged with any criminal offence.
The Palace, the Public, and a Prince in Retreat
As these latest documents hit the headlines, photographers captured Andrew behind the wheel on the Windsor Estate, his expression blank as he drove through the grounds. Later, he was seen out horse riding, again appearing impassive in the winter light.
They are quiet images, a world away from the glaring flash of the Epstein files. Yet side by side, they tell a cruel story: a royal trying to maintain some semblance of normal life while the paper trail of his past keeps growing longer.
Andrew has already stepped back from public duties, lost his royal patronages, and watched his standing collapse in the court of public opinion. The monarchy has been working to distance itself from the scandal that engulfed him.
But every new Epstein release pulls the spotlight straight back. A photo here, an email there, a witness statement in a file. Piece by piece, the past refuses to stay buried.
The Shadow That Will Not Lift
For royal watchers, these latest revelations are not entirely surprising. The broad outlines of Andrew’s Epstein connection have been known for years. What shocks now is the texture, the granular detail of the relationship captured in candid photos and casual lines of text.
A man on all fours over a woman on the floor. An invitation that promises “lots of privacy” at Buckingham Palace. A breezy “Good to be free?” to a newly liberated sex offender.
The palace can issue statements, courtiers can plan carefully staged appearances, and Andrew can try to live as quietly as a prince possibly can. Yet as long as the Epstein files keep spilling out their secrets, the shadow cast over his name will only grow sharper, not fade.
