Prince Harry had publicly once talked about the scandal surrounding the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, whose friendship with Prince Andrew has brought fresh torment to the disgraced royal following the unveiling of documents relating to a 2015 lawsuit filed by Virginia Roberts Giuffre.
The Duke of York was accused of rape and sexual abuse by Giuffre in 2021. He has since denied any wrongdoing and settled the case out of court in February 2022. His lawyers insisted that the settlement was in no way an admission of guilt.
However, documents unsealed on Wednesday in New York by Judge Loretta Preska as part of Giuffre's libel suit against Epstein's former lover, Ghislaine Maxwell, shed further evidence against Prince Andrew. Over 900 pages of documents including legal papers, depositions, and emails spanning the 2010s were unsealed.
The filing mentioned an unnamed "Jane Doe 3," widely understood to be Giuffre, being "forced to have sexual relations with this Prince when she was a minor in three separate geographical locations" including at Maxwell's apartment in London, in New York, an on Epstein's private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where an orgy allegedly took place with several other under-aged girls.
She was allegedly told to "give the Prince whatever he demanded" and was required to report back to Epstein details of the sexual abuse. According to the documents, Jane Doe 3 was trafficked to "foreign presidents, a well-known prime minister, and other world leaders".
"The third time I had sex with Andy (Prince Andrew) was in an orgy on Epstein's private island in the US Virgin Islands. I was around 18 at the time. Epstein, Andy, approximately eight other young girls, and I had sex together. The other girls all seemed and appeared to be under the age of 18 and didn't really speak English," Giuffre had revealed in a 2015 filing at a Florida court.
The Duke of York had in the past acknowledged that he visited Epstein in New York, at his island, and at Maxwell's house in London. But he denied having any sexual relations with Giuffre or any women trafficked by Epstein when asked during his 2019 Newsnight interview with BBC journalist Emily Maitlis.
Despite insisting on his innocence, he was still forced to quit public life in 2019 over the scandal brough by his friendship with Epstein. Queen Elizabeth II also ultimately stripped him of his royal patronages and military titles in January 2022.
Regardless of the humiliation he brought upon the royal family, the royals still rallied around Prince Andrew. They still supported him and even welcomed him to last year's annual Christmas walk at Sandringham.
No senior working royal has also publicly commented on his case and his association with Epstein. But Prince Harry had once made a reference to the sexual abuse allegations in his memoir "Spare".
It was discussed in the context of a conversation between him and Meghan Markle about the prospect of them losing their tax-funded security after they left their royal duties in 2020. The Duke of Sussex wrote that this was unlikely given that Prince Andrew got to keep his security after retreating from public life.
He wrote: "He was embroiled in a shameful scandal, accused of the sexual assault of a young woman, and no one had so much as suggested that he lose his security. Whatever grievances people had against us, sex crimes weren't on the list."
King Charles III still stripped Prince Harry and Meghan Markle of their state-funded security in 2020. He also asked them to vacate Frogmore Cottage, their only home in the U.K. As for Prince Andrew, an unnamed source claimed he is "beside himself with this latest development and everyone close to him is concerned for his mental wellbeing". He is reportedly "at a loss, totally tormented" as he starts the New Year with "his name being dragged through the mud all over again" because of his friendship with Epstein.
