LONDON, U.K.: After the release of the latest tranche of emails in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation by the U.S., the former Prince Andrew shifted out of the Royal Lodge, his longtime home, and moved to the king's Sandringham estate in eastern England.
The 65-year-old brother of King Charles III, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, will live temporarily at Wood Farm Cottage while his permanent home on the estate undergoes repairs.
The quick departure happened after Thames Valley Police said they were looking into claims that Epstein flew another woman to Britain to have sex with Mountbatten-Windsor. A lawyer for the woman told the BBC that the meeting took place in 2010 at Royal Lodge.
These claims are separate from those made by Virginia Giuffre, who said she was trafficked to Britain to have sex with Andrew in 2001 when she was 17. Giuffre died by suicide last year. Mountbatten-Windsor has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing related to his ties to Epstein and has not publicly addressed the new allegation.
Mountbatten-Windsor's name appears many times in the three million pages of documents released by the U.S. Justice Department late last week. In a March 23, 2011, email, a lawyer for an exotic dancer said she alleged Epstein and Mountbatten-Windsor asked her to join them in a threesome at Epstein's Florida home.
The woman's lawyers alleged the two men pushed her into sexual acts in early 2006 after first hiring her to dance. She was paid $2,000 instead of the $10,000 she says she was promised. Her lawyer offered to settle the case privately for $250,000, claiming that she had not spoken earlier because she felt ashamed and said she was treated like a prostitute, not a dancer.
Other emails between Epstein and someone believed to be Mountbatten-Windsor show Epstein offering to set him up with a 26-year-old Russian woman. The man, signing only as "A," later suggested having dinner in London, either at a restaurant or Buckingham Palace.
The documents do not prove wrongdoing by the people named and often just show how wide Epstein's social circle was.
Mountbatten-Windsor's home at Royal Lodge has long caused tension between him and the king. After Charles became king in 2022, he tried to move his brother to a smaller house on the Windsor estate, but Mountbatten-Windsor refused, saying he had a lease until 2078.
In October, pressure grew for him to leave as lawmakers and the public questioned the favorable lease terms for the 30-room property managed by the Crown Estate. The Crown Estate manages properties across the country for the benefit of taxpayers, while the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk is the king's private property.
