Andrew Allegedly Planning His Escape To Another Country As US Congress Pressure Grows
With US investigators circling and experts warning he’s a flight risk, the disgraced royal is said to be eyeing a UAE refuge where scrutiny won’t follow.
Andrew Mountbatten Windsor may be inching toward what looks like the final act in a long, messy downfall, not in a courtroom, or in prison, but seemingly on an airplane. As scrutiny around his links to Jeffrey Epstein intensifies, the disgraced royal is said to be weighing an escape that takes him far from the UK and even farther from the reach of investigators. The plan, according to well-placed insiders, involves using friendly ties in Abu Dhabi, UAE to quietly replant himself in a corner of the world where society doesn’t ask too many questions, and extradition treaties don’t work quite as briskly as they do in London or Washington.
The renewed pressure comes after a fresh tranche of Epstein correspondence confirmed that the now-infamous photo of Mountbatten Windsor and Virginia Giuffre is genuine, extinguishing yet another of his long-standing denials. In his Newsnight 2019 interview, he had claimed that he had no recollection of ever meeting Giuffre and questioned the authenticity of the photograph. But this development has not only re-energised American interest in questioning him but also prompted the US Congress to formally request that he appear before them. Whether he ever would is now an open question. In a recently released 2011 email, he wrote to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell: “I can’t take any more of this,” as he pleaded with them to publicly clarify the allegations against him as false.
Andrew Lownie, author of Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, has been blunt about the stakes, as per the Mirror, calling Mountbatten Windsor a 'flight risk' and warning that he could “avoid any possible legal charges by going to the Middle East like King Juan Carlos.” His view is, “This new information dump is the nail in the coffin for Prince Andrew… Andrew needs to be investigated as a flight risk, and his passport should be surrendered.”
The idea that Mountbatten Windsor might find a soft landing in Abu Dhabi is not outlandish. The region’s tightly managed press environment and its deferential approach to social hierarchies would suit him perfectly. Lownie says, “He would be happy living somewhere where the media is muzzled, where he will still be treated as a senior royal, and where he can easily live under the radar.”
Mountbatten Windsor has visited Abu Dhabi for years, often with his daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, so it would not come as a surprise. He’s now said to be considering a $13.15 million USD villa inside the fortified estate of Abu Dhabi’s ruling family. The former Prince has been friends with Sheikh Mohamed for many years, and began visiting Abu Dhabi when he was the UK's Special Representative for International Trade and Investment from 2001.
If he does make the move, he would hardly be the only fallen royal finding refuge under warmer skies. Even Sarah Ferguson is rumoured to be considering a shift to Portugal, with one source saying, “Put it this way, the invitations have dried up overnight.”
