Leaked 2011 Email Reveals Prince Andrew Told Epstein, 'We Are In This Together'
Trigger Warning: This article contains themes of sexual abuse that some readers may find distressing.
Prince Andrew’s past continues to haunt him. Scandal, it seems, has a permanent forwarding address at the House of York. Just days after the Duchess of York’s email was unearthed, in which she described the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein as her ‘supreme friend’, a new leaked email has also dragged the Duke into the headlines. The 2011 email contradicts Andrew's on-camera claim that he had long severed contact with Epstein.
The unearthed correspondence, published by The Sun on Sunday, reveals that Andrew reached out to Epstein on February 28, 2011, the day after a now-infamous photograph was made public — the Duke with his arm around a teenage Virginia Giuffre, alongside Ghislaine Maxwell. In the email, Andrew reportedly wrote, “I’m just as concerned for you! Don’t worry about me! It would seem we are in this together and will have to rise above it. Otherwise, keep in close touch and we’ll play some more soon!!!!”
Signed off as 'A, HRH The Duke of York, KG,' the email suggests that the friendship between the two men was not as decisively ended as Andrew had previously claimed. In his 2019 Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis, the Duke insisted he had broken off ties with Epstein after visiting him in New York in December 2010 — a meeting he famously described as an act of ‘honor’ to formally end their association. As one source aptly put it to The Sun, the message 'piles further pressure' on a royal still struggling to regain public trust.
The email had first surfaced in January this year, in court filings related to the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) investigation into former Barclays Chief Executive Jes Staley. The regulator alleged that Staley gave a misleading account of his relationship with Epstein. At the time, the email excerpt mentioned only a “member of the royal family” and not Andrew by name.
For the monarchy, the timing is less than ideal. The King’s younger brother has spent years in exile (almost), stripped of royal duties and facing widespread public disapproval. A YouGov poll this summer showed 67 per cent of respondents supporting the removal of his remaining titles, including the Duke of York. Legally, such a move would require parliamentary action, a mechanism that does exist, though rarely used. It was last invoked during World War I, when peers who sided with Germany were stripped of their honors.
For now, Andrew remains a Knight of the Garter, one of the country’s oldest and most prestigious orders. While he is excluded from public ceremonies, the title itself has not been revoked. Historically, removing a knight from the order involved a formal process known as 'degradation,' a ritual last used in the 18th century. More recently, figures like Benito Mussolini, Robert Mugabe, and Nicolae Ceaușescu were quietly erased from honor rolls.
Still, Buckingham Palace has tended to prefer solutions to its more awkward problems. When questions arose about Andrew’s position as Counsellor of State, which technically allows him to stand in for the monarch, the Palace didn’t remove him outright. Instead, new counsellors were added in 2022, ensuring his services would never be required.
If you are being subjected to sexual abuse, or know of anyone who is, please call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800.656.HOPE (4673)