Business as Usual: Prince Andrew Emerges From Hiding to Attend Royal Christmas Party Amid 'Groping' Scandal

Prince Andrew arrived at King Charles III's annual Windsor Castle Christmas party for the royal family on Wednesday, December 20. This is amid the ongoing controversy that he allegedly "groped" Johanna Sjoberg at Jeffrey Epstein's New York mansion in March 2001.

The Duke of York has denied the allegations, but this has done little to sidetrack his seemingly endless tsunami of negative press attention since Virginia Giuffre accused him of sexual assault in 2019. Giuffre was one of Epstein's "s-- slaves," procured by his imprisoned associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Although the disgraced Duke reached a financial settlement with Giuffre in early 2022, U.S. Judge Loretta Preska has now ordered that Sjoberg's court files be unsealed for public view after the new year.

Some 150 other people mentioned in the documents will also be identified when the papers are revealed. Anyone wishing not to be publicly named has less than two weeks to appeal to the court. These individuals are reported to be associates of the deceased pedophile, abuse victims, some of Epstein's former employees, and others connected to the case.

Prince Andrew was friends with Epstein from roughly 1999 until 2011, which is when he allegedly severed all ties with the financier as his role as a trade envoy for Britain came to an end. However, the eighth in line to the throne's claims about the friendship timeline have come into question recently.

In a notorious 2019 interview with Emily Maitlis of BBC's Newsnight, the prince stated, "I ceased contact with him after I was aware that he was under investigation, and that was later in 2006, and I wasn't in touch with him again until 2010," before Maitlis then asked, "So no contact?" The Duke replied: "No contact. 2010 was it. That was it."

Emails released earlier this year provided further details about Prince Andrew's supposed meetings and communications later in 2011 as well. This alone proves that the beleaguered prince has something more to hide about his full relationship with the convicted child abuser.

After the documents went public, an Epstein victim told an outlet, "He [Prince Andrew] needs to talk once and for all to the FBI, as he has been asked to. There are people still who have not been brought to justice who aided Jeffrey. We will never give up."

It remains to be seen what, if anything, will become of Sjoberg's claims against the prince. Although there has been a weak push to try and rehabilitate his public image recently, Andrew will likely always remain on the outskirts of the royal family when it comes to public representation.

The Daily Mirror reported on Andrew's Christmas outing.