Timeline: How Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor fell from grace over his ties to Epstein

By CNN Newsource

Published February 19, 2026 10:34 AM

By Christian Edwards, CNN

London (CNN) — The arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on his 66th birthday is the latest development in the yearslong controversy over his ties to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Here’s how Andrew’s fall from grace unfolded:

2011: After a decade serving as trade envoy, tasked with promoting British business interests abroad, Buckingham Palace confirmed that Andrew would step down from the role. Mountbatten-Windsor, then the Duke of York, had come under severe criticism due to his friendship with Epstein, who had been convicted in 2008 for soliciting prostitution from a minor.
2015: Virginia Giuffre, a prominent accuser of Epstein, said in papers filed for a civil case in Florida that she was forced to have sex with Mountbatten-Windsor three times, including when she was 17. Andrew has always vehemently denied claims of wrongdoing.
2019: Mountbatten-Windsor agreed to a long, sit-down interview with BBC Newsnight about his ties to Epstein. He said he traveled to New York in 2010 to end his friendship with the financier. Asked why that led to him staying at Epstein’s mansion for several days, Andrew said “it was a convenient place to stay,” and that he thought speaking with Epstein in person was “the honorable and right thing to do.” He also said he had “no recollection of ever meeting” Giuffre and suggested that a photo from 2001 showing himself and Giuffre in Ghislaine Maxwell’s house may have been faked.
2022: Giuffre sued Mountbatten-Windsor in a New York court in 2021, accusing him of sexual assault. Despite claiming never to have met her, the royal reportedly paid millions of dollars to Giuffre in 2022 to settle the case, without admitting responsibility for any wrongdoing.
April 2025: Giuffre died by suicide.
October 2025: King Charles III stripped his younger brother of his title as prince, following public outcry over claims made by Giuffre in her posthumous memoir. Prince Andrew became Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and Charles also began the process of evicting him from the royal estate at Windsor.
January 2026: The US Department of Justice released a trove of documents related to its investigation, including photos that appeared to show Mountbatten-Windsor kneeling over a woman or girl lying on the floor. Other documents raised further questions about Mountbatten-Windsor’s dealings with the financier while he was a trade envoy.
February 2026: The royal was arrested Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office. He was later released from custody “under investigation,” police said in a statement.

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