Prince Andrew arrested on birthday over Epstein files

2026-02-19 - 12:27

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former prince and brother of King Charles, was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office following new revelations about him in the Epstein files release, BBC reported. Earlier Thursday morning, police officers had raided his home in East England. Files released by the US Justice Department showed that Andrew had passed classified government documents to Epstein during the years he served as the UK's Trade Envoy, including reports from diplomatic tours and confidential summaries of investment opportunities. British media reported that six patrol cars and roughly eight plainclothes officers were seen arriving at his home on Thursday morning. The local police confirmed in an official statement that they had arrested a man in his 60s on suspicion of misconduct in public office, but declined to name him explicitly, citing British law. British media noted that the arrest took place on Andrew's 66th birthday. A decade-long connection Andrew's ties to Jeffrey Epstein had begun to emerge publicly in the previous decade, when it became known that he had continued to meet the convicted sex offender even after Epstein's first conviction. This undated photo at an undisclosed location released by the US Justice Department on January 30, 2026 as part of the Jeffrey Epstein files shows British former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor kneeling over a woman lying on the floor (Photo: US DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE / AFP) AFP In 2022, Andrew reached a settlement with Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein's victims, in a civil lawsuit. Giuffre claimed she had been forced to have sex with Andrew on three occasions. Andrew denied the allegations but reportedly paid her around $12 million to settle the case out of court. Giuffre died by suicide in April 2025, but a posthumous autobiography titled "Nobody's Girl" reignited the scandal. In the book, she described being introduced to Andrew in 2001, when she was 17, and how he guessed her age himself. "My daughters are a little younger than you," she quoted him as saying. In other passages of the book, she described three encounters with Andrew. "He was friendly, but there was still a sense of entitlement about him, as if he believed that having sex with me was his birthright," she wrote. In November 2025, King Charles stripped him of all his royal titles, including the title of Prince, and demanded that he vacate his royal residence. According to British media, as long as Queen Elizabeth had been alive, she had prevented any damage to his standing. Since then, Andrew has lived at Sandringham (a royal estate in Norfolk, East England), where his arrest was carried out on Thursday morning.