‘Epstein claimed Andrew was even kinkier than him’: Andrew Lownie on the book that rocked the royal family

On 19 February this year, the world watched with bated breath as the man formerly known as Prince Andrew was arrested by Thames Valley police officers – on his birthday, of all days. But one man saw the events unfold knowing much more about Andrew’s downfall than almost anyone else in Britain: Andrew Lownie, the author of Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, which has been described as the “most devastating royal biography ever written”. Lownie knew, for example, that in this era of his life, Andrew hardly ever got dressed before midday. So the appearance of the fallen prince in a suit and tie first thing in the morning made Lownie fairly sure that Andrew had been tipped off about his arrest.

This is just one example of the wealth of information about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor that Lownie revealed in Entitled, which was published last August and recently came out in paperback.  

Lownie has also revealed that Mountbatten-Windsor’s relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was longer, closer and more significant than previously reported. For good measure, he also discovered an unsettlingly close relationship between Sarah Ferguson and another convicted sex offender, Sean Combs, aka P Diddy. 

Mountbatten-Winsor has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, as has Ferguson.

Entitled is the third in Lownie’s series of royal biographies, all focused on royal marriages. The first, The Mountbattens: Their Lives and Loves, explored the complicated open marriage between Lord Mountbatten and his wife Edwina. The second in the series, Traitor King: The Scandalous Exile of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, which takes the reader behind the scenes of what is often seen as the great love story that resulted in Edward’s abdication,  reveals a tale of extensive Nazi sympathies and a codependent and tumultuous relationship.

Lownie began his career as a journalist and historian, and since 1988 has run his own literary agency.  As one of the few reporters who got a front-row seat to the federal trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s confidante, in 2021, I was asked to interview Andrew for this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival. This is an edited version of that talk.

The book started off being the third in a trinity of books on royal marriages, all of them answering a central question about the marriage itself. But this one developed into what it is because, well, I kind of knew that Andrew was a bad’un. I'd heard stories. I was in the same year as him at school, and I used to hear stories about him way back in the 1970s. Eventually I thought, you know, what we're seeing about “Randy Andy” and “Air Miles Andy” isn’t the whole story. And I thought there was a really big story there about his time as a trade envoy, and how he abused that position. And I've always been fascinated by his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, who presents herself as a labrador, who is actually a rottweiler. And so the book grew out of that.

I actually had a meeting with Sarah Ferguson on the day that Andrew settled with Virginia Giuffre. I said: this is your opportunity to shape the narrative, get your friends to talk to me. And she went away and thought about it. And she then decided not only would she not talk to me, she called all her friends not to talk to me. They started sending me threatening legal letters, saying she was reading my social media, etcetera. And they said “don’t go out for walks on dark nights”, and that kind of thing. So that was a problem. 

And I think I had the same problem with Andrew. There has been a huge cover-up of the story. Andrew didn’t operate alone. There were people who were arranging this: there were diplomats who were fixing meetings for him and his businessman buddies, including Jeffrey Epstein. There was pressure being put on people not to come forward. One of my sources said that she had tried to get people to talk to me in light of the book coming out, and she said “these people will not talk to you because they've had letters reminding them about their pensions”. I’ve seen letters to protection officers warning them about their obligations of confidentiality. And so this story is being shut down. It was covered up: the royal family has known about Andrew's activities for 20 years.

The thing we have to remember is, without Virginia, none of this would have ever come out. We have to pay tribute to her. And there was a huge campaign against her. While Andrew was very popularly saying “I can't remember who this woman is”, he was also hiring a PR firm to try and discredit her. And that campaign goes on, and it’s partly paid for by the Maxwell family.

That £12m came partly from Prince Philip, partly from Charles, and partly from the Queen. And it was hush money. It was all about shutting this story down. They knew that once the story came out, there was a lot more that could come out. Funnily enough, I was watching The Godfather when I was writing this book, and there are an awful lot of parallels, shall I say.

All these relationships were completely transactional. They were using each other. Epstein was using Fergie to get to Andrew, to get to the royal family, and to raise his credibility: the more photos of him at Balmoral, the easier it was for him to do dodgy deals with people. And then, of course, there were the young girls. And, I mean, one of the things I found most extraordinary was Epstein claiming that Andrew was even kinkier than him.

I am a little despondent. I think this is going to be kicked into the long grass, and nothing is going to happen. I think there is a danger that the police are going to come forward and say “we can't get girls to come forward and give testimony, so it’s too difficult to prosecute”. That, I think, is a likely outcome. Another likely outcome is that if charges are brought, Andrew will be on the first plane to Dubai. I don't think he's going to stand trial. 

For example, Andrew has been travelling a lot lately. This doesn't suggest that he thinks he's going to be housed at His Majesty's pleasure – not just in Sandringham, but in Belmarsh. So I'm not very hopeful. There is, I think, a real suspicion in this country that there is a law for the rich and powerful and law for everyone else.

But there is some evidence that one of the police forces is taking this quite seriously. I know they’ve been speaking to people, so that is a good sign.

I think it will be hard for the police unless whistleblowers come forward with information, perhaps in return for their own plea deals. I think Fergie is a good candidate for that.

Yes, I have. Once I was coming back from a book festival and the driver asked what I was speaking about, and I said Prince Andrew, and he said: “Well, I was in [Russian special operations unit] Spetsnaz, and we would have killed you.” And I said: “Well, how would you have done that?” He said: “We would have bundled you in the street and used a ring we have which can give you an innocent-looking heart attack.” So if I have a heart attack in the street in the next few weeks …

And frankly, if I was Fergie, I’d also be worried about someone coming up to me in the street with a ring.

No, I'm afraid not. The royal plan is always too little, too late. They go through the motions, they say “well, we voluntarily pay tax”. But we don't know what they pay tax on, we don't know what the expenses were, what they're claiming. It's all window-dressing. And everyone says that William will be great and that he's going to be transparent. But I don't think we're going to have any more openness. He's very controlling and very secretive, I think – more so than his father.

Entitled: The Rise & Fall of the House of York by Andrew Lownie is published by William Collins, £10.99. To buy Entitled at a discount price go to the Nerve Bookshop.

The Lasting Harm by Lucia Osborne-Crowley is published in paperback by Fourth Estate and is available to buy here.