Prince Andrew and the Jeffrey Epstein scandal: The photograph that brought down Andrew, prince of sleaze

The photo that did more than anything else to bring down Andrew, the man eighth in line to the British throne, was organised by his victim.

On the morning of March 10, 2001, Virginia Giuffre was woken up by Ghislaine Maxwell, who had startling news. It was going to be her Cinderella day. She would meet a prince.

The promise was true. That evening, at Maxwell’s London home, the trim and 41-year-old Duke of York arrived, a man known by the British tabloids as Randy Andy.

“Guess Jenna’s age,” a flirtatious Maxwell asked.

Andrew guessed correctly. Giuffre, a pretty, working-class American, was 17.

“My daughters are just a little younger than you,” the prince told her.

Giuffre had been a sexual plaything for Maxwell and her friend, Jeffrey Epstein, for about a year. They had abused her themselves, and rented her out to their circle of powerful friends.

Never offered up to anyone so famous, Giuffre was awestruck. “As we chatted in Maxwell’s entryway,” she wrote later, “I suddenly thought of something: my mom would never forgive me if I met someone as famous as Prince Andrew and didn’t pose for a picture.”

She grabbed a camera from her room and asked Epstein to take a photo. Andrew wrapped an arm around her waist, holding her close, while Maxwell grinned in the background.

That night Giuffre made them a bath in which they had intercourse, she said. “He was friendly enough, but still entitled – as if he believed having sex with me was his birthright,” Giuffre wrote in Nobody’s Girl, her autobiography.

That photograph, republished around the world thousands of times, became the most compelling documentary evidence that Andrew received sexual favours that were paid for by Epstein.

Denials

Andrew maintains to this day that he did not have sex with the teenager from Florida, an assertion that even his older brother appears not to believe. The decision, exacted Thursday, to take away Andrew’s royal titles is a quasi-expulsion from the royal family.

Now known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, he becomes the only close relative of King Charles who is a commoner. The Sun newspaper dubbed him “the Andrew formerly known as prince”.

The demotion was formalised by his removal overnight from the “Roll of the Peerage”, an official, 185-page list of the British nobility.

The Giuffre family was certain about who was responsible. “Today, an ordinary American girl from an ordinary American family brought down a British prince with her truth and extraordinary courage,” they said.

“Virginia Roberts Giuffre, our sister, a child when she was sexually assaulted by Andrew, never stopped fighting for accountability for what had happened to her and countless other survivors like her.

“Today, she declares a victory. We, her family, along with her survivor sisters, continue Virginia’s battle and will not rest until the same accountability applies to all of her abusers and abetters, connected to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.”

For the critics — never quoted by name — who said Giuffre was a voluntary participant in high-paid sex work trying to cash in on her famous clients, the devastating consequence of the abuse of her teenage self was demonstrated, tragically, when she killed herself in Western Australia six months ago aged 41.

Board and rent

The posthumous publication of her gritty memoir added to pressure on the palace to take firmer action against Andrew, who had opted out of his titles but not formally renounced them.

Some lawyers said an act of parliament would be required to formalise the shift. Such a step would have been unseemly, to the royal family, because it would have given politicians a direct role in what they considered an internal matter.

Another option for Charles was to terminate Andrew’s lease over the Royal Lodge, a mansion in the grounds of Windsor Castle, and allow him to keep his titles. But the British royal family is nothing if not sensitive to public opinion, knowing their power, prestige and wealth depends on the willingness of the British people to permit it to continue.

Republicanism is on the rise, driven by immigration, changing social attitudes and self-serving royal behaviour. Two years ago a poll found 54 per cent of Britons felt it was “very” or “quite important” to have a monarchy, down from 86 per cent in 1983.

In an era acutely conscious of class and race, it was obvious that no behaviour more epitomises white male privilege than a prince who has sex with teenagers paid for by rich friends.

It did not have to end like this. In 2008, Epstein was convicted of soliciting a minor for prostitution. He was released from jail in 2009 and visited by Andrew in New York the following year. At that meeting, Andrew cut off ties, he said.

The statement was untrue. In 2011, the Giuffre-Andrew-Maxwell photo was published — presumably leaked by Giuffre — triggering media scrutiny about Andrew’s relationship with Epstein. In an email at the time, revealed by the British press three weeks ago, Andrew wrote to Epstein “we are in this together”.

‘We’re sorry’

The palace, one of the most conservative institutions in Britain, felt it could no longer stand by a family member who aligned himself with a sexual predator who has come to represent the apotheosis of elite amorality.

The statement announcing Andrew’s denouement on Friday morning Australian time concluded with a kind of apology.

“Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse,” it said.

That was not enough for Giuffre’s brother, Sky Roberts. Andrew should be “behind bars”, he told the BBC.

The only bars Andrew will stand behind will be ones that serve alcohol.

With few or no legitimate means of income available, Andrew will rely on his brother for board. The King has allocated him a living allowance and residence at Sandringham estate, a 155-year-old country mansion on 25 hectares of immaculately cultivated gardens and forests in Norfolk.

Andrew’s exile was greeted by Australian monarchists with sad resilience.

“Through his own stupid foolishness, he is now a broken man,” the Australian Monarchist League wrote in a lengthy statement. “The Crown, itself, is untarnished and will continue on protecting the constitutional rights of the Australian people.”

Has the Australian republican cause been advanced by turmoil in London? The Republican Movement, rejected by a referendum-shy Anthony Albanese, sees glimmers of hope.

“I think this momentous week might change things,” author Peter FitzSimons wrote on X. “The British monarchy is collapsing before our eyes - highlighting the ludicrous of Australia clinging on to it.”

Could one woman — or one photo — end a system of government? Stranger things have happened.