Prince Andrew QUITS royal duties: Duke ‘steps back for foreseeable future’ with Queen’s permission in wake of Jeffrey Epstein row and pledges to help police inquiries
- Prince admits that his friendship with Epstein has become a distraction
- He says that he is now willing to assist any law enforcement agencies
- Follows his disastrous Newsnight interview on friendship with Epstein
The Queen has given permission for the Duke of York to ‘step back from public duties for the foreseeable future’ amid criticism over his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the duke said in a statement.
Prince Andrew this evening issued a statement saying it had become clear to him that his friendship with the billionaire paedophile had caused ‘major disruption’ to the Royal Family’s work.
He also said that he is willing to help ‘any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations’ into the sex offender, who killed himself in prison while facing sex trafficking charges.
Pictured: Andrew leaves Buckingham Palace after spending the afternoon there behind a desk on Tuesday – the first time he had been seen since his BBC interview
It comes after the Duke was today seen for the first time since his disastrous BBC Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis on Saturday about Epstein which caused a furious public backlash.
He was forced to cancel a visit to the flood-hit towns of Fishlake and Stainforth, near Doncaster, South Yorkshire, yesterday. A source said his trip – which was not publicised in advance – was scrapped as a result of the fall-out.
Prince Andrew (pictured during his interview with Emily Maitlis on the BBC’s Newsnight) is facing a furious backlash over his relationship with Epstein
The Duke had told Maitlis in his appearance that he did not have sex with Virginia Roberts, who says she slept with him when she was 17.
Ms Roberts, now Mrs Giuffre, was trafficked by Epstein and picture shows the prince stood with her in 2001.
Prince Andrew told Maitlis he had met Epstein through the since-disgraced financier’s girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, ‘back in 1999’, and it has been suggested that it is her London house in which he was pictured with Roberts.
But a letter written to The Times newspaper in March 2011 by the Duke’s then-private secretary Alastair Watson suggests he may have met Epstein years earlier.
Major Watson, who spent nine years in the role of Andrew’s private secretary, was writing to the newspaper countering claims the duke was friends with Saif Gaddafi.
But, in a now key passage, he wrote: ‘There has been widespread comment on the duke’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
‘The duke has known Mr Epstein since being introduced to him in the early 1990s. The insinuations and innuendos that have been made in relation to the duke are without foundation.’
Five multi-million pound businesses have cut ties with Prince Andrew’s Dragons’ Den-inspired charity and three more are now considering dumping the crisis-hit Royal since the interview aired.