{"id":742629,"date":"2026-02-04T21:52:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T21:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/742629\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T21:52:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T21:52:17","slug":"disaster-for-royal-family-as-andrew-faces-police-review-calls-to-testify","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/742629\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Disaster’ for royal family as Andrew faces police review, calls to testify"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vice president J.D. Vance this week joined the call f<\/a>rom British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to testify before the U.S. Congress about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the U.K.\u2019s leading opposition politician has said that an announced \u201cpolice review\u201d of the disgraced former prince, and the ongoing controversy surrounding him, is turning into \u201ca disaster\u201d<\/a> for the British royal family, led by King Charles III.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, for the royal family, what started off as an embarrassment is rapidly turning into a disaster,\u201d said Nigel Farage, the right-wing politician and leader of the Reform UK party who is known as a supporter of the monarchy.<\/p>\n

Farage\u2019s comments to The Telegraph<\/a> came in response to news from The Guardian<\/a> Monday that U.K. police were reviewing fresh allegations that Epstein sent a young Russian woman to the U.K. in 2010 to have sex with Andrew at his longtime home, the Royal Lodge mansion, near Windsor Castle.<\/p>\n

\"LONDON,LONDON, ENGLAND – FEBRUARY 01: In this photo illustration, the front page of The Sunday Telegraph newspaper with an image of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is seen on February 01, 2026 in London, England. Three million new documents were released by the United States Department of Justice under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole\/Getty Images)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Farage said the U.S. Justice Department\u2019s latest release of information about Andrew\u2019s association with the late alleged sex trafficker, via the so-called Epstein files, is becoming \u201cthe biggest scandal to engulf the royals since 1936.\u201d In referring to the abdication of King Edward VIII marry Wallis Simpson, Farage said the situation with Andrew has become \u201cvery, very serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an apparent response to the growing scandal, Charles ordered Andrew to leave his Royal Lodge home<\/a> on Monday night, weeks or months ahead of schedule, according to the Guardian, the Daily Mail<\/a> and other outlets.<\/p>\n

Back in October, Charles ruled that Andrew had to give up Royal Lodge, while also stripping him of his royal titles, including his title of prince. But Andrew was allowed to stay at Royal Lodge, near Windsor Castle, until a new home could be prepared for him on the king\u2019s private Sandringham estate in Norfolk.<\/p>\n

That is until Monday night. A royal source told the Daily Mail t<\/a>hat the regular sightings of Andrew at Windsor Great Park, \u201criding his horse or driving in his car past photographers in Windsor, amid the continued dripping poison of the Epstein files\u201d became too much for the king.<\/p>\n

The pressure on the king to take a hardline position on Andrew is growing from his own government, with the prime minister saying last week that Andrew should agree to testify before U.S. legislators, who have been investigating Epstein\u2019s alleged sex trafficking operation and its links to powerful people in government and business.<\/p>\n

Starmer said Andrew would be failing Epstein\u2019s victims if he did not share information about the late financier, who died by reported suicide in 2019. This week, Vance president voiced his agreement, telling the Daily Mail that he was \u201copen\u201d to the idea of Andrew testifying, though the vice president also said the decision would ultimately be down to congressional Republicans, the Times UK reported.<\/a><\/p>\n

A growing number of royal insiders and prominent royal supporters agree that Andrew\u2019s Epstein crisis puts the king in a difficult position. They also have expressed fear that the crisis could strike an existential blow to the monarchy\u2019s reputation and to its centuries-long ability to command public loyalty.<\/p>\n

\"Britain'sBritain’s King Charles III holds a candle as he attends an Advent Service at Westminster Abbey, in London, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (Chris Jackson\/Pool Photo via AP)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs time passes and more revelations (about Andrew) emerge, none of which have been seriously investigated, the king looks weaker and weaker,\u201d said Richard Eden, a columnist for the pro-monarchy Daily Mail. In a video statement,<\/a> Eden pointed to reports saying that Charles only decided to strip Andrew of his prince title and evict him from Royal Lodge following pressure from Prince William, his son and heir.<\/p>\n

Eden said Andrew should be expected to offer a full public account \u201cof all his dealings\u201d with Epstein,\u00a0 who has been accused by U.S. prosecutors of trafficking underaged girls and woman to his friends and business associates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that (Andrew) hasn\u2019t done this already is a national disgrace,\u201d Eden said. Andrew also should be expected to cooperate with law enforcement in the U.K. and in the United States. While a source told the Times that the king cannot compel his brother to testify, as he is now classified as \u201ca private individual,\u201d Eden was among those who said the king still needs to take more decisive action against his brother.<\/p>\n

Eden suggested that Charles go so far as to \u201ccut him off.\u00a0The time has come absolutely and entirely.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t clear if Eden means that Charles should tell Andrew he also can\u2019t live on Sandringham, as planned. But Eden said the king should make sure that Andrew no longer receives any kind of taxpayer-funded benefits, including for security, housing or living expenses.<\/p>\n

\"VirginiaVirginia Roberts Giuffre, with a photo of herself as a teen, when she says she was abused by Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Prince Andrew, among others. (Emily Michot\/Miami Herald\/TNS)\u00a0Emily Michot \u2014 Miami Herald\/TNS<\/p>\n

The columnist also called on London\u2019s Metropolitan police to reopen their investigation into allegations that Andrew asked one of his police protection officers to dig up potentially damaging background information on Virginia Giuffre. The American woman, who died by suicide last year, became one of Epstein\u2019s most well-known trafficking victims after she publicly accused Andrew of forcing her to have sex with him in 2001, at the direction of Epstein and his convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.<\/p>\n

The police force looking into Andrew\u2019s alleged sexual encounter with the Russian woman in 2010 are the Thames Valley police, who have jurisdiction over Windsor, the location of Royal Lodge, The Guardian reported. The newly released Epstein documents suggest that Epstein set up Andrew\u2019s date with the unnamed Russian woman, around the same time that the financier was finishing up his house arrest in Florida, following a 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are aware of reports about a woman said to have been taken to an address in Windsor in 2010 for sexual purposes,\u201d a Thames Valley police spokesperson said. \u201cWe are assessing the information in line with our established procedures. We take any reports of sexual crimes extremely seriously and encourage anyone with information to come forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spokesperson cautioned that a review of the case doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that a criminal investigation will take place.<\/p>\n

The woman said she spent the night at Royal Lodge, then received tea and a tour of Buckingham Palace, according to her American attorney, Brad Edwards, according to The Guardian. The attorney said his firm was considering filing a civil lawsuit against Andrew on the woman\u2019s behalf.\u00a0 Another attorney with the firm also said they would like to hear from Andrew.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the royal family to maintain any level of credibility in the eyes of the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein, the legal team for the king should contact me immediately in a good faith effort to learn what Andrew has done, meet whomever he has done it to, issue a sincere and real apology, and ensure that any victims of Andrew are fairly compensated for this wrongdoing,\u201d the second attorney, Brittany Henderson, said, according to The Guardian.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vice president J.D. Vance this week joined the call from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":742630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7708],"tags":[4080,30688,23900,77,2843,12,5105,7710,519,448,6417,23902,263],"class_list":["post-742629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-royals","tag-celebrities","tag-celebrity-alert","tag-coffee-break","tag-entertainment","tag-latest-headlines","tag-news","tag-royal","tag-royal-families","tag-royal-family","tag-royals","tag-things-to-do","tag-tv-streaming","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116014582663650211","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=742629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/742630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}