When it was announced Andrew Mountbatten Windsor would be stripped of his prince title and ordered to move out of the Royal Lodge on Thursday, it marked his latest low point after more than a decade-long fall from grace.

Andrew, 65, has faced a tsunami of allegations in recent weeks over his time as a government trade envoy, his dealings with alleged Chinese spies, and of course the fallout over his friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

From the first publication of a photograph of Andrew with Virginia Giuffre by the Mail in 2011, to her suicide aged 41 earlier this year and the publication of her memoir, it’s a story that the former Duke of York, and the whole family, have been unable to shift.

And perhaps most damaging have been the revelations in recent weeks revealing the extent of Andrew’s, and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson’s, relationship with the disgraced financier, which went on longer than was ever admitted.

If Andrew had hoped to put an end to the allegations with his disastrous interview with then-Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis, his claims of being in a Pizza Express in Woking and having a medical condition that left him unable to sweat only increased scrutiny. 

His denials of being a ‘party prince’ and insistence his friendship with Epstein had had ‘seriously beneficial outcomes’, did not exactly help matters. 

And with new emails surfacing in which he told Epstein they were ‘in it together’ months after he told Maitlis he had ended all contact, and claims he tried to have a member of his security team dig up dirt on Ms Giuffre in 2011, the public perception has only worsened.

Andrew denies all Ms Giuffre’s allegations against him. 

Here the Mail examines some of the car-crash moments from the sit-down interview that still haunt him six years later – and why they appear even worse in 2025. 

If Andrew had hoped to put an end to the allegations with his interview with then-Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis, his claims of being in a Pizza Express in Woking and having a medical condition that left him unable to sweat only increased scrutiny

Andrew, Virginia Giuffre and sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell in a photo reportedly taken in 2001, when Giuffre was 17 years old

Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson now face having to move out of Royal Lodge (pictured) in Windsor 

King Charles, pictured at his Sandringham Estate in Norfolk today, after it was announced Andrew would lose the remainder of his titles

Andrew describes ‘seriously beneficial’ friendship with ‘unbecoming’ Epstein

Andrew was shockingly unapologetic about his friendship with convicted paedophile Epstein when pushed by Maitlis, refusing to say he had any ‘regrets’ or ‘guilt’ over it.

To the journalist’s shock, he described the billionaire as having engaged in ‘unbecoming’ behaviour, prompting her to respond: ‘Unbecoming? He was a sex offender.’ 

Andrew said: ‘As far as Mr Epstein is concerned it was the wrong decision to go and see him in 2010. 

‘As far as my association with him was concerned it had some seriously beneficial outcomes in areas that have nothing to do with what we are talking about today. 

‘Do I regret the fact that he has quite obviously conducted himself in a manner unbecoming? Yes.’

After Maitlis challenged him on his description of Epstein, he continued: ‘I’m sorry I’m being polite, in the sense that he was a sex offender. 

‘But no, was I right in having him as a friend, at the time, and bearing in mind this was some years before he was accused of being a sex offender?

‘I don’t think there was anything wrong then. The problem was the fact that once he had been convicted, I stayed with him. 

‘That’s the bit as it were I kick myself for on a daily basis, because it was not something that was becoming for a member of the royal family.’

He added he did not regret the friendship because ‘the people that I met and the opportunities that I was given to learn, either by him or because of him, were actually very useful.’

‘I don’t know why I’m labelled a party prince’

In the interview, Prince Andrew (right) told Emily Maitlis (left) that describing him as a ‘party prince’ was a ‘bit of a stetch’

Virginia Giuffre claimed Andrew and Epstein were both involved in an orgy on Epstein’s Caribbean island of Little St James (pictured), known as ‘Paedo Island’, in 2001 

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Early in the Newsnight interview Andrew denied ever being a ‘party prince’, as Maitlis said he used to be known.

He told the BBC journalist the label was ‘a bit of a stretch’, adding: ‘I don’t know why I’ve collected that title because I don’t, I never have really partied. 

‘I was single for quite a long time in the early 80s but then after I got married I was very happy and I’ve never really felt the need to go and party.

‘And certainly going to Jeffrey’s was not about partying, absolutely not.’ 

The exchange is rather awkward for the former Duke of York given allegations in recent weeks that paint quite the different picture. 

Virginia Roberts claimed in her memoir, published last month posthumously, that she had been forced to have sex with Andrew three times, once as part of an orgy with ‘approximately eight other young girls’.

She wrote: ‘It was not just the two of us this time; it was an orgy. The other girls all seemed and appeared to be under the age of 18, and didn’t really speak English. Epstein laughed about how they couldn’t really communicate, saying they are the easiest girls to get along with.’

She claimed Andrew and Epstein were both involved in the encounter on Epstein’s Caribbean island of Little St James, known as ‘Paedo Island’, in 2001. 

It was also said this week that Andrew had 40 prostitutes brought to him on a tax-payer funded trip to Thailand over just four days, while staying in a five-star hotel.

Royal historian and biographer Andrew Lownie made the claim in his recent book on Andrew, Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, where he described the royal as using similar trips to ‘line his pockets’ and ‘chase women’. Andrew was acting in his role as an official government trade envoy at the time. 

Epstein was just a ‘plus one’ to friend Ghislaine Maxwell, Andrew says

Prince Andrew told Maitlis he was not a ‘close’ friend of Epstein, who he described as a ‘plus one’ of his friend Ghislaine Maxwell

Elsewhere in the interview, Andrew sought to defend his friendship with Epstein by claiming he was not a ‘close friend’, and was actually just a ‘plus one’.

He told Maitlis he had been friends with Epstein’s girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently languishing in a US prison for her role in procuring young girls for the convicted paedophile, since she attended university in the UK.

Andrew said: ‘Remember that it was his girlfriend that was the key element in this. He [Epstein] was the, as it were, plus one to some extent.’

He even rejected claims that he had invited Epstein to a ‘birthday party’ for Maxwell, rebutting Maitlis by saying: ‘Birthday party? No, it was a shooting weekend. 

‘Just a straightforward shooting weekend.’

Andrew also said: ‘We weren’t that close… yes I would go and stay in his house, but that was because of his girlfriend, not because of him.’

Maitlis also pressed the former Duke about why he invited Epstein to his daughter Princess Beatrice’s birthday party at Sandringham in 2010, after a warrant had been issued for his arrest over allegations he had sexually assaulted a minor.

‘Because I was asking Ghislaine,’ Andrew said. ‘But even so at the time I wasn’t aware when the invitation was issued what was going on in the United States, and I wasn’t aware until the media picked up on it because he never said anything about it.’

Andrew rejected claims that he had invited Epstein to a ‘birthday party’ for Maxwell during the interview (pictured), describing it instead as a ‘straightforward shooting weekend’

He added that ‘at the time there was no indication to me or anybody else’ that Epstein was trafficking young girls for sex.

His characterisation of his friendship with the paedophile has been called into question in recent weeks, after it emerged that he stayed in touch with Epstein after he told Maitlis he had broken things off.

In an astonishing message some 12 weeks after supposedly breaking off their friendship, days after the Mail published a photograph of Andrew with Ms Giuffre as a teenager in 2011, he told Epstein ‘we are in this together’. This came after Epstein had served time in prison for sex crimes against a young girl.

He added he was ‘concerned’ about the impact this newspaper’s revelations would have on his friend, but reassured the vile billionaire that the pair would ‘rise above’ press scrutiny.

To add more embarrassment to the family, a separate email sent by Sarah Ferguson in 2011, revealed in September, described Epstein as a ‘supreme friend’.

I stayed at Epstein’s ‘railway station’ house for ‘convenience’, Andrew claims

Addressing backlash over his decision to stay at Epstein’s townhouse in New York for four days in 2010, after the paedophile had served time in prison for sex offences, Andrew claimed he only did so because it was ‘convenient’.

The royal told Maitlis he had visited Epstein to break off their friendship, but stayed at the property and even attended a dinner party with him and other guests while in the city. 

Emails since show that Andrew actually had contact with Epstein after the trip, despite him telling her it was the last time he saw or spoke to him. 

‘It was a convenient palace to stay,’ Andrew said.

Addressing backlash over his decision to stay at Epstein’s townhouse in New York for four days in 2010, Andrew said it was ‘convenient’ and he only visited to break off their friendship (Pictured: Andrew and Epstein in Central Park in December 2010)

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‘I’ve gone through this in my mind so many times. At the end of the day with the benefit of all the hindsight one could have, it was definitely the wrong thing to do.

‘But at the time I felt it was the honourable and right thing to do and I admit fully that my judgment was probably coloured by my tendency to be too honourable.’

He described Epstein’s property as a ‘railway station’ due to the number of people coming and going, and claimed he didn’t notice streams of young women who were said to have entered while he was there due to his time at Buckingham Palace.

‘There were people coming in and out of that house all the time,’ he said. ‘What they were doing and why they were there I had nothing to do with.’ 

Andrew added: ‘I live in an institution of Buckingham Palace that has members of staff walking around all the time and I don’t wish to appear grand but there were a lot of people that were walking around Jeffrey Epstein’s house. 

‘As far as I was aware they were staff, they were people that were working for him.’

Epstein scandal a ‘constant sore’ but ‘only damages me’ 

During the 2019 interview Andrew described the scandal surrounding his friendship with Epstein as a ‘constant sore’ but denied it had any repercussions on the wider royal family

King Charles was heckled about his younger brother’s relationship with Epstein during a visit to Lichfield Cathedral this week 

During the 2019 interview Andrew described the scandal surrounding his friendship with Epstein as a ‘constant sore’ but denied it had any repercussions on the wider royal family.

His statement appears devastatingly naive in the light of recent revelations, which have distracted from the work of the monarch, led to very public heckles and even brought the late Queen’s unblemished legacy into some disrepute.

Queen Elizabeth II has been accused of having gone too easy on her favoured son amid the allegations from Virginia Giuffre, and it is understood she funded a rumoured £12 million settlement paid to her in 2022. The deal did not see Andrew admit to any wrongdoing.

But three years before the settlement was finalised, Andrew told Maitlis of the scandal: ‘I don’t believe it’s been damaging to the Queen at all. It has to me.’

Describing the impact on his immediate family, he said: ‘It has been what I would describe as a constant sore in the family. 

‘We all knew him and I think that if we have a conversation about it we are all left with the same thing of what on earth happened.. and so it’s just a constant gnaw.’

That’s something he and his elder brother King Charles III can certainly agree on.

The constant headlines in recent weeks has left the monarch playing second fiddle to his sibling, and the historic trip made by the King and Queen to pray with the Pope in Italy last week was all but obscured by yet more damaging revelations. 

More concerning to the King, however, would have been the clear turning of the public mood against Andrew.

On Monday, Charles, 78, was visiting Lichfield Cathedral in Staffordshire when a man loudly, and very publicly, interrogated the monarch about Andrew’s links with Epstein.

As the King walked past, the demonstrator yelled: ‘How long have you known about Andrew and Epstein? 

‘Have you asked the police to cover up for Andrew? Should MPs be allowed to debate the royals in the House of Commons?’

The royal family will no doubt be hoping that the removal of Andrew’s last titles and privileges will avoid such scenes in the future.