Name: UK: Former Prince Andrew arrested following Epstein-related misconduct probe
Uploaded: 2026-02-20T23:02:23.000Z
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Returning to our breaking news now from the United Kingdom, Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, the younger brother of the British King, has been arrested by police on suspicion of misconduct whilst in public office.

We understand several police officers arrived at his residence earlier this morning.

For more on this developing story, we're going to go now to Milena Versilanovic who joins us from London.

And can I ask you what is the background to this story about the reports the police have arrested Andrew Mountbatten Windsor?

Well, we know that the police were investigating the former Prince Andrew, now known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, on allegations of misconduct in public office.

Allegations that he had forwarded confidential information that he obtained as part of his job as Britain's trade envoy, was onto the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

And we also know that a number of police forces around the UK were investigating Andrew for a number of allegations as well.

Now, he was arrested around 8 o' clock this morning and it all goes back to his handling of these confidential memos.

In the latest release of information from the US authorities, it is shown that Andrew, as part of his job as Britain's trade envoy, would receive reports, and

some of them confidential, about the visits and the trips that he would undertake in his official capacity that he would then forward onto Jeffrey Epstein.

And one of those emails clearly shows the word confidential within it, Andrew himself saying to Jeffrey Epstein that he wanted to hear his views about the investment opportunities in Helmand province in Afghanistan, that at the time the UK taxpayers were funding the reconstruction of.

And within this email it says that it is a confidential memo.

Now all of that came out in that latest batch of emails released by the US Department of Justice.

And we've even heard from the UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer this morning when he was questioned about it, saying that no one is above the law.

And we also know the UK's National Crime Agency is involved in this.

But this is such an unprecedented action and move former Prince who was at one time the late Queen's favorite child, who held a number of high profile roles within the British establishment, who gradually has had this descent this fall from grace because of his associations with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Now he has been stripped of his royal titles by his older brother King Charles last year and he's also been forced to move out of his former grace and favor home on the Windsor Estate, the Royal Lodge to Sandringham, which is one another of the King's properties.

Understand this morning, and this is yet another blow to really the branding of the monarchy.

Now, it's important to say that the King and the Queen had released a statement just last week saying that if asked, they will cooperate with the police on this investigation, referring to Andrew simply as Mr.

Really trying to put some distance there between him and the rest of the Royal family.

But truly, this is an unprecedented move in modern British history.

And we are reaching out to Buckingham palace for more comment.

Yeah, Melania, you've got to think at some point they may be forced to make some comment.

This is, of course, important for our viewers who've been following this story.

There have been a number of discoveries with the release of those documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein.

And as an important distinction, there have been a number of allegations about sex trafficking of young women and abuse of young women, and

that former Prince Andrew, Andrew Mountbatten Windsor was involved with Jeffrey Epstein in a very personal friendship capacity.

But these allegations specifically relate to that trade envoy role and the business dealings and the communications that appear to have been passed on, sometimes within minutes, wasn't it from his staff member to Jeffrey Epstein over a number of years?

And certainly it raises questions when Andrew Mountbatten Windsor has made claims about when his relationship or friendship with Epstein was or was not present, about whether that was an accurate representation of his friendship with him.

Indeed, I mean, I think it's important to say that Andrew Mountbatten Windsor has in the past denied all allegations.

But it is also clear from this release of this latest batch of documents that a lot of the things that he'd been saying about when he cut off contact with Jeffrey Epstein simply weren't true.

He said that he had last spoken to Jeffrey Epstein when he went to visit him in New York in 2010.

This was after Jeffrey Epstein's conviction on child sex offenses that he'd gone there to break off relations.

But with this latest batch of emails, it's clear that he stayed in very close and intimate contact with him for much, much longer.

In fact, there are damning emails that show that within days of Jeffrey Epstein being released from custody, Andrew emailed him saying congratulations, saying he wants, wanted to celebrate his new life with him, even asking, what is freedom like?

Now, that goes absolutely against everything that Andrew had been saying in public in terms of the nature of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

And of course, there had been a number of allegations from the late Virginia Giuffre, who said that she had been trafficked to, to Prince Andrew, then known as Prince on three occasions, allegations that he had denied.

But he did settle a large civil suit with her to the tune of about £10 million, which is something like 13, $14 million without admitting liability.

And there was also some questions there about who paid for that.

So this is certainly a criminal case for Andrew to answer.

But there are also wider questions for the Royal Family because this association of Andrew Mountbatten Windsor with Jeffrey Epstein, it was happening while he was a prince.

It was happening while he had an official role within the UK government as Britain's trade envoy.

There were news articles about it for a number of years, for the last 15 years at least.

And for from the majority of that time, Andrew was embraced as part of the Royal Family, undergoing official duties.

And it's only in the last year or so that really the Royal Family have made a concerted effort to distance themselves from him, saying that the victims are what matters.

Again, we have to always reiterate that Andrew does deny allegations, but

he has been arrested and there is some evidence certainly that as you said, the confidential information that he would receive from the British government to do with his official business, he would forward on to Jeffrey Epstein literally within minutes of receiving it.

And that is at the moment what the police is looking at in terms of his arrest.

But there are other investigations to do with trafficking of women that are ongoing as well.

In terms of the fallout and the response you referred to the Royal Family and what will happen from here, Malena, because when we look at you mentioned Andrew was once the favourite son.

I don't think there was any secret about that of the Queen and his position in the family was well protected even after these allegations started coming out.

And as you mentioned, the Royal Family itself has only really started to communicate on this issue and these allegations within the last year under King Charles, the statement from October last year saying these censures are deemed necessary, that was the removal of titles and the moving to private accommodation, notwithstanding the fact that Andrew continues to deny the allegations against him.

But you've got to think that as these allegations continue to come out, this has been a very long standing issue now of multiple links to Epstein over a number of years, over a number of issues that the Royal Family is continuing to deal with the fallout, not just with Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, but

And when it comes to her, there is also a number of very embarrassing things that have come out with this release of emails where it does certainly seem like Jeffrey Epstein had been paying off the debts of Andrew's ex wife, Sarah Ferguson.

And it does show that she brought her young daughters, who were teenagers at the time, to Miami to have lunch with Jeffrey Epstein days after he'd been released from custody, serving a sentence on child sex offenses.

And that was also a trip that Jeffrey Epstein paid for himself.

Those are all incredibly embarrassing things to come out for the Royal family and they really are overshadowing everything that they do at the moment.

You know, King Charles is trying to keep the focus on the charitable work that he's doing, but

he has been heckled a number of times during public engagements in the last few weeks, and

People have been shouting, asking, how long have you known about Epstein?

Andrew testified now, he had not responded to that during those particular engagements.

To keep the focus on the good work that the Royal family is doing.

But he does feel like that screen has slightly shattered that kind of mysterious sort of air of mystery that always envelops the Royal family, because we, by the release of these emails, have been able to peer into the dealings of Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, and

a lot of it just simply doesn't look good.

And there have also been allegations that the palace, the King have been quite slow to react to this.

Now, there's been a statement by the King and Queen saying that they will cooperate with the police if they're asked, saying that they always put victims first.

There was also a statement from the Prince and Princess of Wales saying they're really concerned about what they said were continuing revelations about Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, again saying the victims are at the forefront of their minds.

But a lot of people here in the UK were saying, well, that doesn't quite go far enough because these allegations have been around for years.

There was, you know, Virginia Giuffre, the late Virginia Giuffre was very vocal about advocating for herself and the other alleged victims.

And during all that time, we really hadn't had much from the Royal family.

It just feels like now, when the pressure is really at a maximum point, when there are some undeniable things that have come out of this release of documents about Andrew's association with Jeffrey Epstein, about the fact that he lied about not being in contact with him after that meeting he had with him in 2010, now people are asking questions about what did the wider royal family know about it, what did the late Queen know about it?

And these are kind of questions that usually you wouldn't get about The Royal Family, they are held at such a position of deference normally here in the uk, King Charles getting heckled.

Really, this is something that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.

There are calls for them now to be a lot more transparent because they are an institution that does really avoid scrutiny in many ways.

But now, really, people are saying, look, there's been clearly some sort of wrongdoing at the heart of, of the Royal family and we want to know what they knew about Andrew and how much they shielded him in terms of public accountability.

There will obviously be some questions about what happens here for Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.

The police say he is in custody, although they haven't named him.

And as you mentioned, Keir Starmer saying, nobody is above the law this morning, but

he wouldn't say whether the former Prince should volunteer himself to UK police.

Is there a timeframe on how long someone can be held in custody or when?

We may explain an update from either the government or the Met.

Yes, this is the local police at the moment who arrested him.

Usually there is a time frame that people can be held without being charged.

So for this we will have to wait and see.

And I think the government will probably let the police do their job and not make any statements, likely before the police have come out with a charge or not.

We have to simply let the legal process play out.

But what's quite interesting is that we have heard, yes, the Prime Minister talk about this, but