Prince Andrew is ‘terrified’ of another round of humiliation after The Daily Beast began to publish some of Michael Wolff’s Jeffrey Epstein tapes. Sources close to the disgraced prince fear his friendship with the dead pedophile could once again be thrust into the spotlight.
A friend of Andrew’s told the Daily Beast: “The duke is, quite frankly, terrified that the whole matter of his friendship with Epstein is going to be excavated once again in these new tapes. He has had to get used to living under the Sword of Damocles, and it is not a very comfortable existence. These endless threats lurk in the shadows and occasionally, like now, they break the surface.
“He feels he has been very clear about his friendship with Epstein, he has apologized for it, he is ashamed of it, he has lost everything as a result of it.
“He is not a man inclined to self-pity but you could forgive him for wondering, having given up all his royal titles and privileges, when he will be allowed to get on with living his own life.”
In a bombshell recordings obtained exclusively by the Daily Beast this weekend, Epstein described himself as Donald Trump’s “closest friend” and claimed the first time Trump slept with his now-wife Melania “was on my plane.” The private jet was dubbed the Lolita Express.
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Wolff has also said that Epstein showed him photos of Trump with topless young women sitting in his lap.
Epstein spoke with Wolff in August 2017 as the author researched his book Fire and Fury. Two years later Epstein would be found dead in his jail cell.
Trump’s camp dismissed the tapes as “false smears” and “election interference.”
Wolff has said he has around 100 hours of Epstein recordings.
The royal historian Andrew Lownie, who is writing a biography of Prince Andrew, told The Daily Beast: “It was always rumored that Epstein collected kompromat on his ‘friends,’ and many people suspect the FBI is now sitting on it.
“You have to ask yourself, why would Epstein talk to Michael Wolff on tape? He must have always known eventually these tapes would come out. These tapes could, therefore, be seen as his insurance policy from beyond the grave in the event that the kompromat got suppressed.
“If he did talk about Andrew on the tapes, they clearly have the potential to do him grave damage.
“Andrew’s number one problem has always been his association with Epstein and it continues to be his association with Epstein.
“It is a problem for Charles too. There has always been a very real fear at the highest levels of the family that there is more to come in relation to Andrew and Epstein. It may well inform why Charles is being so tough on him and has now cut off his financial support completely.”
Lownie has spoken to people who say they saw Andrew on Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean and at his homes in Palm Beach and New York. He says,; “Andrew was very close to Epstein. We have the corroboratio of witnesses of flight logs and photographs. The revelation of the existence of these tapes will be a very worrying development for the royal family.”
A friend of the king’s told the Daily Beast: “Andrew is a private citizen and has no official role in the royal family, so what Jeffrey Epstein may or may not have said about him is irrelevant to the monarchy.”
A friend of Sarah Ferguson’s said the duchess and her children found it “incredibly hard and unfair” that Andrew was still being “harassed by the media” over “unfounded allegations from long ago.”
The friend told the Beast: “He and Sarah are quite happy to pay their own way at Royal Lodge. Andrew is getting on with his life. They just want to be allowed to do so.”
Another friend of Andrew’s said: “I’m sure it’s unwelcome but he has no choice but to keep calm and carry on. The shooting season has just started so he will be busy shooting and socializing for the next few months. People have been making up stories about the royals since the beginning of history and his friends know that. He has always insisted he never met Virginia Giuffre and certainly never had sex with her. Nothing has changed.”
A spokesperson for the king did not comment. Prince Andrew no longer has formal press representation but his attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
Editor’s note: The Daily Beast’s Chief Content Officer Joanna Coles holds an investment in Kaleidoscope, the maker of the Fire and Fury podcast.
