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Convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein called Prince Andrew ‘an idiot’ behind his back but was keen to exploit the Duke’s status for his own financial gain, royal biographer Tina Brown has claimed.
Tina Brown, who was Vanity Fair’s editor-in-chief in the 1990s and moved on to edit the Daily Beast up until 2013, writes in her upcoming book The Palace Papers, that Epstein boasted about using Prince Andrew for his connections to negotiate his own deals with ‘shady’ foreign players.
In an excerpt from her book shared with The Telegraph, Brown recalled how Epstein felt that a ‘senior royal, even if tainted, is always a potent magnet abroad’, and said Andrew was ‘useful’.
She claimed that in return, Esptein made ‘oversexed’ Andrew feel like he’d made it in the big league.
Tina Brown, who was Vanity Fair’s editor-in-chief in the 1990s and moved on to edit the Daily Beast up until 2013, writes in her upcoming book on the royals, the Palace Paper, that the Duke of York, 62, failed to endear himself even to the disgraced financier (pictured in 2011)
‘Privately, Epstein told people that Andrew was an idiot, but – to him – a useful one. A senior royal, even if tainted, is always a potent magnet abroad,’ Tina wrote in the book.
She claimed Epstein would fly Andrew to meet governments in ‘obscure foreign markets’ who could not refuse to see him because he was a royal, and would come along with him as an ‘investment adviser’ to His Royal Highness.
He then would negotiate deals for his personal gain.
Brown said Epstein knew which buttons to push to ensnare Prince Andrew, who felt stung from being second fiddle to Prince Charles and relied on his mother to fund his lifestyle.
Brown claimed Andrew, seen in 2020 is a sex-obsessed teenager who once spent two days watching porn while staying on the estate of the US ambassador to the UK Walter Annenberg
The author and journalist also claimed Andrew was made to feel important by Epstein thanks to ‘the deals, the girls, the plane, the glittering New York world, where he wasn’t seen as a full-grown man still dependent on his mother’s Privy Purse strings.’
Brown described Andrew as being like a sex-obsessed teenager and claimed a source told her the Duke of York disgusted the wife of the US Ambassador to the UK Walter Annenberg when spent two days watching porn on cable while visiting their Californian estate in 1993.
Epstein was arrested on charges of sex trafficking in July 2019 and took his own life in prison a month later.
Dozens of women have come forward with allegations that Epstein sexually assaulted them with the help of convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell when they were teenagers.
Andrew was friend with convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell and got her into prized event, including Royal Ascot’s Ladies Day in 2000, pictured
Andrew’s reputation has been left in ruins after he paid ‘sex slave’ Virginia Roberts Giuffre a reported £12million to settle allegations of sexual abuse out of court – allegations that he always denied.
It comes amid reports that the Duke still has ambitions of returning to public life even after the furious fallout from his remarkable stunt at Prince Philip’s memorial and his £12million rape case payout to accuser Virginia Roberts, it has been claimed.
Sources close to the disgraced duke have insisted last night that he ‘still has a lot to give to people who will let him’ despite sparking a massive backlash when he escorted his mother the Queen at Prince Philip’s memorial service at Westminster Abbey last month.
The duke sparked yet more controversy days by issuing a now-deleted 700-word statement about the Falklands War that was signed off as ‘HRH’, despite Buckingham Palace saying he would no longer use the title.
Aides told The Times that the duke was taken aback by the level of hostility to the post, and is now trying to carve out a new role in public life once again in the belief he still has more to offer.
‘He [Andrew] is clearly in an awful place. If you read it (the Instagram post), it was incredibly personal, and incredibly thoughtful’, a source close to the Duke of York said.
‘Even the reaction to that…here he was as a veteran sharing something deeply personal on this important anniversary – it was surprising that it couldn’t be read as what it was.
‘There are rightfully some questions of him but there is rarely a balanced judgment of him in the media. He has a lot to give to people who will let him give.’
However, another royal insider says the duke’s potential comeback is not likely given Prince Charles’ stance, who is ‘less sympathetic’ to circumstances regarding his role in the public eye.
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