Prince Andrew may have remained in contact with the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein for five years longer than he previously indicated, newly disclosed emails suggest.
In 2019, the Duke of York claimed he had cut ties with Epstein in December 2010 in his now infamous Newsnight interview.
Andrew suggested he had last communicated with the child sex offender while visiting his home in New York. However, emails obtained by The Sunday Times appear to challenge his account.
The emails appeared to show an exchange from 2015 between Epstein and the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak in which the Duke was referred to as a recent contact.
Prince Andrew's claim about cutting ties with Jeffrey Epstein in 2010 has been challenged by newly unveiled emails
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While speaking with Mr Barak, who led Israel between 1999 and 2001, Epstein credited Andrew as a source of information regarding a potential business opportunity in China.
Epstein and Mr Barak had just invested millions in an Israell-based private security start-up, Reporty Homeland Security, and were investigating an expansion to the far east.
“Weathy (sic) Chines (sic) looking for to start personel (sic) protection co in Beijing,” Epstein told his friend and business partner according to the emails seen by the paper.
The financier added that “kidnapping has begun” in the Chinese capital - seemingly referencing an uptick in serious crimes requiring extra security measures.
The emails appear show an exchange between Epstein and former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak
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Mr Barak enquired about the source of the information, asking: “Where did you see it?”
Epstein simply responded: “Andrew”.
Mr Barak asked: “The Prince?”
“Yes,” Epstein said in another one-word answer.
Epstein and Mr Barak were apparently investigating a business venture in China
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GB News has approached representatives of the Duke of York for comment.
In 2023, Mr Barak – who is reported to have visited Epstein around 30 times between 2013 and 2017 – told The Wall Street Journal that Epstein was “a terrible version of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” but said he had never participated in or seen any “inappropriate behaviour".
In his 2019 interview with Emily Maitlis, the Duke was asked: “Was that visit, December of 2010 the only time you saw him after he was convicted?
“Yes, yeah,” he confirmed.
The Duke was credited by Epstein as a source for information on his China venture
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When the journalist rephrased the question, asking if Andrew had “seen or spoke to him again,” Andrew responded: “No.”
After the interview, it emerged that Prince Andrew had shared a conversation with Epstein in 2011, based on emails shared by the Financial Conduct Authority as part of a court case.
A “member of the British Royal Family”, understood to be Andrew, discussed “press articles” with Epstein and said: “Keep in close touch and we’ll play some more soon!!!!”
The batch of emails from 2015, reported by The Times, were initially published by American magazine Reason last week.
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The Duke of York claimed in his 2019 BBC interview that he had cut ties with Epstein in 2010
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The files had reportedly had initially been “quietly posted” online by Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoS), a file sharing site in the style of Wikileaks.
DDoS had acquired more than 100,000 emails, pictures and files from Handala, an apparently pro-Palestine hacking group which has allegedly been linked to Iran.
In their report, The Sunday Times acknowledged that potential tampering of the documents could not be “definitively ruled out”.
However, the paper added it had independently verified the contents of the files, including crosschecked email addresses, phone numbers, home addresses, and found a handwriting match with Mr Barak.