Prince calls off golfing holiday to hold crisis meetings with advisers as FBI seizes infamous photo with Epstein ‘sex slave’
Prince Andrew has continued to deny allegations that he had sex with a young woman who claims to have been Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘sex slave’ - but the royals want the noise to stop.
Royals
Don't miss out on the headlines from Royals. Followed categories will be added to My News.
PRINCE Andrew has flown home from a golf holiday for crisis talks with royal advisers about how to deal with continued scrutiny over his relationship with late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and Virginia Roberts, according to The Sun.
His former wife and current companion Sarah Ferguson was also on the private jet flight from Spain as she continues to stand by the Duke of York.
The couple feared that staying on holiday in the light of daily revelations relating to the prince’s relationship with Epstein was becoming a bad look.
A royal source revealed: “Andrew and Fergie flew back together on Wednesday. He knows he has to come back and face the music.
“The optics were not a good look, with so many stories about the Epstein accusers while he was on a sunny golf course in Spain. He’s having a series of talks with advisers this week about how to salvage his reputation going forward.
“Fergie remains entirely committed to him and is proud to stand by her man at one of his darkest hours.”
Andrew and Fergie spent two weeks at a luxury retreat in the Spanish hideaway of Sotogrande, where they have previously holidayed.
She decided to take him away because he was starting to “s*** himself” over the focus on his long-term friendship with Epstein, even after he was first jailed in 2008 for procuring an underage girl for prostitution.
The Duke’s friends are now trying to claim that the notorious photo of him with his arm around Ms Roberts – who says she was forced to sleep with the royal as a teenager – is fake because his hands are chubbier.
She also alleged she slept with Andrew, 59, in New York and the Caribbean after being kept as a “sex slave” by paedophile Epstein.
This week she said the duke knew “exactly what he has done” and urged him to “come clean”.
The Duke has denied any wrongdoing with Roberts and anyone else. Epstein killed himself in jail aged 66 earlier this month.
Meanwhile, it has been revealed that the FBI years ago seized the infamous photo showing Prince Andrew smiling alongside Ms Roberts Giuffre.
The picture, which was taken sometime in early 2001 at Epstein’s gal pal Ghislaine Maxwell’s London home, was among 20 images seized by the feds during an interview with Giuffre in 2011, The Telegraph reported.
The picture is now believed to be part of the criminal probe into Epstein’s co-conspirators and will be scrutinised for authenticity.
“That has to have an explanation,” Giuffre’s lawyer David Boies told Sky News. “He can’t say he didn’t know her. He can’t say he wasn’t friendly with her. I think it’s hard to look at that picture and say that you had no idea that she was young.”
Originally published as Prince calls off golfing holiday to hold crisis meetings with advisers as FBI seizes infamous photo with Epstein ‘sex slave’