Prince Andrew in touch with Jeffrey Epstein for longer than claimed

The Duke of York told the convicted pedophile they would ‘play some more soon’, two months after he professed to have broken contact.

Emails show Jeffrey Epstein and Prince Andrew were still exchanging messages until at least late February 2011.

The Duke of York told Jeffrey Epstein they would “play some more soon” two months after he claims to have ended contact with the convicted pedophile.

The friends made the arrangement on the day a photograph from 2001 was published showing Andrew with his arm around 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre, who claims to have been sex-trafficked by Epstein.

Andrew, 64, claimed he cut off contact with Epstein in December 2010 after they were pictured walking together in Central Park, New York. The financier was released from prison the previous year after his conviction for soliciting a minor.

Prince Andrew told Emily Maitlis on Newsnight that he had ended contact with Jeffrey Epstein in December 2010. Picture: Mark Harrison/PA/The Times

Emails between Andrew and Epstein handed to a court in London show they were still exchanging messages until at least late February 2011, when the duke wrote: “Keep in close touch and we’ll play some more soon.”

The emails also show that Epstein remained in contact with Lord Mandelson, the new UK ambassador to Washington, until at least August 2012.

Discussions between Andrew and Epstein included exchanges on the day of the publication of a photograph of Andrew, Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell, taken at the socialite’s home in Mayfair, central London.

Epstein killed himself in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking. Maxwell, 63, was jailed for 20 years in 2022 for finding girls for Epstein to abuse.

Virginia Giuffre with Prince Andrew and Ghislaine Maxwell. Picture: US Department of Justice/PA/The Times

Giuffre claims to have been sex-trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein. Picture: Miami Herald/Getty Images/The Times

Andrew paid Giuffre $US16 million $25.7m) in 2022 to settle her civil claim for sex assault without any admission of wrongdoing. He told BBC’s Newsnight in 2019 that he ended contact with Epstein in December 2010.

The emails, according to Bloomberg, are disclosed in a filing by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is defending an appeal by Jes Staley, the former boss of Barclays bank, to the Upper Tribunal.

Staley, 68, was fined £1.8 million ($3.6m) and banned from holding a senior management position in financial services in 2023 for making two misleading statements about his relationship with Epstein and their last contact.

The FCA said Staley assured the regulator in 2018 that he “did not have a close relationship” with Epstein when emails showed he described the financier as one of his “deepest” and “most cherished” friends.

The regulator claims Staley said he ceased contact with Epstein “well before he joined Barclays” when he in fact remained in contact in the days leading up to his announcement of his appointment in October 2015.

Jes Staley was fined £1.8 million ($3.6m) over misleading statements about his relationship with Epstein. Picture: Bloomberg/Getty Images/The Times

Email exchanges show Epstein invited Andrew out with Staley, then a senior executive at JP Morgan bank, in June 2010, writing: “He told me he ran into you tonight.” He referred to them being joined by “Vera”, whom he described as “my future ex-wife”.

Andrew replied that he had previously met Staley in Harry’s Bar in Mayfair and sent a later message saying he was having “dinner with Jes tomorrow evening”.

On February 27, 2011, Epstein emailed Andrew: “jes staley will be in London on next tue afternoon, if you have time”. Andrew responded to clarify the date and, after a discussion the next day about the media coverage, added: “keep in close touch and we’ll play some more soon”.

In July 2012, Ian Osborne, who ran a public relations consultancy, sent Epstein an email entitled “Project Jes” in apparent reference to lobbying for Staley to become Barclays chief executive.

He wrote: “I propose to call my longtime friend … George Osborne’s chief of staff to say that Jes is in the running – and would make the best pick for the job.” Osborne was the chancellor at the time.

In August 2012, Mandelson, a former Labour business, trade and Northern Ireland secretary, sent Staley a note entitled “CityUK and the future of the financial sector”.

He had sent the note to the incoming chairman of the financial services trade body CityUK, now Lord Grimstone of Boscobel, who went on to become a Tory trade minister.

A JP Morgan report to a court in America in 2019 recorded that the men had a long-term friendship. “Jeffrey Epstein appears to maintain a particularly close relationship with Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, and Lord Peter Mandelson, a senior member of the British government,” it said.

Emails from Epstein suggested Mandelson spent the weekend at his Manhattan townhouse while he was still in jail in 2009.

The Times