Front Burner - Epstein fallout: ex-Prince Andrew arrested

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

On Thursday, former Prince Andrew was arrested by U.K. police.After years of controversy, scandal and allegations of sexual assault, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was taken into custody on suspicion of misconduct in public office.The arrest is related to his decades-long friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, and the former prince is alleged to have sent confidential government documents to the convicted sex offender.Today, Andrew Lownie, a historian and the author of Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, joins the show. We get into the details of the arrest, the long-standing ties between the former prince and Epstein and what recently released documents reveal.

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N-E-T-H-R-I-S dot com. Nethris, much more than just a payroll software. This is a CBC podcast. Hey, everybody, it's Jamie. So today we're talking about the explosive arrest of the former Prince Andrew. Andrew was taken into custody by UK police Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office over allegations that he sent confidential government documents to Jeffrey Epstein. We're going to get into the details of the arrest,

the decades of ties between the disgraced royal and late convicted sex offender, and what has most recently been revealed in the Epstein's, files about their relationship. With us now is Andrew Loney. He is a historian and author of entitled The Rise and Fall of the House of York. Andrew, hi, thanks so much for making the time today. Pleasure. So before we get into everything, you have been covering Prince Andrew, who's now known as just Andrew Mountain Baton, Windsor, and advocating for legal accountability for years, right? So what was your reaction this morning when you saw news of his arrest? Well, surprise and pleasure. I mean, I've been, as you say, calling for this for a long time.

And former head of raw security has been calling for it. But I think the drip-trip feed of the Epstein revelations, I think, was just too much. The case was overwhelming. Public pressure was growing. Anger was growing. And I think the police had to do something. And I think the fact that the king had signalled that he would cooperate with the priest, I think, gave them the sort of go-ahead that they could do this. They've been gathering their information, I think, clearly over some time. But the fact that they've arrested him, questioning him, suggests that they do have a strong case. He's left police custody following this arrest this morning on suspicion of misconduct in public office. The former prince was photographed reclining in the back of a black range rover, which came to collect him, leaving Elsham police station. And that was soon... And certainly, you know, there is a lot of evidence there. To be honest, there's been evidence there for a long time, but no one wanted to go there. Before we get there, I just want to put this to perspective.

A member of the British royal family hasn't been arrested since the 17th century. Yes. How big of a deal is this? It's huge. It's huge. It's uncharted territory. We've never seen this before. You know, particularly a senior royal charge with serious offenses. I mean, Princess Anne is being caught speeding and not controlling her dog. But this is a very different to kettle of fish. I mean, this is really serious.

serious. I think there's a very good chance that he will be charged. Yeah, and I just, you and I are talking at 2.30 p.m. Eastern time, it's evening time where you are. And I don't know if you've seen, but we have just seen photos of Andrew leaving the police station. It's unclear right now whether there are any charges filed. But just on what it is that they're actually investigating, I wonder if you could expand on that for me a little bit here. Well, Ms. Condit and Public Office, basically is about giving away confidential information. So it may be inside a commercial information that's useful. It may be information to do with anything to do with your public office.

And from 2001 to 2011, he was the Special Representative for Trade and Investment, representing the British nation to try and drum up trade. It was an unpaid post, but gave the then-Prince access to high-ranking officials from many countries and highly confidential. Information. Emails released by the US State Department appeared to show Andrew Mountbatten-Winzer passing on information. One seems to show him sending Jeffrey Epstein internal documents about trade opportunities within five minutes of receiving it. And what's emerged is he was using these trips not to promote British interests, but his own personal interests. He was leaking information which was commercially sensitive to his business associates. For example, in the restructuring of the World Bank of Scotland during the banking crisis. He was trying to develop opportunities in Helmand province in Afghanistan, while 300 British troops have been killed there. He was leaking information of trips in Southeast Asia, shoehorning in business associates like David Rowlands on trips to China.

You know, all very, very serious things. And when you begin to add them up, then, you know, there is a very strong case for him to be investigated. And Jeffrey Epstein was one of the beneficiaries. And Jennifer Edmston, of course, was paying off many of Andrews' former wife's Fergis' bills. Invitations for tea in a royal residence and an inquiry about how to raise thousands of pounds for a rent payment. Emails believed to have been written by Sarah Ferguson, the former Duchess of York, to the late sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, after his 2008 conviction related to prostituting minors. There's an email that Sky News believes is from Fergie to Epstein,

that reads, I really don't have the words to describe my love, gratitude for your generosity and kindness. Kiss, kiss. I'm at your service. Just marry me. Those allegations that you just went through, Andrew has previously denied any wrongdoing here. Police searched his properties today and thoughts on what you think that they were looking for? Well, they're looking for any evidence. I mean, correspondence, digital records. etc. But there's plenty of evidence in the Epstein leaks, I think. And I think if they begin to interview people, I mean, as business partners, his staff, I think they will begin to establish enough information to bring charges. What did you find most interesting from the Epstein files

that we saw recently? Well, I think just the shameless way in which he operated, I think he just thought he was completely unassailable and that he could do what he wanted. And, um, and, I think it's the scale, the fact that so many other people must have been involved in this and have turned a blind eye or aided him. You know, this is a huge scandal and it goes way beyond Prince Andrew. You know, specifically in those documents, there are these emails to Epstein from a sender that is labeled the Duke that have reports from his work travels and reference investment opportunities. And just, you know, what kind of potentially confidential information did it seem? like Andrew sent to, Steve? Well, we don't always know what the contents of these emails had.

We just have this covering letter. But he was, you know, getting very, very sensitive material briefings, you know, on these trips. And this was for 10 years, you know, literally dozens of trips each year, often dealing with sensitive commercial information. So, I mean, just some suggestion of treason. But I think we'll have to wait until we see the full charge sheet. Is there some suggestion of treason? Sorry, can you tell me more about that?

Well, I mean, he was leaking information, sensitive military information to people about, as I say, Afghanistan. So, I mean, you know, this is serious stuff. Wow. Those are very serious allegations. You know, if he was charged here, what kind of consequences would a crime like that have? I mean, the vaccine penalty is life imprisonment for misconduct and public office. but there's also the possibility for the sex trafficking allegations. The UK police now say they're examining flight logs at a UK airport used by Geoffrey Epstein's private jet. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown wants Andrew to face police questions

and says Stansett Airport in London was used to fly girls from Eastern Europe, saying his messages link at least one to Britain and the former Prince Andrew. And if that is followed up and they begin to get people to give evidence there, then again that carries very serious penalties which could be up to life imprisonment. At Nethrhus, we are Canada's payroll experts. For more than 45 years, we have proudly supported local businesses. Powered by CGI, we provide a robust and secure technological infrastructure. Let our specialists handle your payroll so you can maximize your efficiency

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with Desjardin business, it's all under one route. So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us and contact Desjardin today. We'd love to talk. Business. You've written, obviously, a full book on Andrew and his association with Epstein's span decades. And just can you tell me a little bit more about, like, how they first crossed paths and how their relationship developed? Yeah, well, I mean, Andrew claimed, but he only met Epstein in the late 1990s. I think the public domain is saying early 1990s.

In fact, my research shows that the relationship goes back to at least 1985. Galane and Andrew knew each other in the early 1980s. Galane introduced Andrew 2 Epstein. Well, I met through his girlfriend back in 1999, and I'd known her since she was at university in the UK. So they were doing things that this period we don't really know anything about from 85 to 95 really. So it's a very long established relationship. When he said newsnight and TV, he hardly knew Epstein, that was a very barefaced lie. And it would be to some extent a stretch to say that, as it were, we were close friends.

We were friends because of other people. Quite often, if I was in the United States and doing things, and if he wasn't there, he would say, well, why don't you come and use my houses? So I said, that's very kind. Thank you very much indeed. But it would be a considerable stretch to say that he was a very, very close friend. But he had the most... And we've learned more in recent weeks about the complicity of several people within Andrew's inner circle.

I'm thinking of David Stern in particular. He was director of the former Prince's Pitchett Palace business, an income stream for Andrew. And it was basically like a Dragon's Den type competition where entrepreneurs could pitch their ideas. What do we know about like Stern's involvement with Epstein? and how it evolved once Andrew had distanced himself? Well, Stern seems to have been put into the sort of Andrew entourage as this sort of business advisor by Epstein and was reporting back to Epstein.

He's a rather shadowy figure. He clearly pops up a lot in the Epstein revelations. He wouldn't talk to me, and he seems to have disappeared. I think he lives somewhere in the Middle East, but he's clearly somewhat of interest to the police. Amanda Thursk, Andrew's former private secretary, was arranging many of these trips, and she clearly should be questioned. There's a man called Dominic Hampshire, who was the front man for his activities in China.

So there are a whole series of people, but they're all the former members of staff, the valets, the equerries, the other people who accompanied them on these trips. So there's a huge network there who, I think particularly if they were offered some form of immunity, might begin to talk and begin to fill in the story. But the police are going to decide who they are going to charge with this and who, in effect, they're going to do deals with. No, we can't talk about the relationship between Epstein and Andrew without talking about Virginia Joufrey.

That Newsnight interview that you mentioned was part of Andrew's kind of PR campaign in the week of his legal battle with Jufre, which eventually settled out of court. In 2014, she first alleged that she was the survivor of Eiffrey. Epstein sexual assault that she had been trafficked to England to have sex with Andrew for the first time at just 17 years old. There is this well publicized photo of the two, though Andrew has denied ever meeting her. She says she met you in 2001. She says she dined with you, danced with you,

at Tramp Nightclub in London. She went on to have sex with you in a house in Belgravia belonging to Girlin Maxwell, your friend. Your response? Your response? I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady. Do you remember dancing at Tramp? No. That couldn't have happened because the date that there's being suggested, I was at home with the children. She described dancing with you and you profusely sweating

and that she went on to have bath, possibly... There's a slight problem with the sweating because I have... have a peculiar medical condition, which is that I don't sweat or I didn't sweat at the time. And she died by suicide last spring. He knows what happened. I know what happened. And there's only one of us telling the truth.

Do you think that Prince Andrew will ever be held accountable? I'm going to try my damnedest. It's ridiculous that it's gone on this long. There's that much evidence that could have all of these people locked up for the rest of their lives. why are they still walking around free right now? While Andrew's arrest is separate, as we've been talking about, from G-Frey's allegations, you know, what rule did her coming forward play in bringing both him and Epstein down, essentially? Well, I think the, you know, what I think the snowballing really began.

My book came out in August. We had Virginia's book in, I think, October or November, which sort of humanized the story. But we've got to remember, this is really a story. about financial corruption apart from the sex trafficking. But I think it brought home to people that the human dimension to the story. We then, I think, that emboldened the press to do more, I think, reporting of Andrew. I think they kind of shied away from it. And so there were various leaks in the course of the autumn.

I think the real game changer has been the Senate releasing these three million pages and just the detail there. I mean, I had some of that detail, but I didn't have. have it in black and white in the way there is there with, with, you know, the whole email correspondence. So that's, I think, really forced the police to act. I mean, there's been rising public anger, the fact that nothing was being done. He seemed to be getting away with it. It was a separate rule for the royals. And I think, you know, the king was being heckled. So it's been a sort of slow buildup. I'm sure the Rock Parking Palace has been working out.

out what to do about this for some time. But I think, again, the king saying that, you know, he would cooperate with law enforcement. I think that sent out the signal to the law enforcement that they could do something, and he wasn't no longer being protected. And then we suddenly had this revelation today. But I think the worry is that he could have been a flight risk and they needed to get to him quickly. Do you think they really thought he could be a flight risk, the former prince? Yes, very easy. I mean, King Juan Carlos of Spain disappeared when he was up for corruption charges.

Former King Juan Carlos is being investigated in Spain and Switzerland over allegations of bribery. In a letter to his son, King Felipe the 6th, he said that he was leaving Spain in the face of the public repercussions that certain past events of my private life are generating. And very easy for Andrew to go to some sort of private air base. and jet and go paid for by some rich benefactor and go to the Middle East or China or somewhere else. So, no, that I think was a very serious concern. And I think the worry was that the royal family don't want a trial. They don't want the dirty linen in Washington public.

And therefore, they might well have abetted that. And that wouldn't have looked very good to help someone evade justice with these various charges being pressed on him. You know, as you have said, the king has signaled our willingness to cooperate today in his statement, he said, our full and wholehearted support and cooperation with law enforcement. But that really hasn't always been the case. As you also just said, how has the royal family protected Andrew over the years? Well, they suppressed the story. They denied stories that were brought to them by the press.

There were strong armed tactics. ABC television were given a choice to either run an interview they wanted to do with Virginia Giffrey and get a right to reply or they would lose all access to members of the royal family and they backed off. I had the foreign office telling people not to, ambassadors not to talk to me. I had legal letters even before the book was published. So there was a lot of pressure for people to keep this quiet. And I think if the king is found to have been complicit in the cover-up, to have known what went on, then I think why the question is going to be asked about his culpability. And I think there is a real danger that he will be forced to step down. That the king will be forced to step down.

Yes, I think that's going to reverberate. Public anger is not going to be prepared to accept that. What do you think that would do to the monarchy? Because, of course, this monarchy has weathered scandals before. or, right? Diana, more recently, Prince Harry, but this is very different in its nature, right? If we're talking about allegations of using the rule for personal benefits, I mean, you're even talking about allegations of treason. Like, could it be an existential threat to the monarchy? Yes, it is. It's uncharted territory. You know, I think they're hoping, the wagons are circling.

They're hoping they can see this problem off by basically throwing Andrew to law enforcement. and hoping that that satisfies public anger. But I think if other members of the royal family are implicated, then that anger will continue, and Charles's position will remain, will be untenable, and whether they disguise it as health issues or whatever, I think he will have to step aside, and they will have to just accept that William,

who I don't think is involved in this at all, takes over. I don't think he wants that as a monarchist, I'd like Charles to continue, but I'm just reporting on how strong, public opinion is. How does the late queen factor into all of this? I know that you have talked about how she had a blind spot for Prince Andrew. Can you tell me more about that?

Well, she protected and enabled him. I mean, I think no one can get around that. Everyone thought she put the monarchy first ahead of a family. But the fact is that she gave him, even after allegations came out, she was giving him new honors. She was being seen with him very publicly. so I don't think, you know, we can excuse her. It's not lost on me how the reverberations from the release of all the Epstein files has landed in the UK compared to the United States. Police are also looking into allegations that the former UK ambassador to Washington, Peter Mendelsohn,

passed sensitive government information to Epstein. He was fired from his job in September over his ties to Epstein and recently forced to quit the House of Lords. The latest release of Epstein files uncovered photos of Mr. Mandelson with no trousers on with an anonymous woman and also revealed that then business secretary and Labour MP leaked sensitive UK government tax plans to the convicted sex offender and advised him to mildly threaten the Treasury over a proposed banker's bonus tax, as well as telling the disgrace financier that he was trying hard to change the policy from within at Epstein's request. the scandal has also engulfed the Prime Minister, Kirstarmer, just because of his proximity to it all. During a frantic and rollercoaster day for Sekeir, he faced the sudden resignation of his director of communications

and a public call on him to stand down by Labour's leader in Scotland, Anna Sarwar. Is time running out for you, Prime Minister? And the question of the day, if Kirstama had ever wondered what a political near-death experience felt like, He doesn't have to wonder anymore. He was heading to address his MPs and peers in private in Parliament and was greeted very warmly. The Labour Party peered over the cliff edge of a leadership change today and has thought twice about it, for now at least.

And so what do you think of the way the UK is responding to the release versus the US? Well, I mean, I suspect there will be other British figures who are drawn into it. But, you know, I think, you know, the American figures will also be named. I mean, the American figures will be named. I mean, I hope that they will be, some of them are beginning to be subpoenaed. So I don't think this is the end of it for the Americans. I mean, there will be American characters. I suspect charges will be leveled against. So we maybe got there first, but it doesn't mean that there aren't going to be

others following across the Atlantic. What are the biggest questions that are left unanswered for you right now when it comes to the former Prince Andrew and his ties to Epstein? Yes, well, I mean, this period from 1985 to 1995, what was going on there? I'd love to know just how complicit the royal family were in covering up how much they knew, what they did about that. So I think there are a lot of unanswered questions here. I mean, we've still got those three million pages that haven't been released. I mean, there's a lot more still to come up. This is a story that's going to go on for years. Okay. And of course, we talked about the ongoing parallel investigation into the allegations made by these women.

Andrew, thank you so much for this. Really appreciate it. No talk. Pleasure. All right. That's all for it today. Frontburner was produced this week by Joyita Shangupta, Shannon Higgins, Karen Outtshorn, Matthew Amha, Lauren, Lauren Donnelly, and Mackenzie Cameron. Our YouTube producer is John Lee. Our music is by Joseph Shabbison. Our senior producers are Imogen Burchard. Elaine Chow. Our executive producer is Nick McKay Blokos, and I'm Jamie Pussom. Thanks so much for listening. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca.ca.com.