Prince Andrew had an “affair” with Ghislaine Maxwell, who launched a “premeditated” drive to reinvent him, according to a new biography.

The Duke of York described himself as a friend of Maxwell and her as Jeffrey Epstein’s girlfriend when he gave a disastrous interview to the BBC in 2019. The Newsnight sit-down led to him having to step back from public life and face widespread ridicule on social media.

However, a new book about Andrew called Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, by Andrew Lownie, serialized in the Mail on Sunday, tells a more complicated story.

Lownie writes: “Andrew and Ghislaine were good friends, and over the years had been occasional lovers—and through her, the prince had come into the ambit of her boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein.”

Newsweek reached out to representatives of Prince Andrew and Maxwell via email for comment.

Why It Matters

Andrew’s friendship with convicted sex offender Epstein has hung over him for years.

The scandal flared up again more recently after a memo from the Department of Justice and FBI stated there was no evidence Epstein blackmailed prominent figures, confirmed no new charges of co-conspirators, and concluded that he died by suicide in his jail cell in 2019 while facing charges of sex trafficking.

The July memo prompted a backlash from President Donald Trump’s MAGA base, who felt they had been promised explosive new information. It brought renewed focus on Trump’s own friendship with Epstein, which he says he terminated after the financier “stole” young women who worked in his Mar-a-Lago spa. Trump has previously denied knowing about Epstein’s criminal sex trafficking operation.

Epstein was thought to have abused hundreds of girls. Maxwell was jailed for 20 years in 2022 for sex trafficking over her role in assisting Epstein. She was given conditional immunity and newly interviewed by the DOJ in 2025 as part of the Trump administration review.

Andrew was accused of sexual abuse by Virginia Giuffre, one of the most high-profile victims of Epstein, who died earlier this year. He denied the allegations and settled a lawsuit with her out of court for an undisclosed sum without accepting liability.

What To Know

Lownie writes that Andrew had been “rudderless” in 2001, the year he left the Royal Navy, having lived his entire life in heavily structured institutions.

Maxwell then helped him reinvent himself, including his wardrobe, and ran his social calendar at the same time, while also using him to secure lucrative business deals, the book says.

It adds that Andrew “appeared to be rediscovering his youth, hooked by the wealth and reach of new friends,” while a friend quoted in the book says: “‘He’s spiralling out of control, he’s even started dressing like a 25-year-old in jeans and blazer.'”

“This lifestyle could be traced back to his closer relationship with Ghislaine,” Lownie writes. “She introduced him to many of the women with whom he had brief flings, but she also drew him further into Epstein’s net.”

Cynthia Matthews, a friend of Maxwell’s, told the author that Andrew and Maxwell worked on foreign business ventures together, with the book citing “a hugely lucrative tobacco deal in Malawi that he helped broker, and a luxury vehicle deal in Thailand.”

“Andrew loved Thailand and spent a lot of time there,” Matthews is quoted as saying.

“In 2000, he resumed his on-off affair with Ghislaine,” the book says. “In May they were spotted holding hands at a restaurant in Manhattan before flying to Miami, with model Naomi Campbell and Parisian art dealer Alexia Wallaert, on the Lolita Express, as Epstein’s plane was known for flying so many young girls.”

Giuffre said she was trafficked to London to meet Prince Andrew in March 2001, alleging that she was made to have sex with him by Epstein and Maxwell, fearing for her life if she disobeyed. Andrew denies the allegation.

What Prince Andrew Said About Epstein and Maxwell

During his BBC interview, Andrew said: “Well, I met through his girlfriend back in 1999, who…and I’d known her since she was at university in the U.K., and it would be, to some extent, a stretch to say that, as it were, we were close friends. I mean, we were friends because of other people, and I had a lot of opportunity to go to the United States, but I didn’t have much time with him.

“I suppose I saw him once or twice a year, perhaps maybe a maximum of three times a year and 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.'”

Andrew also said: “It was his girlfriend that was the key element in this. He was the, as it were, plus one, to some extent, in that aspect.”

He acknowledged having stayed at Maxwell’s home in Belgravia. It was never put to him that Maxwell was a past lover, and he therefore did not have the opportunity to respond to the suggestion.

On Virginia Giuffre, he said: “I’m not in a position to know what she’s trying to achieve, but I can tell you categorically I don’t remember meeting her at all.

“I do not remember a photograph being taken and I’ve said consistently and frequently that we never had any sort of sexual contact whatever.”

Asked whether he might have had sex with any young woman trafficked by Epstein, he replied: “No and without putting too fine a point on it, if you’re a man, it is a positive act to have sex with somebody.

“You have to have to take some sort of positive action and so therefore if you try to forget it’s very difficult to try and forget a positive action and I do not remember anything.”

Andrew Lownie’s Book

Prince Andrew has not publicly responded to the book, but The Mail was sent a formal legal letter by Prince Harry’s attorneys.

The dispute with the Duke of Sussex related to passages detailing a fist fight between them and suggestions that Andrew believed Meghan Markle was an opportunist.

Harry’s team told Newsweek: “Such are the gross inaccuracies, damaging and defamatory remarks made in the Daily Mail‘s story, I can confirm a legal letter from Prince Harry’s counsel has been sent to the Mail.”

And a statement from a spokesperson on Saturday read: “I can confirm Prince Harry and Prince Andrew have never had a physical fight, nor did Prince Andrew ever make the comments he is alleged to have made about the Duchess of Sussex to Prince Harry.”