SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor turns 66 today. He has also been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. The former prince is under investigation for sharing confidential government documents with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, when he was the U.K.'s trade envoy. The arrest is not related to the sexual abuse allegations made by one of Epstein's underage victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, allegations which the former prince has denied. Max Colchester is a correspondent with The Wall Street Journal. He co-authored the article "Britain's Monarchy Can't Escape The Shadow Of The Epstein Scandal" and joins us now. Welcome.
MAX COLCHESTER: Hi, Scott.
DETROW: I mean, what was it like in London today?
COLCHESTER: It was really quite a scene. I think, to put this in context, the last time a British royal was arrested was Charles I after the English Civil War in the 17th century.
DETROW: The justice system has changed quite a bit since then.
COLCHESTER: It has. And obviously, Charles had his head cut off, and no one envisages that happening to Andrew.
DETROW: Now, I should say that we had actually scheduled this interview with you before this latest development, and that's because you co-authored this big feature really diving into this latest trove of Epstein files to paint a full portrait of the relationship between Epstein and Andrew. On one hand, like you said, this has been in the news for decades. Multiple movies have been made about this scandal already. On the other hand, so much new. And I'm wondering, what did you learn from these latest documents that you didn't know before?
COLCHESTER: Well, I think there were two things that really jumped out for those of us who've been following this scandal for a while. The first was it really laid bare what was a lie by Andrew, which is that he claimed back in 2019, that he'd cut off all ties with Epstein in 2010. And what these emails showed was that, in fact, he'd remained in contact with Epstein via a business associate for many years - up until 2018, actually, a year before Epstein's death in a jail cell.
The second thing it showed, which I thought was very interesting, was the business element of the relationship with Epstein because up until then, the allegations had largely been around Andrew partying with Epstein on his island, in his New York townhouse and allegedly abusing women. But this showed really how Epstein and Andrew tried to monetize their relationship by effectively hoping that Andrew could become a pitch man for a finance company and lure in rich investors who would then invest their money with various firms.
DETROW: Look, of all of the many documents in this trove, I think one that's really jumped out to me, it's 2011. British tabloids have just published that image of Andrew with his arm around 17-year-old Virginia Roberts Giuffre. And you report that right after that, Andrew emails Epstein saying, quote, "don't worry about me, we'll play some more soon." I mean, there's been backlash and outrage to this for a long time now. What has changed, if anything, to you about the public reaction to just the level of details that we are learning about this relationship?
COLCHESTER: Well, I think the public can now see for themselves what that relationship involved. And I think there are some very tawdry details in there, such as Andrew inviting four women to Buckingham Palace for dinner with Epstein in 2010, such as Epstein suggesting that he have dinner in London with a beautiful Russian woman. These are all details that really ram home quite shocking revelations for many people here.
DETROW: The royal family has been on the defensive for a while, and you have seen King Charles take a series of steps to isolate Andrew, including the step of taking away his title of prince. You pointed out that this has really risen to levels where King Charles is being heckled in public about this. Like, what do you think this could mean more broadly for the royal family and the monarchy?
COLCHESTER: Well, I think what you've got to understand about the royal family is it's - when you talk to the members of the people who work in Buckingham Palace, they worry a lot about the vibe in the country. And what this means is that for the next few months, maybe years, there is going to be a drumbeat of negative headlines coming out about Andrew. They have done their best, as you say, to put distance between themselves and Andrew. They've stripped his titles. He's no longer prince. He's no longer allowed to live on the Windsor estate. He has, you know, forfeited the right to use his title, the Duke of York. But at the end of the day, in British people's minds, he's still part of the royal family, and that's a challenge that the Buckingham Palace is going to have to face up to for the foreseeable future.
DETROW: That is Max Colchester, correspondent for The Wall Street Journal. Thank you so much.
COLCHESTER: Thanks very much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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