<\/p>\n
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew, appears to have sent an email to Ghislaine Maxwell asking if she could set him up with “some new inappropriate friends,” according to documents included in the Justice Department’s third release of its Jeffrey Epstein files.<\/p>\n
The email exchange is from August 2001 and starts with a message from an address labeled “The Invisible Man,” according to the records released on Tuesday. The sender is not identified in the records, but states that they are at “Balmoral Summer Camp,” likely a reference to Balmoral Castle, the royal family\u2019s estate in Scotland, and signs the email as “A.”<\/p>\n
Mountbatten-Windsor did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent by NBC News to an email address associated with the Duke of York’s Office. Buckingham Palace also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n
“Have you found me some new inappropriate friends?” the email to Maxwell reads. “Let me know when you are coming over as I am free from 25th August until 2nd Sept and want to go somewhere hot and sunny with some fun people before having to put my nose firmly to the grindstone for the Fall.”<\/p>\n
“Any ideas gratefully received!” the message continues. “See ya A xxx.”<\/p>\n
Maxwell replied a few hours later, according to the records.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo sorry to dissapoint you, however the truth must be told. I have only been able to find appropriate friends,” she said. “Will let you know about some church meetings on those dates. Kisses Gx.”<\/p>\n
The original sender replies to the message two days later, writing \u201cDistraught!\u201d <\/p>\n
“You probably wouldn\u2019t know but I lost my valet on Thursday. He died in his sleep. He had been with me since I was 2,” the sender wrote. “I am a little off balance as not only has my office been restructured, I have left the RN and now my whole life is in turmoil as I have no one to look after me. He was a real rock and almost a part of the family.”<\/p>\n
“RN” appears to be a reference to the Royal Navy, the United Kingdom’s navy. Mountbatten-Windsor, 65, formerly known as Prince Andrew, retired from the Royal Navy in July 2001, about a month before the email exchange occurred. King Charles stripped his younger brother of his royal titles<\/a> in November due to his ties with Epstein. <\/p>\n For years, Mountbatten-Windsor has come under the spotlight for his ties to convicted sex offender Epstein and his accomplice, Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking.<\/p>\n In 2022, Mountbatten-Windsor settled a civil suit with Epstein survivor Virginia Roberts Giuffre,<\/a> who accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was 17 years old. While he did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement, he did acknowledge Giuffre\u2019s suffering as a victim of sex trafficking.<\/p>\n Mountbatten-Windsor repeatedly denied ever meeting Giuffre and claimed that a widely circulated photograph of the two of them was not real. He has also denied any wrongdoing in his association with Epstein and Maxwell and has never been criminally charged. The Justice Department has said that nothing in the released Epstein files warrants investigation or prosecution of any third parties. <\/p>\n Giuffre died by suicide in April. She released a posthumous memoir,<\/a> detailing allegations against Mountbatten-Windsor in October. She wrote that she had sex with him on three occasions, including an “orgy” involving “eight other young girls” who “appeared to be under the age of 18 and didn\u2019t really speak English.”<\/p>\n