Newly Released Emails appear to Clash With Ex-Prince Andrew’s claims about the Epstein Photo
Prince Andrew’s links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein are back in the spotlight yet again, and this time it is down to newly released emails included in the Epstein files.
The messages appear to undermine what the former Duke of York told the BBC during his infamous 2019 Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis, where he tried to distance himself from key claims made by Virginia Giuffre.
Now, Maitlis has responded to what she describes as Andrew’s alleged lies and endless excuses, writing about it in a new article for The I.
In her piece, Maitlis highlighted an email from 2015 in which Ghislaine Maxwell seemingly confirms that Giuffre met Prince Andrew in person. Maitlis wrote, “In a letter written in 2015 to Epstein [Ghislaine Maxwell] confirms that [Epstein and Andrew accuser] Virginia Giuffre met ‘a number of friends of mine including [the former] Prince Andrew. A photograph was taken as I imagine she wanted to show it to friends and family.'”
That email matters because it appears to directly clash with Andrew’s previous claims about the notorious photo showing him with Giuffre and Maxwell.
During his Newsnight appearance in 2019, Andrew suggested the image might not even be genuine. “Nobody can prove whether or not that photograph has been doctored but I don’t recollect that photograph ever being taken,” he said on Newsnight in 2019, via NBC News.
But Maxwell’s email, included in the newly released files, appears to back up Giuffre’s long-standing claim that she met Andrew and posed for the photograph with him. If true, it strengthens the idea that the photo was real all along, and not manipulated or fake.
Maitlis also described how hard Andrew’s team worked to cast doubt on the image in the run-up to the interview. Writing in The I, she said, “For years, Mountbatten-Windsor and those around him denied the photograph was real. In the week before my interview with him, his assistant suggested we set out to ‘prove it was a fake.’ A doctored piece of evidence set up to smear him.”
She recalled being overwhelmed by the number of explanations and contradictions Andrew gave during the interview itself. “I remember feeing utterly baffled, headached, by the multitude of excuses,” Maitlis said of Andrew’s on-air protestations. “He was trying to explain that he couldn’t recall it but it was definitely him, but it wasn’t his hand.”
Maitlis also explained why the photo was such a key part of Giuffre’s story. “The photograph—taken at Virginia’s request—for a young girl to send to her mom because she’d just met a prince—was one of the few pieces of hard evidence she had.”
She argued that by dismissing it, Andrew did real damage. “By rubbishing the photo, he discredited the victim. He allowed the seed to be implanted in our minds that if the photo were proved fake, the girl would be too. Trailer trash? Gold-digger? Perhaps he was the victim here.”
Maitlis added that Maxwell’s message now strengthens the case against Andrew’s version of events. “Maxwell’s unwitting acknowledgment of the photo’s existence anchors Mountbatten-Windsor to that scene,” Maitlis said.
Giuffre sadly is no longer alive to see this moment. She died by suicide in April 2025, but the renewed attention may bring some comfort to her family as more details come to light.