Prince Andrew had ‘daily massages’ when visiting Epstein’s Florida home, former housekeeper says
5 January 2024, 19:12 | Updated: 6 January 2024, 00:44
The Duke of York had “daily massages” when he spent “weeks” at paedophile Epstein’s Florida home, new court documents have revealed.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
A total of 73 exhibits were released on Friday. The naming of individuals does not necessarily indicate any wrongdoing.
The court files come from a 2015 defamation case brought by accuser Virginia Giuffre against Ghislaine Maxwell, which was settled two years later.
Juan Alessi, who worked at Epstein's Palm Beach residence, was asked about Epstein’s relationship with Andrew and his former wife, Sarah Ferguson in a 2009 deposition.
Mr Alessi said he believed Ms Ferguson “was there only once and for a short time. I don't think she slept in there”. However, he said Andrew “spent weeks with us”.
Asked if the Duke would often have massages, Mr Alessi replied: “I would say, daily massages.”
The duke strenuously denies any wrongdoing.
In a further interview under oath by an Epstein employee, who is labelled only as "the witness" in the documents, they claimed Maxwell took the paedophile financier to England "to introduce him to royalty".
The staff member said there were "many pictures" of the Duke of York with Epstein in the property they worked at.
They also said they never saw the duke visit the property, but "he called".
Maxwell also admitted in her deposition from 2016 that there was a “caricature of Prince Andrew that was in Jeffrey's home".
The King's brother Andrew was accused by Johanna Sjoberg of groping her breast while posing with what is reported to have been a Spitting Image puppet of himself in Epstein's Manhattan home in 2001.
Maxwell insisted that neither she nor billionaire sex offender Epstein gave the duke the puppet as a gift but said Andrew did not bring it with him.
She said: "There was a puppet - not a puppet - there was a - I don't know how would you describe it really... a caricature of Prince Andrew that was in Jeffrey's home."
Maxwell was asked: "Did you use that caricature to put the hand of the caricature on Johanna Sjoberg's breast?"
She replied: "I don't recollect. I recollect the puppet but I don't recollect anything around the puppet."
During the case, Ms Giuffre’s attorneys were given permission to comb through Maxwell’s computers and iCloud during the case to source anything that would prove the victim’s claims about Maxwell and Epstein.
One exhibit from the earlier Friday batch includes a list of search terms these attorneys looked for when going through Maxwell’s emails.
These included: ‘Prince’, ‘Andrew’, ‘Royal’, 'masturbation', ‘Clinton’, ‘underage’ and a number of victims’ names.
A reference is also made to a request by Ms Giuffre, who said that former US president Bill Clinton should be compelled to give a deposition. However, the judge ruled against it, saying that the ‘relevance’ of his testimony ‘had not been established’.
Another document details phone messages left for Epstein, which were recorded by an assistant in 2005.
One of the phone messages recorded reads: “Abigail Wexner wants to talk to you @ something private.”
Ms Wexner is the wife of Les Wexner, former CEO of Victoria’s Secret, who helped supply financial business to Epstein at the start of his ascent through New York society.
By the time Ms Wexner married the fashion mogul in 1993, he was already close friends with Epstein.
Ms Wexner has not commented on her association with Epstein.
The Wexners distanced themselves from Epstein after he was convicted in 2009 for soliciting child prostitution in Palm Beach.
Another document shows a transcript of Maxwell's deposition, where she denied she had introduced Jeffrey Epstein to the Duke of York, despite Andrew having previously claimed Maxwell had introduced him to Epstein.
She also denied giving Prince Andrew the gift of a puppet in his image, which Johanna Sjoberg alleged was later used to touch her breast.
Another exhibit from Friday’s unsealing contains a deposition from Ms Giuffre’s ex-boyfriend, Anthony Figueroa, who testified about dropping her off to Epstein’s Palm Beach home.
He described how Epstein would pay him $200 “apiece” to bring teenage girls to his mansion.
On Wednesday evening a spate of high-profile figures were named in the documents, which detail associates of Epstein, followed by a second batch on Thursday evening.
Andrew has been named dozens of times in the files, including claims he took part in an "underage orgy" on Epstein's private island.
He strenuously denies the accusations, but has been reported to police by Republic, the anti-monarchy organisation.
In Thursday's documents, Virginia Giuffre claimed she was sex-trafficked to the Duke of York and "two of the world's most respected politicians".
The files detail a conversation by Ms Giuffre spoke of her concerns about working with the magazine Vanity Fair in an email to journalist Sharon Churcher in May 2011, after former US president Bill Clinton had allegedly "threatened them not to write sex-trafficking articles" about Epstein.
In a follow up email, Ms Churcher said it would be a "gamble" for Ms Giuffre to give the magazine a statement about how she had no more to say about how she was "sex-trafficked to PA and other men including two of the world's most respected politicians".
The names of the two politicians in the email are redacted.
Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in Manhattan, New York, in August 2019 while he awaited trial on sex-trafficking charges. The death was ruled a suicide.
