A timeline of former Prince Andrew's ties to Jeffrey Epstein, from the Virginia Giuffre lawsuit to his arrest in 2026

According to prosecutors, former Prince Andrew was arrested in February 2026 on suspicion of misconduct in public office due to his alleged ties to Jeffrey Epstein. The arrest came after years of public scrutiny over Andrew's connections to Epstein. However, a judge later ruled that the search warrants used to search Andrew's homes were unlawful.

Andrew has consistently denied any involvement with Epstein's sex-trafficking crimes. His relationship with Epstein dates back to 1999 when he reportedly met through Ghislaine Maxwell. The trio remained friends throughout the early 2000s, attending parties together, including one at Mar-a-Lago with Donald and Melania Trump in 2000. Epstein was convicted of solicitation of prostitution in 2008, but Andrew visited him in New York in December 2010, four months after Epstein's release.

In 2015, Virginia Giuffre, then known as Virginia Roberts, filed a defamation lawsuit against Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, alleging that Epstein had forced her to have sex with Andrew in his New York mansion, London, and on Epstein's private island. This allegation was initially dismissed by a judge, but details emerged in 2019 when documents from the 2015 case were unsealed.

One witness, Johanna Sjoberg, described a sexual incident involving herself, Maxwell, Andrew, and a puppet of Andrew at a party in 2006. Buckingham Palace denied Andrew's alleged involvement with Giuffre.

After Epstein's arrest in 2019, Andrew made a statement expressing sympathy for those affected by his friend's crimes and claimed he did not witness or suspect any inappropriate behavior during their time together. Giuffre later stated that Andrew knew exactly what he had done and hoped he would come clean about it. In November 2019, Andrew stepped down from his royal duties following a controversial BBC Newsnight interview discussing the allegations.