Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office, per the BBC. The ex-royal – who had his title stripped in October over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein — was taken into custody on his 66th birthday. Police reportedly arrested him at Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, a property owned by the royal family, where he has lived since being forced to surrender his lease on the Royal Lodge in Windsor. It is not yet clear what led to his arrest on Thursday, but police said earlier this month that they were investigating claims that he may have shared confidential trade information with Epstein while serving as U.K. trade envoy in 2010.
Mountbatten-Windsor’s links to Epstein are close and well documented. Epstein’s most prominent accuser, the late Virginia Giuffre, accused Mountbatten-Windsor of raping her multiple times when she was 17 and being trafficked by Epstein; in 2022, the ex-royal settled the civil suit she brought against him for an undisclosed sum. After Epstein’s arrest in 2019, Mountbatten-Windsor stepped away from official royal duties, and in October — shortly before Giuffre’s posthumous memoir was published — he gave up his royal titles; two weeks later, the palace announced that his name would no longer be styled as Prince Andrew and he was being evicted from the Royal Lodge. Mountbatten-Windsor has continuously denied any wrongdoing.
In a statement following his brother’s arrest on Thursday, King Charles III expressed his “deepest concern” and said that “the law must take its course.” “What now follows is the full, fair and proper process by which this issue is investigated in the appropriate manner and by the appropriate authorities,” he said. “In this, as I have said before, they have our full and wholehearted support and co-operation.” Per the BBC, the Prince and Princess of Wales support the king’s statement.
Giuffre’s family said in a statement that their “broken hearts have been lifted at the news that no one is above the law, not even royalty,” per CBS. “On behalf of our sister, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, we extend our gratitude to the UK’s Thames Valley Police for their investigation and arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor,” they said. “He was never a prince. For survivors everywhere, Virginia did this for you.”
On Thursday evening, Andrew was released from the U.K. police station where he was being held. The Daily Mail published a photo of Andrew in the back seat of a car while leaving, sitting low in his seat with his eyes wide. In a statement, Thames Valley Police said that a man who had been arrested earlier in the day on suspicion of misconduct in public office “has now been released under investigation.” (British policing rules keep them from naming Andrew specifically.) This means that he has neither been charged nor cleared of wrongdoing.
This post has been updated.