Andrew Lownie, whose searing 2025 biography of former British prince Andrew Mountbattern-Windsor and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson laid bare their profligate lifestyle and reckless impunity, recently asked his sources if Andrew was worried about fresh revelations over his links to Jeffrey Epstein.
“He didn’t feel he’d done anything wrong. He was fussing about horses being taken to Norfolk and where he’d park his car. He hadn’t really, I think, got the full measure of the seriousness of what had happened”.
That changed when Andrew was arrested last Thursday.
“I think looking at that picture (the widely-shared photograph of Andrew being driven away from police custody) you do get a sense he is suddenly realising the seriousness of the situation and the fact he may be charged and may be going to prison”.
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Police are investigating Mountbatten-Winsdor’s conduct while serving as the UK’s Special Representative for International Trade and Investment, which Lownie detailed in his book, Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York.
Andrew was appointed in 2001 after “putting pressure on his mother”, says Lownie.
“There was opposition from Charles, who felt he would go off and play golf, chase woman and try and make money on the side, which is what has actually happened”. But the late quen Elizabeth pushed the appointment through, says Lownie.
Andrew proved to be unsuited to the role. “Sometimes he could be effective, sometimes he followed his brief, but more often than not he thought he knew better than the experts. He could be very patronising to people, thinking he knew better than them”
“He used it as an opportunity to chat up pretty girls, so he wouldn’t go to the lineups of VIPs that had been waiting for him for ages. He would suddenly veer off from a meeting because he was bored of it and just leave.
“And he was incredibly rude to people. There was one case where Japanese guests had given him some business cards, which is of course a very reverential thing, and Andrew just threw them in the air saying, ‘what do I do with these?’”
It was in the course of that work that Andrew received confidential briefings on global business conditions and opportunities. Some of those briefings showed up in the FBI’s latest release of Epstein’s emails, drawing the attention of police.
The revelations are tarnishing queen Elizabeth’s legacy, says Lownie. “It’s become clear that she did protect and enable Andrew. Even Buckingham Place has been leaking stories, trying to shift the blame onto the queen and away from the present king.
“This will stain her reputation now, but it’s always true of anyone’s reputation that once they die, once we begin to look at the papers, there is a reset. She wasn’t a saint. She was very pragmatic, but she was also very human in terms of her dealings. But it shows just how few checks and balances there were, that no-one felt they could challenge her authority.
“I find it extraordinary that he wasn’t controlled much earlier. It’s only now the story’s broken that the palace seems to be taking this seriously. I suspect they never thought these Epstein leaks would emerge”.
On Sunday former British prime minister Gordon Brown called for police to investigate whether Andrew used the RAF to meet Epstein. The drip-drip of scandal threatens the survival of the monarchy, says Lownie, especially if it emerges that senior royals knew more about Andrew’s alleged behaviour than previously revealed.
“As we get closer to the throne with coverup stories, then that’s going to be very dangerous to the king. I think the misconduct in public office case is only the first part of the investigations.
“People are talking about treason now” he says, referring to a weekend comment by Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat. “And there are numerous sex trafficking allegations because women were trafficked into seven or eight different police districts”.
Lownie says it is time to establish a mandatory register of royal interests, to subject the royals to Freedom of Information laws and to bring the vast estates controlled by senior royals under national control.
“ I hope we get these changes. I think they need to do it in order to survive, frankly. It’s not just a case of making themselves fit for purpose for the 21st century. It’s a matter of whether they actually go down, because there’s huge public anger at what’s happened.
“The relationship between the royal family and the public is one of trust. And if we feel that they’re taking advantage of their position then that trust goes.
“I speak as a monarchist. I would like the monarchy to survive, but not as this corrupt entity it seems to have become”.
You can listen to the full interview with Andrew Lownie on today’s episode of In the News.
