Jeffrey Epstein used 'idiot' Prince Andrew to conduct shady deals, says biographer

Prince Andrew was nothing more than a means to an end for the late Jeffrey Epstein, according to royal biographer Tina Brown.

In her book "The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor, the Truth, and the Turmoil," the author claimed that the convicted sex trafficker used the royal to conduct business with shady people. She said he would take him to obscure places and used him as a frontman.

This is why at some point, Epstein privately admitted that he finds Prince Andrew to be an "idiot" but a "useful one." This was the extent of their friendship.

"Privately, Epstein told people that Andrew was an idiot, but — to him — a useful one. A senior royal, even if tainted, is always a potent magnet abroad," Brown wrote in an excerpt from her book published by OK magazine.

She added, "Epstein confided to a friend that he used to fly the Duke of York to obscure foreign markers, where governments were obliged to receive him, and Epstein went along as HRH's investment advisor."

Prince Andrew reportedly made it possible for Epstein to "negotiate deals with these (often) shady players." The other man, on the other hand, made the duke feel that "he had joined the big time — the deals, the girls, the plane, the glittering New York world, where he wasn't seen as a full-grown man still dependent on his mother's Privy Purse strings or on the harsh pecking order of the Palace."

It was his friendship with Epstein that led to his infamous Newsnight interview in 2019 and his sexual abuse case. Virginia Roberts Giuffre, a former employee of Epstein, accused the duke of "rape in the first degree" in a New York court. She claimed he sexually abused her three times when she was only 17 years old.

Prince Andrew has since denied the allegations and admitted no wrongdoing. But to avoid a trial by jury, he agreed to a settlement out of court instead. He paid Giuffre in February to have the case closed. In the aftermath of the scandal, Queen Elizabeth II earlier this year stripped him of his royal patronages and military titles.