Freshly released documents connected to the late financier
Jeffrey Epstein include an email referring to the Royal Family’s
summer stay at Balmoral, once again drawing the Andrew
Mountbatten-Windsor into renewed scrutiny over his past
associations.
Among the latest tranche of papers is an email sent to Epstein’s
associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, from an address using the alias “The
Invisible Man”. The message, dated 16 August 2001, opens with the
line: “I am up here at Balmoral Summer Camp for the Royal
Family.”
The email goes on to describe the writer’s activities during the
stay and includes a question to Maxwell asking: “Have you found me
some new inappropriate friends?” It is signed off: “See ya A
xxx.”
In a reply sent later the same day to the same address, Maxwell
wrote: “So sorry to disappoint you, however the truth must be told.
I have only been able to find appropriate friends.”
A second email address, appears in Epstein’s phone book under a
contact labelled “Duke of York”, an image of which was released
previously. Emails from both addresses are included in the latest
disclosure and are attributed to the same alias, “The Invisible
Man”, with several messages signed off with variations of “A”.
The documents form part of a wider release of material connected
to Epstein and Maxwell, who is currently serving a prison sentence
in the United States for sex trafficking offences. The emails
themselves do not allege or demonstrate criminal behaviour, and the
BBC, which first reported the material, said they do not indicate
wrongdoing.
Nevertheless, the explicit reference to Balmoral – the monarch’s
private Aberdeenshire estate – has heightened attention around
Andrew’s presence within the Royal Family during that period and
the proximity of his private life to Epstein’s circle.
In October, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor lost use of his Duke of
York title following sustained scrutiny over his links to Epstein.
He stepped back from public duties in 2019 and has lived largely
out of the public eye since.
He has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing and has previously said
that he did not “see, witness or suspect any behaviour of the sort
that subsequently led to [Epstein’s] arrest and conviction”.
Andrew’s representatives have been contacted for comment on the
latest documents, including the references to “The Invisible Man”
and the Balmoral email.
The renewed disclosures underline a continuing difficulty for
the monarchy: that despite the absence of new allegations, archival
material connected to Epstein continues to surface, keeping one of
the most damaging chapters in recent royal history firmly in the
public eye.
