Epstein, suitcases of cash and ‘sex addiction’: book

An astonishing new book about Prince Andrew contains a series of eye-popping revelations about his life, from scandalous sex romps to his ill-advised friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. 

“Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York” covers Andrew’s jet set lifestyle and co-dependent relationship with his ex, Sarah Ferguson. Here author Andrew Lownie walks The Post through the highlights.  

Prince Andrew’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein was far longer and much closer than the Prince has admitted, says Lownie.

The royal author says late financier and convicted child sex offender Epstein had “16 telephone numbers” for Andrew and the two met “almost a decade earlier” than 1999, when Andrew had claimed they first met.

Lownie also detailed how Andrew’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, whom he was married to from 1986 to 1996, was also “very close” to Epstein.

“She flew on the planes, she stayed in the houses,” Lownie alleges, adding she “was staying in Epstein’s apartments after 2010, when [they] claimed they’d totally cut off contact. And yet there she was, staying in his places, having said that she would have nothing further to do with him.”

Paying off debts

The Duke has admitted helping arrange for Epstein to pay off $20,000 of Ferguson’s “ever-present” debts, but Lownie disputes the amount.

“An ex-girlfriend of Andrew, who I trust is reliable, said it was more like two million,” Lownie claims, adding he wouldn’t be surprised, as Ferguson has a long history of accruing massive debts and squandering millions of dollars.

Ferguson said in 2011 she “deeply regret[s] that Jeffrey Epstein became involved in any way with me,” and said she would pay back the money then have “nothing ever to do with” him again.

Andrew first met Epstein, who died in jail in 2019, through his on-again-off-again lover Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite and daughter of publishing magnate Robert Maxwell. She is currently serving 20 years in prison for sex trafficking children for Epstein.

The two were very close, according to Lownie.

“[Ghislaine] was always going to Buckingham Palace and Andrew was circumventing security,” the author claims. “He basically told security people to let her in,” he claimed, noting his sources say Andrew insisted others be let in without security checks, including escorts.

A photo of Maxwell and actor Kevin Spacey posing on a pair of thrones at Buckingham Palace taken in 2002 was revealed in 2020.

Connections with Epstein

“There’s an extraordinary sort of triangular relationship here with Epstein, Ghislaine and Andrew,” he opined. “One of the things which one of Ghislaine’s friends told me, [was that] Epstein rather liked that. He liked this idea that all three of them were joined.”

Andrew seemed to have benefited from his relationship with the two child sex traffickers.

Lownie reports that Ivan Novikov, Epstein’s personal river, claims he remembers ferrying around the Prince with “two young girls around eighteen to the Gansevoort Hotel in the Meatpacking District. Both girls were doing lines of cocaine.” He added Andrew – notoriously a lifelong teetotaler – “was making out with one of them.”

And a housekeeper for Epstein alleged they had picked up sex toys in Andrew’s bedroom, as well as envelopes of cash containing “anywhere from one to 25 thousand dollars,” left for “young women” in the bedroom by Epstein, Lownie alleges.

Andrew has publicly said he regrets his relationship with Epstein and “deeply sympathizes” with his victims.

In 2019, he gave a disastrous interview to a British news show in which he denied having sex with a masseuse in Epstein’s employ, Virginia Giuffre, who was a teenager at the time. Giuffre alleged in legal documents and interviews she had been a sex slave for Epstein, who she said trafficked her out to his powerful circle of friends.

Andrew said he “had no recollection of ever meeting” Giuffre, despite there being a well-publicized photo of the two of them embracing with Maxwell in the background.

Lownie alleges that Andrew, whom he describes as a “sex addict,” had relations with anywhere from “one thousand” to “three thousand” women, including dozens he met through Epstein. His book also claims Andrew lost his virginity aged 11 and has been “obsessed” with women ever since.

Andrew the grifter

The book details Ferguson’s constant money woes and schemes, including ghost-written books, deals with Weight Watchers and embarrassing reality shows.

After Princess Diana’s death, Ferguson met with an editor at Hello! magazine to discuss how she might fill the gap left by the Princess. She agreed “to give Hello! everything about her for a monthly retainer,” a source told Lownie. “The deal was thought to be worth $134,000 a month.”

However, Andrew’s financial misdeeds were much grubbier.

From 2001 to 2011, the former Naval pilot worked as the UK’s Special Representative for International Trade and Investment and met with a host of corrupt leaders in countries like Libya, Azerbaijan, and Tunisia.

He garnered the nickname “Airmiles Andy” for the huge expenses he racked up and was not shy about asking for gifts, once allegedly requesting a Faberge egg during a tour.

Lownie claims the Queen was well aware of Andrew’s chicanery, claiming a source once saw “$5 million in a suitcase for Andrew to take home.”

Officials were aware of the money being exchanged but knew there was nothing to be done because the Queen was “not going to do anything… it seemed to be that if he wasn’t caught and could get away with it,” then the palace would turn a blind eye.

“This is a book about financial corruption at the very heart of the royal family,” Lownie added.

Fergie the villain?

The Duchess has long been cast as the villain in the couple’s love story for being photographed with John Bryan, who was amorously sucking Ferguson’s toes in paparazzi photos taken in 1992.

However, Lownie says in his book that’s not actually fair as Andrew allegedly had affairs during their marriage.

The author also says his sources told him Ferguson was a “very sexual woman who needs attention, both emotional and sexual and she wasn’t getting it,” in his book.   

Ferguson’s constant search for love and affection sometimes saw her looking for it in unusual places. Lownie claims she developed crushes on John F. Kennedy Jr., Tiger Woods and Kevin Costner.

Lownie writes that Ferguson allegedly bombarded the “Dances with Wolves” actor with a series of “raunchy phone calls,” prompting Costner to call her a “woman crying out for love.”

William and Harry

There is no love lost between Andrew and his nephews, Prince William and Prince Harry.

According to Lownie, back in 2013, Harry and Andrew got into a “heated argument and punches were thrown over something Andrew said behind Harry’s back…They wanted to kill each other. Harry got the better of Andrew by all accounts, leaving him with a bloody nose before the fight was broken up.”

A rep for Harry denied he had ever been in a physical fight with his uncle. Reps for Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson didn’t respond to requests for comment. 

The same source alleges that William doesn’t feel too differently and “William has long worked behind the scenes to evict his uncle from Royal Lodge,” Lownie writes.

The author claims the animosity may stem from Andrew’s dim view of both Harry’s wife Meghan Markle and William’s wife Kate Middleton.

“He was rude about Meghan,” Lownie’s sources claimed. “He thought that she was too old for Harry, that she was an opportunist.”

Andrew was also rude about Kate for reasons unknown to Lownie, although he theorized that Andrew, a terrific snob, likely doesn’t think Kate “comes from the right background.”

However, he also warns that Andrew and Sarah may lose their cushy Royal Lodge digs when William ascends the throne.

“I think when he becomes king, poor old Andrew is not going to get the favorite treatment he’s been getting. I think William has marked his card.”