Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s former private assistant says she would be happy to speak to the police about her time serving the ex-royal, who is under investigation for suspected misconduct in public office.
Charlotte Manley, 68, served as the former prince’s private secretary and treasurer for two years after he was appointed the UK’s special representative for trade and investment in 2001. Before that, she spent half a decade as his assistant.
A former officer in the Navy, Manley accompanied Andrew on many overseas business trips – including to New York – but insisted this week that she ‘wouldn’t have much to tell officers’.
‘I would rather talk to the police than the press,’ she reportedly told journalists at her Wiltshire home. ‘Not that I would have much to tell them.’
It had emerged that Ms Manley signed a cheque worth £75 in June 2000 to pay a South African masseuse to attend Andrew’s rooms in Buckingham Palace. The visit was organised by Jeffrey Epstein’s girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Maxwell reportedly told Monique Giannelloni, the masseuse, that she would introduce her to ‘someone more famous than God.’
A matter of weeks later that person was revealed to be Andrew, whom Ms Giannelloni met at the palace.
‘I got to the room and Andrew was stood there in a robe,’ she told the Daily Mail in 2019. ‘After saying “hello”, he disappeared to the bathroom and came back in the nude. I averted my eyes and I was quite embarrassed.’
Ms Giannelloni insisted that Andrew was otherwise ‘very nice and gentlemanly’ during the encounter.
A new batch of pictures released by the US Department of Justice this week show a man resembling Andrew snuggled up with two young women.
One of the blurry, low-quality snaps – taken at Jeffrey Epstein’s New York home – displays the man sat with a woman on his lap. While the other shows the him appearing to crack a smile with a woman leaning over his shoulders.
The two women’s faces are redacted and it is yet to be confirmed whether the man is indeed Andrew, who vehemently denies any wrongdoing.
The photos are among 180,000 new images shared under the Epstein Files Transparency Act and have been released just a couple of weeks after the former prince was arrested.
Having been evicted from the Royal Lodge over his links to Epstein, police took Andrew into custody from his cottage at Wood Farm on the Sandringham Estate on his 66th birthday as part of an investigation into alleged misconduct in public office.
He spent around 10 hours at Aylsham Police Station before being released shortly before 7pm.
It is thought that the UK Government could introduce legislation to have Andrew removed from the line of succession amid the scandal which has seen him lose his royal titles.
It comes after a number of world leaders called on the Government to do so. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, for example, said: ‘I certainly think his actions are deplorable and have caused him to be stripped of his royal titles, certainly merit, if that’s the word – necessitate is a better word – his removal from the line of succession.’
While in a letter to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in February, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Andrew was facing ‘grave allegations’, adding: ‘Australians take them seriously’.
A spokesperson for Christopher Luxon, New Zealand’s prime minister, said: ‘If the UK Government proposes to remove Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor from the order of succession, New Zealand would support it.
‘The UK Government has said any proposals would come after the police investigation concludes.’
Defence Secretary John Healey last month ordered a review of military files for any evidence that Epstein used RAF bases to traffic girls into the UK.
Mr Healey tasked officials with trawling through more than two decades of Ministry of Defence records and handing over to police any flight logs linked to the late paedophile financier.
Last month former prime minister Gordon Brown wrote to six police forces demanding investigations into whether Andrew used jets, funded by the taxpayer, and RAF bases during his time as trade envoy to meet Epstein.
A lip reader has also claimed that Andrew issued a desperate plea to his nephew, Prince William, during their famously tense conversation at the Duchess of Kent’s funeral last September.
In a new Channel 5 TV series, forensic lip reader Nicola Hickling claimed the ex-Duke of York used the moment at Westminster Cathedral to plead for William’s forgiveness.
All the senior royals were present, including Andrew and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, who both came to pay tribute to the wife of his late mother’s cousin, who died aged 92.
The tense moment happened on the steps of the church after the service as they waited for their cars.
Andrew apparently asks William, who was joined by his wife Kate: ‘I’ve learnt from what I’ve done but before I forget, and if I can, I’d like to ask you if you can forgive?’
The funeral was one of Andrew and Sarah Ferguson’s last official public appearances for the Royal Family before the scandal over their links to Epstein exploded.
King Charles released a statement after his brother’s arrest saying that ‘the law must take its course’, expressing his deep concern and reassurance of full cooperation with the authorities.
