While he is now widely condemned as a disgraced former prince, there was once a time where Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was hailed as ‘six feet of sex appeal’ with dashing ‘Robert Redford looks’.
Indeed, the ex-Duke of York, 66, was even considered to be one of The Firm’s ‘burgeoning assets’ during his teenage years, according to royal author Tina Brown.
Writing in her bestselling book The Palace Papers, Ms Brown painted a picture of a young Andrew who was ‘debonair, light-hearted and manly, with a toothy, Kennedy-esque smile’.
‘When he accompanied his parents at the age of 16 to the 1976 Montreal Olympics, a Canadian newspaper described him as “six feet of sex appeal”.’
Charles fondly described his younger brother’s looks as synonymous with the dashing American actor Robert Redford and the prince was frequently ranked by People Magazine as among the world’s best-looking men.
And as his popularity soared, crowds of teenage girls even gathered in their masses to demand ‘we want Andy!’ when the dashing young prince disembarked an aircraft in Toronto in 1977, aged 17.
Yet by late 2000, the once popular prince had begun to embark upon a drastically different path. Aged 40, he accompanied Jeffrey Epstein on a trip to Thailand and was famously photographed on a catamaran surrounded by several topless women.
The former prince stayed at Amanpuri Resort in Phuket, then Asia’s most expensive and exclusive hotel and spent his evenings with Epstein at the local red-light district of Patong frequenting discos at ‘adult entertainment’ bars filled with go-go dancers.
Meanwhile, he was also reported to have ‘attended a party thrown by Japanese fashion guru Kenzo Takada at which most of the guests wore G-strings – Andrew wore a towelling toga’.
At the time, it was suggested that the then-prince was joined on the trip by Jacqui Hamilton-Smith, the daughter of Lord Colwyn, Nellee Hooper, a Bristol-born record producer, Atomic Kitten singer Jenny Frost and socialite Normandie Keith.
Under the headline ‘Topless Beauties and Exotic Party Animals… Welcome to Andy’s Troubling New Realm,’ one tabloid called for the then-prince to be given a ‘proper role’ in the institution and demanded that ‘function has to be found immediately’.
Andrew’s trip to Thailand with Epstein in early 2001 came after the prince had invited the since convicted sex offender to Balmoral in July 1999.
The following summer, Epstein attended a royal dinner dance at Windsor Castle and that autumn he visited Sandringham for what the Prince later dubs ‘a standard shooting weekend’.
During an interview with the Daily Mail’s Deep Dive: The Fall Of The House Of York, Mr Lownie claimed that during a so-called ‘midlife crisis’ Andrew embarked on a series of taxpayer-funded trips that doubled as holidays.
On one ‘famous’ trip to Thailand, he alleged that the disgraced former prince had 40 prostitutes brought to his five-star hotel over just four days.
He told Daily Mail columnist Sarah Vine that then-Prince Charles advised against giving Andrew the Trade Envoy role in 2001, warning he would just ‘chase women and play golf’.
Asked by host Vine about the 40 prostitutes claim, the historian said it had been verified by multiple sources including a Reuters correspondent and a member of the Thai royal family.
Writing in Entitled, Mr Lownie explained that Andrew’s ‘new lifestyle could be traced back to his closer relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell’.
He added that across the course of a year, the disgraced ex-Duke had been on a total of eight different holidays with Ghislaine, while Epstein accompanied the duo on two of them.
According to one friend, the former prince was seen to be ‘spiralling out of control’.
While Sarah Ferguson travelled to America to work, Andrew opted to stay at Buckingham Palace to ‘go out to the clubs’, rather than return home to look after young princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.
‘In a few short months Andrew had embarked on a heady lifestyle in which he appeared to be rediscovering his youth, hooked by the wealth and reach of new friends and the doors they could open. It was to be a dangerous combination,’ wrote Mr Lownie.
Meanwhile, Lownie also detailed how several insiders collated reports of the ex-prince’s ‘serial sex addiction’, including dalliances with porn stars and ‘sleazy’ passes made at staff – with Buckingham Palace being forced to issue a statement that he didn’t contract an STI.
According to his former driver, the king’s disgraced younger brother had slept with ‘more than a dozen women’ before his first year anniversary of marriage to Sarah Ferguson.
It was also claimed he enjoyed a slew of affairs with both women and men amid rumours Fergie had found her then-husband ‘in a compromising position with another man’; however, no concrete proof had ever surfaced.
During this time, a maid who had spent 11 years at Buckingham Palace also alleged that the then-Duchess once came home to find Andrew, wearing his underpants and a shirt ‘sprawled on a large couch with one of his navy friends who was wearing nothing but socks’.
According to the account, Sarah had said something to the effect of: ‘Make up your mind! It’s me or your bloody boyfriends, but you can’t have both.’
Speaking to Lownie, one model who, aged 21, said she had sex with Andrew in the late 80s when he was still married, said he was ‘sex obsessed’.
‘He wanted me to engage in kinky sexual activity,’ she recounted. ‘He had no boundaries. He told me he had an open marriage arrangement with his wife… After returning to London, I never heard from him again. I felt like he used me for a few days, so he could live his wildest fantasies.’
And as the tranche of Epstein files have continued to be released, the Daily Mail recently revealed how Andrew enjoyed a private naked massage in a bedroom at Buckingham Palace – all paid for using a cheque from the Palace.
The shamed former prince snuck professional masseuse Monique Giannelloni into the late Queen’s official residence after she was recommended to him by Ghislaine Maxwell.
Ms Giannelloni claims she was waved through into the Palace without any security checks before being taken up to Andrew’s room where Andrew emerged from the bathroom completely naked before lying down on the massage chair.
South African Ms Giannelloni provided the Daily Mail with an invoice showing Buckingham Palace settled the £75 bill directly from a Coutts account.
The rub down took place in June 2000 – a few months before the then-Duke of York became UK Trade Envoy in 2001, a role that he held until 2011 when he was forced to stand down over his friendship with the paedophile billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew’s ties to Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein would eventually result in his momentous fall from grace – culminating in his arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office on his 66th birthday.
The disgraced ex-duke was accused of sharing sensitive information with paedophile financier Epstein during his time as special representative for international trade and investment.
The former prince has denied any wrongdoing.
King Charles issued an unprecedented statement confirming his ‘wholehearted support and co-operation’ with the investigation into Andrew just hours after he was detained on Thursday – with Buckingham Palace understood not to have known the former Duke of York would be arrested.
The statement said: ‘I have learned with the deepest concern the news about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and suspicion of misconduct in public office.
‘What now follows is the full, fair and proper process by which this issue is investigated in the appropriate manner and by the appropriate authorities. In this, as I have said before, they have our full and wholehearted support and co-operation.
‘Let me state clearly: the law must take its course.’
