LONDON — Britain’s Prince Andrew broke his silence on his relationship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein Saturday, defending himself amid increased scrutiny on the royal after Epstein’s death.
Andrew confirmed he met with Epstein and stayed at a number of his homes but said he never witnessed any criminal behavior.
“At no stage during the limited time I spent with him did I see, witness or suspect any behaviour of the sort that subsequently led to his arrest and conviction,” Andrew, 59, said in a statement from Buckingham Palace emailed to NBC News.
Epstein, 66, died by suicide while in his Manhattan jail cell earlier this month. He was accused of exploiting a “vast network” of underage victims for sex.
In 2008, Epstein reached a non-prosecution deal with then-Miami U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta’s office to halt a federal sex abuse investigation involving more than 30 teenage girls.
Andrew, who is one of Queen Elizabeth II’s four children, acknowledged meeting with Epstein in 2010 after he had been released from a 13-month jail sentence for the 2008 case.
“I have said previously that it was a mistake and an error to see him after his release in 2010 and I can only reiterate my regret that I was mistaken to think that what I thought I knew of him was evidently not the real person, given what we now know,” he said.
Andrew has previously faced accusations related to Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking ring.
Earlier this month, he had to fend off new allegations that arose when he was mentioned in court documents unsealed in relation to a 2015 defamation lawsuit against British socialite and longtime Epstein confidante Ghislaine Maxwell by one of Epstein’s alleged victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre.
The documents, released a day before Epstein’s death, contained a deposition by Johanna Sjoberg — another woman who alleged she was forced by Maxwell to have sex with Epstein — who said that Andrew touched her breast while they sat on a couch in Epstein’s Manhattan apartment in 2001.
When asked about Sjoberg’s allegations about Prince Andrew, Buckingham Palace told NBC News at the time that “any suggestion of impropriety with underage minors is categorically untrue.” Buckingham Palace has also previously emphatically denied all allegations stemming from the 2015 court case.
None of the men identified by Giuffre has been charged with a crime. The suit was settled out of court in 2017.
The palace issued a statement last week in an attempt to distance Andrew from Epstein, saying that he was “appalled” by reports of Epstein’s alleged crimes.
Andrew said the pair had first met in 1999 and he stayed at Epstein’s residences, but saw him no more than once or twice a year.
Carolin Sri-Narayana contributed.