It is unclear whether Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, was at The Royal Lodge, his residence, at the time and whether his lawyers would say this was proper service.
A representative for Prince Andrew’s legal team did not immediately respond to calls for comment. The Palace declined to comment on whether Prince Andrew had been served, and has previously declined to comment on the litigation.
CNN has reached out to lawyers for Virginia Giuffre but has yet to hear back.
In an affidavit, the process server said he arrived at The Royal Lodge the morning of August 26 and talked to the head of security, who said the security team had been instructed not to allow anybody trying to serve legal documents onto the grounds and “not to accept service of any court process,” according to the affidavit.
The process server said he was told anything left there would not be forwarded to the defendant, the affidavit said. The process server said he telephoned Prince Andrew’s attorney and left a message, according to the affidavit.
The next day, the process server returned to The Royal Lodge and was told he could leave the legal documents with security at the main gates and the documents would be forwarded to the defendant’s legal team, the affidavit said.
Serving the papers in that manner “is consistent with the provisions for service upon an individual Defendant … as required by The Supreme Court of Judicature in England & Wales,” according to the court document obtained by CNN.
A pretrial hearing is set for Monday, September 13, in New York in this case. It is unclear how attorneys for the prince will respond.
CNN’s Max Foster reported from Berkshire, England, and Brian Vitagliano from New York.