LONDON—British police arrested Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Prince Andrew, on suspicion of misconduct in public office, as revelations linked to Jeffrey Epstein roil British politics and the royal family.
After police questioned Mountbatten-Windsor on Thursday, he was released under investigation.
Police didn’t disclose the exact allegations they were investigating, but the arrest comes after disclosures about his dealings with Epstein that have dominated headlines in the U.K. A cache of emails recently released by the U.S. Justice Department show Mountbatten-Windsor’s personal and business interactions with the convicted sex offender were far more extensive and went on for far longer than previously known.
The former prince has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to his dealings with Epstein. He didn’t respond to requests for comment.
King Charles III said he had learned of the arrest of his younger brother with “deepest concern” but that the royal family supported a full investigation. He added: “Let me state clearly: the law must take its course.”
President Trump told reporters the arrest was “very, very sad” and “so bad for the royal family.” He praised King Charles as a wonderful man.
Police said they were carrying out searches at addresses in Berkshire, which is home to Mountbatten-Windsor’s former residence, and Norfolk, where he is currently living in a cottage on an estate owned by the king.
The arrest on Thursday—Mountbatten-Windsor’s 66th birthday—deepens a spectacular fall from grace for the third child of the late Queen Elizabeth II following years of scandal and sex-abuse allegations. It marks the first time that a royal has been taken into custody since King Charles I during the English Civil War in the 1640s. A lengthy police investigation—and a possible criminal trial—could see the shadow of the Epstein scandal hanging over the British royal family for months to come.
The recently released files suggest that Mountbatten-Windsor forwarded confidential government reports to Epstein while the royal was serving as a trade envoy in 2010, and that Epstein introduced him to several women, including some he hosted at Buckingham Palace.
Earlier this month, police said they were looking into two complaints involving the former prince stemming from the recently released files. One was that he reportedly disclosed confidential government information and the other was a report that a woman was taken to an address in Windsor in 2010 “for sexual purposes.”
Mountbatten-Windsor in the past said he cut off all contact with the disgraced financier in late 2010. The emails showed the pair kept in touch through a close business associate of Epstein’s until a year before Epstein was found dead in his jail cell in 2019. Mountbatten-Windsor hasn’t commented publicly on the emails.
Mountbatten-Windsor reached a settlement with one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre, in 2022 over allegations the then-prince abused her on several occasions in the early 2000s when she was a teenager.
Charles has already moved to put distance between himself and his younger brother. Mountbatten-Windsor was barred from using his royal titles last year but remains eighth in line to the throne. Still, the latest disclosures threaten to tarnish the image of the family and Britain’s relationship with its monarchy.
Much now hinges on what the probe into Mountbatten-Windsor unearths. The British public has proved resilient in its support for the crown during various previous scandals, said Robert Hazell, an expert on the British constitution and professor at University College London. The key question will be if Charles “acted wrongly himself, and there is no indication of that,” he said.
Lawyers said proving misconduct in office is difficult. “The offence is notoriously hard to prosecute, due to the number of different elements the prosecution are required to prove and the narrow definitions therein, applied by the courts,” said Andrew Gilmore, a partner at Grosvenor Law.
The scandal has reverberated through British politics. Police have said they are also investigating Peter Mandelson, the former U.K. ambassador to the U.S., for alleged misconduct in public office after the tranche of emails also suggested Mandelson had forwarded market-sensitive information to Epstein while in the British cabinet. Mandelson has quit the House of Lords, the upper chamber of the U.K. Parliament, and was removed from his job last year in relation to the scandal.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has come under pressure for having appointed Mandelson despite knowing about his links to Epstein. He has said Mandelson lied to him about the depth of those links. Mandelson has denied wrongdoing but has apologized to the victims of Epstein.
Several other British police forces have said they are assessing whether to launch investigations relating to the Epstein files. The Essex and Bedfordshire constabularies are looking at private flights in and out of London’s Stansted and Luton airports, while London’s Metropolitan Police has said it was making “initial enquiries” into allegations involving royal protection officers assigned to Mountbatten-Windsor.
