We’ve been waiting for more than a year for the British press to really go after Prince Andrew in a big way. There was a moment after his BBC interview last November when the press could have declared open season on Andrew… but they still largely pulled their punches, merely doing enough to get Andrew to “step down” from his full-time royal status, all while praising the Queen. Sidenote: the Queen’s first instinct was to keep protecting Andrew, and it wasn’t until Charles ordered his mother to fire Andrew that anything got done. Just FYI, for all of the revisionist history still happening around that moment.

Anyway, this weekend was full of new revelations about Andrew, some involving the shadiness over his finances, some involving the Swiss chalet lawsuit, and some involving Andrew’s trip to New York to see Epstein in 2010, after Epstein was already a convicted sexual predator. The Mail on Sunday did a lengthy interview with an unnamed woman who was one of the models Epstein abused during that time. You can read the full MoS story here.

Paedophile Jeffrey Epstein arranged for three young women to meet Prince Andrew at his notorious New York mansion, a former model who was part of the billionaire’s inner circle claimed last night. The women, who were all in their early 20s, were told to ‘dress up beautifully’ for the meetings with the Duke of York at the tycoon’s £60 million home, she claimed in an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday. At least two of the alleged meetings are believed to have been during Andrew’s now-infamous stay with the convicted sex offender in December 2010. If true, the claims would undermine Andrew’s account of the six-day trip which has plagued him for almost a decade and ultimately led to his withdrawal from public life.

In bombshell testimony, the insider, who we have agreed not to name, claimed:

*The Duke treated Epstein’s house ‘like it was his’ and stayed in an opulent bedroom that was dubbed ‘Room Britannica’.
*Epstein used Andrew to ‘attract women’ to his home and as a ‘promotion tool’ to rebuild his reputation after serving 13 months in jail following his conviction for sex offences in 2008.
*The tycoon falsely promised young women that their ‘reward’ for meeting the Duke would be a ‘bright career future, powerful connections and money’.
*Andrew asked one of the women whether she had a boyfriend. Epstein bragged about watching the film The King’s Speech with Andrew in an exclusive screening at his home before its UK release
*Andrew may have had his feet massaged by a woman while watching the Oscar-winning movie starring Colin Firth, which depicts how his grandfather, King George VI, battled to overcome a stammer.

[From The Daily Mail]

This trip to New York has been widely analyzed – Andrew stayed in Epstein’s mansion, they went for a walk in the park together (which was caught by paparazzi), and paparazzi were staked outside Epstein’s mansion for days, watching a series of very young-looking women go in and out of the mansion, and Andrew even opened the door for many of them (like he owned the place). All of which to say… I completely believe all of this woman’s claims. Ugh.

Several additional pieces of news, all from a Sunday Times article. Regarding the Swiss chalet that Andrew and Sarah Ferguson failed to make a $6-8 million payment on last year, sources tell the Sunday Times that “Andrew and Fergie’s income-generating powers have been decimated by the Epstein scandal and Andrew’s expulsion from public life,” and that’s why they failed to make the payment on the chalet. Fergie apparently sent Whatsapp messages promising the final payment by New Year’s but “when the money did not arrive the vendor started legal action in the Swiss debt courts.” Apparently, installment-payments are rarely done on Swiss properties in this price range, but the owner agreed to it because “it was Prince Andrew and she had no reason to doubt that he would pay.”

Sources also told the Sunday Times that now Andrew and Fergie are going to sell the chalet because their finances are in such bad shape post-Epstein: “As a result it was clear they would struggle to meet their financial obligations. The decision was made that the chalet was going to be sold to clear their debts and the situation would be resolved to everybody’s satisfaction.” All of these scandals might be the final nail in Andrew’s coffin, with one source telling the Times: “There’s no way back for Andrew, he’s a busted flush. Nobody in royal circles or the public seems to be mourning his absence from public life. The queen is a pragmatist, she’ll be fully aware that’s how people feel.” Yeah, I doubt it. Andrew is still the Queen’s favorite, and she still wants him to return to public life.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red and Backgrid.