Prince Andrew claimed that his 2010 trip to New York to visit now-deceased convicted sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein was to end their friendship.
The Duke of York, 59, was caught walking to Central Park with Epstein and peeking out the front door of Epstein’s mansion in New York despite Epstein having already served time in jail for having sex with a minor.
Despite the appearance of the trip, a person close to the prince told the Sunday Times of London that the trip has been misconstrued for what was meant to happen — the prince went there to end the with Epstein.
“The duke has been hammered for one mistake, which took place in 2010,” a senior source close to Andrew told the Sunday Times. “He has apologised again and again for the error of judgment. But what he did wasn’t criminal. It was a mistake. He went to see a friend to tell them he couldn’t be their friend any more.”
Prince Andrew’s relationship with Epstein had been thrust in the national spotlight after Epstein was arrested this summer and indicted on charges involving the exploitation and abuse of dozens of minor girls. He later took his own life in his prison cell on Aug. 10.
“I have said previously that it was a mistake and an error to see him after his release in 2010,” Prince Andrew stated back in August following Epstein’s death. “And I can only reiterate 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.”
