According to royal biographer and historian Andrew Lownie, the bizarre and tawdry exchange took place in 2000 — not long after the pair were introduced by mutual acquaintances Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein. The revelations come from Lownie’s bombshell new book, Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, which lays bare a trove of sordid claims about the Duke of York’s private life and friendships.
One of the most striking allegations is that Epstein himself once joked that Andrew was “more obsessed with women than me.” Lownie’s reporting paints a picture of a prince increasingly enmeshed in Epstein and Maxwell’s inner circle — a friendship that would later engulf him in scandal.
The book also wades into royal family drama, claiming that in 2013 a heated confrontation erupted between Prince Harry and his uncle Andrew after Andrew made a remark behind Harry’s back. Harry allegedly called him a “coward” for not saying it to his face. “Punches were thrown,” Lownie writes, adding that Harry “got the better” of the duke, leaving him with a “bloody nose.”
Harry has flatly denied this account, telling The Daily Beast through a spokesperson: “Prince Harry and Prince Andrew have never had a physical fight, nor did Prince Andrew ever make those comments about the Duchess of Sussex to Prince Harry.” The spokesperson also rejected the book’s claim that Andrew had warned Harry against marrying Meghan Markle, calling her an “opportunist” and predicting she would be his “biggest mistake ever.”
But the denials haven’t slowed the Daily Mail from serializing the book. In its latest extract, Lownie describes how Trump and Andrew’s friendship played out publicly — and privately. In February 2000, Trump, then dating Melania Knauss, was photographed at Mar-a-Lago with Andrew, Epstein, and socialite Gwendolyn Beck. That same year, at Heidi Klum’s Halloween party, Trump praised Andrew, saying, “Andrew’s not pretentious. He’s a lot of fun to be with.”
Shortly afterward, according to Lownie, the two were overheard at another event where Trump was discussing his plans for a Scottish golf resort. But instead of focusing on business, the conversation reportedly devolved entirely into talk about “p—y,” with Trump producing a list of masseuses for Andrew.
Lownie also alleges that when Andrew was in New York, he relied on Epstein’s driver, Ivan Novikov, to supply him with women. Novikov is quoted as saying: “Whenever Andrew was in town, I’d be picking up young girls who were essentially prostitutes. One time I drove him and two young girls, around 18, to a hotel. Both were doing lines of cocaine. Prince Andrew was making out with one of them.”
Friends quoted in the book say that during this period, Andrew’s life was “spiraling out of control.” He began dressing “like a 25-year-old in jeans and a blazer” and surrounding himself with people who, some insiders warned, were manipulating him — with one friend of Sarah Ferguson reportedly telling him directly that Ghislaine Maxwell was using him and he was “too naive to realize it.”
Lownie closes by noting that some in the intelligence community fear Russian agencies may have “kompromat” on Andrew stemming from the Epstein years — potentially leaving the disgraced royal vulnerable to blackmail.