Former British Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, brother of Britain’s King Charles II, was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office over his relationship with the late convicted American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and was detained for several hours before being released by police on Thursday.
Mountbatten-Windsor, who turned 66 on the day of his arrest, is the first member of the British royal family to be arrested and detained by police in more than 350 years. The last to be arrested was Charles I, who was arrested by Parliamentary forces in 1647 and tried for high treason.
His prince title was revoked last year over his relationship with Epstein and allegations that the two men sexually abused teenage Virginia Giuffre in the 1990s. Epstein, a convicted sex offender and disgraced financier, died by suicide in a US prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
In 2021, Giuffre accused Mountbatten-Windsor of sexual assault. She claimed that she was forced to have sex with him multiple times when she was 17 and a minor under U.S. law. Giuffre died by suicide in April last year after the lawsuit was settled.
Mountbatten-Windsor served as Britain’s trade envoy from 2001 to 2011, when he was still a prince, but only resigned as controversy over his relationship with Epstein intensified. While playing the role, he faced constant criticism for his “party prince” image, his behavior on overseas trips, and his lavish, tax-funded travel and entertainment expenses.
But Mountbatten-Windsor is not the first British royal to be embroiled in scandal. In 1936, the monarchy was shaken when King Edward VIII abdicated to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson.
Queen Elizabeth II largely stabilized the system during the early decades of her reign, but as her children reached adulthood, a new wave of marital crises and personal disputes engulfed the family.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the major scandals that have rocked the royal family and its reputation in recent decades.
1992: Queen Elizabeth’s “Year of Terror”
In a speech commemorating her 40th anniversary on the throne in November 1992, Queen Elizabeth referred to the year as “annus horribilis”, Latin for “the terrible year”, in response to a series of scandals.
The marriages of three of her children failed. Prince Charles, then Prince of Wales, now King, and Princess Diana lived separately, as did Mountbatten-Windsor and his wife Sarah Ferguson. Princess Anne and Mark Phillips are divorced.
In August 1992, Ferguson, who was still married and separated from Mountbatten-Windsor, was photographed holidaying in the south of France with American financial advisor John Bryan. Brian was also spotted kissing her toes, causing an uproar.
That same year, leaked phone calls between Princess Diana and her friend James Gilbey became tabloid fodder. The call was believed to have been illegally recorded and sold to the media. The intimate and emotional nature of the phone call led to speculation that Gilbey and Diana were more than friends. During the phone call, Gilbey called Diana “Squeegee,” and the incident became known as “Squeegeegate.”
1993: Camillagate
There was no way the Queen’s “year of terror” would come to an end.
Shortly after Squidgygate came “Camillagate.” In 1993, a recording of a sordid phone call between Charles Parker Bowles and Camilla Parker Bowles was leaked. The phone call was from 1989, when Charles and Diana were still married, and revealed that Charles and Camilla were in an intimate relationship.
Despite years of public outrage over the incident, Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla finally married in 2005 and remain married, with Duchess Camilla currently serving as Queen.
1995: Panoramic interview with Princess Diana
Princess Diana was interviewed by journalist Martin Bashir on the BBC program Panorama, which aired on November 20, 1995.
During the interview, Princess Diana commented on several controversies, including Charles and Camilla’s relationship. Regarding this matter, she said, “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a little crowded,” which garnered a lot of sympathy from the public. She also spoke candidly about her own mental health struggles, particularly bulimia nervosa.
Princess Diana’s candid interview opened the door to royal life, and after it aired, she became widely seen as the “people’s princess.”
After the meeting, Queen Elizabeth advised the couple to divorce immediately, and the marriage was legally dissolved the following year.
More than 20 years later, the circumstances of the interview came under scrutiny when Charles Spencer, Princess Diana’s brother, claimed that Bashir used false documents and other dishonest tactics to persuade Princess Diana to give the interview.
The BBC appointed a former senior judge to lead an investigation into the matter in 2020. The investigative report said Mr Bashir had engaged in “deceptive conduct” and breached BBC rules by creating fake bank statements and showing them to Mr Spencer in order to gain access to the princess.
In 2021, Princess Diana’s adult children Prince William and Prince Harry strongly criticized the BBC and British media after the investigation concluded, calling it unethical conduct.
1997: The Death of Diana
Two years after her Panorama interview, the princess died at the age of 36 in a Paris car accident while she and her companion were being chased by paparazzi photographers.
On August 30, 1997, a group of paparazzi were camping outside the Ritz Hotel in Paris, hoping to take photos of Princess Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed. Photographers followed the car to the Alma Bridge tunnel, where the driver lost control and crashed. Diana and Fayed were both killed.
The outpouring of national grief over Princess Diana’s death was in sharp contrast to what was seen as the royal family’s stony silence in the immediate aftermath. Members of the Queen’s family, including the Queen, were heavily criticized for not appearing in public immediately and for not lowering the flags at Buckingham Palace to half-mast.
2002: Princess Anne’s conviction
In November 2002, the Queen’s only daughter, Princess Anne, pleaded guilty to charges that her dog, an English bull terrier, lost control and bit two children in Windsor Great Park.
Anne was fined, making her the first living royal in modern times to have a criminal record.
2005: Prince Harry’s Nazi costume
A photo of Prince Harry wearing a Nazi armband at a costume party in 2005 sparked global outrage and forced him to issue a public apology.
In his 2023 memoir, Spare, Prince Harry claimed that his brother William, now Prince of Wales, and his then-girlfriend Kate Middleton encouraged him in his clothing choices and that he laughed and “barked” at them.
2020: Megxit
After years of heightened tensions with the media, Prince Harry and his wife, former actor Meghan Markle, now the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, have announced plans to step down from senior royal duties, move to North America part-time, seek financial independence and step back from regular media scrutiny.
The couple believed that Meghan’s unpopularity in the UK was due to the mostly negative coverage she received from the British press. Rumors also circulated that they clashed with other members of the royal family.
In 2021, the couple appeared on TV with Oprah Winfrey, and Prince Harry opened up about his rift with his father and brother.
Meghan said she felt so alone and miserable within the royal family that she had suicidal thoughts, and said a family member had expressed “concerns” about the color of her unborn child’s skin. Markle is half Caucasian and half African American.
Prince Harry clarified that the family member was not Queen Elizabeth or Prince Philip, sparking speculation as to who they might be.
2023: Spare
Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare, reveals intimate family details that reveal many of the horrors of the royal family that have been reported. In one incident, William allegedly slammed Markle to the floor during an argument over her in 2019.
In his book, Prince Harry also admitted to killing 25 people in Afghanistan during his time as an Apache helicopter pilot. He first served as a forward air controller for air raids in Afghanistan from 2007 to 2008, and then as an attack helicopter pilot from 2012 to 2013.
