Latest news with #PrinceAndrew
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
The Queen's gift that turned into a disaster revealed: How a lavish wedding gift for Fergie and Prince Andrew ended up bringing the late monarch to her breaking point
He has spent the past year trying to persuade his disgraced brother Prince Andrew to move out of Royal Lodge, in Windsor Great Park, where he has lived for the past two decades, since the death of the Queen Mother in 2002. The King has cut Andrew's private security and £1 million allowance in a bid to encourage him to move into nearby Frogmore Cottage, the former home of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, which is more modest and easier to guard. But now a new Channel 5 documentary, reveals that the late Queen Elizabeth II was equally pushed to breaking point by her favourite son, when he and the Duchess of York were building their first marital home, Sunninghill Park. And she finally cut off the purse strings after the bills for the 30-bedroom mansion, which, in a twist on JR's Dallas ranch Southfork, became known as SouthYork, spiralled out of control, topping their budget of £250,000. Speaking on the programme Fergie, Andrew & The Scandal of SouthYork, author Andrew Lownie, who has written a biography about the couple, Entitled, said: 'The Queen, I think, eventually put her foot down and said, you know, this is crazy. 'At that point, they hadn't built the swimming pool and the tennis court, and who knows whether the helicopter pad was there then either.' It is now almost half a century since Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson on July 23, 1986, in front of 2,000 guests at Westminster Abbey, including celebrities such as Sir Elton John and Michael Caine. The wedding list reputedly totalled £1.5million and more than 2,000 gifts were received from all over the world. They were temporarily stored in the Buckingham Palace Ballroom. Top priority for the couple was to find their marital home, which was a wedding gift from Queen Elizabeth. But the couple could not find anywhere to meet their exacting demands. Finally, the Queen offered them the site of Sunninghill Park, a 5,000-acre estate with lakes, woodlands and gardens, which sat on the edge of Windsor Great Park, four miles from where Andrew now lives. The 18th century house, which was requisitioned by the American Ninth Air Force squadron of fighter pilots during World War II, had been earmarked for a young Princess Elizabeth and her fiancé, Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten after their 1947 marriage. But during renovations, a workman in the library dropped a cigarette and the whole building went up on flames. Despite dozens of firemen battling to save the mansion, it was razed to the ground. Work began on the newbuild – the first Royal newbuild since Bagshot Park in 1879 – but immediately attracted controversy over its design, by architect Dunbar Naismith, which was more American ranch than English stately home. 'They tweaked and reshaped the designs over and over again, much to the frustration of their architect, said Talk TV's Royal editor Sarah Hewson. 'When Prince Philip, never one to mince his words, saw the plans, he described it as looking like a 'tart's bedroom'.' Fergie then caused a huge uproar by commissioning the American designer Sister Parrish, who had designed the White House, to decorate Sunninghill Park. She got a quote for £1 million and handed it to the Queen, who complained that the price was too high, forcing her to switch to the British designer Nina Campbell, who had designed London hotspot Annabel's. She was reportedly given a budget of £250,000 – almost half a million today – to cater for the couple's long list of demands, which included a panic room, cinema room, helipad, swimming pool and tennis courts. However, their extravagant designs spiralled out of control and broke the couple's budget. At that stage, midway through 1990, the Palace refused to pay any more. 'By this stage, Sunninghill Park was proving to be a financial headache,' added Hewson, 'in particular, for the Queen, notoriously financially prudent who was having to foot the ever-escalating bills.' Instead of accepting the decision, Fergie looked around to find another way to earn the money. She came up with another way to fund her dream home, inviting Hello! magazine in to do a lavish photoshoot. They were paid £200,000 for a 45-page spread, which led to them being derided over their taste: the house was filled with teddy bears, cushions with trite slogans, personalised toilet holders including one that sang God Save The Queen.' The Yorks moved in to the house in October 1990 and threw a huge housewarming party with a jungle theme with waitresses in leopard skin and fake animals in the bushes 'Fergie had a very enterprising idea that she would do a photoshoot for Hello!' said Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine. 'Nobody in the royal family had ever done a shoot like that.' 'Although the Queen never commented publicly on it, she was less than pleased,' added Hewson. 'She saw it as lacking decorum that it was an invasion of privacy. Prince Philip, he just thought it was downright tacky and distasteful.' The Yorks finally moved in on October 5, 1990, throwing a huge housewarming party with a jungle theme. There were fake animals popping out of the bushes, waitresses in leopard skin and Elton John performed Your Song. Andrew and Sarah mingled with guests including Billy Connolly, Pamela Stephenson David Frost and Imran Khan, before slow dancing on the dance floor. However, the couple's marriage was already on the rocks as Andrew, who was a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, was stationed at sea and Fergie was stranded home alone with Princesses Beatrice, two, and baby Eugenie. Within 18 months, after Fergie was caught having an affair with American playboy Steve Wyatt, Andrew filed for divorce and the SouthYork dream was over. Fergie, Andrew & The Scandal of SouthYork is on Channel 5 on Saturday July 26 at 8pm.
News.com.au
3 days ago
- Politics
- News.com.au
US politics live: Jeffrey Epstein's former lawyer says co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell is the key, and ‘knows everything'
Welcome to another week of politics in the United States. This one promises to be as dramatic as ever. President Donald Trump is still seeking to shift Americans' focus away from the Jeffrey Epstein case. To that end, the Department of Justice has now moved to release grand jury testimony from the prosecutions of both Epstein and his chief co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell. Mr Trump hopes that will mollify his supporters. However, even if the courts decide that information can be released, it will only represent a small fraction of the so-called 'Epstein files', as high profile lawyer Alan Dershowitz pointed out today. 'Grand jury information is narrowly tailored by prosecutors only to provide sufficient evidence to result in an indictment,' Mr Dershowitz, who represented Epstein in the past, told Fox News Sunday. 'What's much, much more important is discovery information, depositions and other things that came out of the Ghislaine Maxwell case, (and) that came out of other cases that were pending in front of federal judges. 'All of that should be revealed as well.' He cited the case of Britain's Prince Andrew as an example. And Mr Dershowitz said Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for her part in Epstein's sex trafficking crimes, was 'the Rosetta Stone'. 'She arranged every single trip with everybody. She knows everything,' he said, suggesting Maxwell could testify before Congress. Mr Trump has been on something of a social media spree today. In one post, he claimed the Epstein controversy had actually helped his approval ratings, particularly among Republican voters. 'My Poll Numbers within the Republican Party, and MAGA, have gone up, significantly, since the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax was exposed by the Radical Left Democrats and, just plain 'troublemakers',' he said. 'They have hit 90 per cent, 92 per cent, 93 per cent, and 95 per cent, in various polls, and are all Republican Party records. The General Election numbers are my highest, EVER!' The President did not cite any specific poll. Mr Trump has also been returning to a few of his past hits in the culture wars. For example, he's called for NFL franchise the Washington Commanders and baseball team the Cleveland Guardians to change their names back to the Redskins and Indians, respectively. Both franchises previously changed their names because of concerns they were insensitive towards Native Americans. 'My statement on the Washington Redskins has totally blown up, but only in a very positive way,' said Mr Trump. 'I may put a restriction on them if they don't change the name back to the original 'Washington Redskins' and get rid of the ridiculous moniker 'Washington Commanders'. I won't make a deal for them to build a stadium in Washington. 'Cleveland should do the same with the Cleveland Indians.' On a more substantive matter, the White House is reportedly frustrated with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. One Trump official, who was not named, told Axios that Mr Netanyahu has been acting 'like a madman' and 'bombs everything all the time'. 'Netanyahu is sometimes like a child who just won't behave,' another official said. Slightly patronising, you might say.
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Prince Andrew WAS asked to contribute to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein's 50th birthday album by Ghislaine Maxwell, insider claims
Prince Andrew was personally asked to contribute a message to billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein 's 50th birthday album, an insider has claimed. The Duke of York, 65, was allegedly approached by longtime friend Maxwell to write a personal message for Epstein's milestone birthday in 2003, a project the British socialite is said to have spent over a year orchestrating. He was convicted of sex crimes a few years later, in 2008. Maxwell, now 63 and serving a 20-year sentence in a US prison for trafficking underage girls, is believed to have asked Epstein's circle of powerful and wealthy friends to submit written tributes. According to US investigators, the album - described as 'gold-embossed' and bound in leather - was later recovered by the Department of Justice during a probe into Epstein's sordid network. A US source told the Sunday People: 'Ghislaine was the driving force behind the birthday tributes. 'She wanted it to be a who's who of Epstein's inner circle, and she leaned on a lot of people to write something. It wasn't just casual greetings. Ghislaine wanted messages that were personal, meaningful.' 'Jeffrey… always saw Andrew as the pinnacle of his pals, and Ghislaine made sure he was asked to contribute. 'She framed it as a celebration of Jeffrey's brilliance, his generosity, his supposed unique mind. She made it sound like an honour to be included.' It is not known whether Prince Andrew did ultimately send a message. However, his close relationship with Epstein, a friendship he has faced intense scrutiny over in recent years, was already well established at the time. Andrew was first introduced to Epstein by Maxwell in 1999 and subsequently visited the disgraced financier at his homes in New York, Palm Beach, and the US Virgin Islands. Epstein was also hosted by the Prince at royal residences including Balmoral, Windsor Castle, Sandringham, and Royal Ascot. The Duke has consistently denied any knowledge of Epstein's crimes, which became public in 2006. In 2008, Epstein was convicted of procuring a minor for prostitution. He died by suicide in a Manhattan jail in 2019 while awaiting federal sex trafficking charges. Virginia Giuffre, who claimed she was trafficked by Epstein as a teenager, alleged in a 2014 court filing that she had been forced to have sex with Andrew on three occasions - allegations the Prince has 'vehemently' denied. In 2022, he reached an out-of-court settlement with Giuffre reportedly worth £12million, while maintaining his innocence and stating he had no recollection of meeting her. Giuffre died by suicide in Australia earlier this year, aged 41. The existence of the birthday album first emerged after claims that Donald Trump had contributed a handwritten note to Epstein in 2003. According to The Wall Street Journal, the letter included a crude drawing of a naked woman and a signature allegedly stylised to resemble pubic hair. The message reportedly read: 'A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday - and may every day be another wonderful secret,' and added, 'We have certain things in common, Jeffrey.' Trump has furiously denied the report and is now suing The Wall Street Journal for a staggering $10billion (£7.46billion), branding the story 'fake'. He told reporters: 'I don't draw pictures of women. It's not my language, it's not my words.' The former US President's ties to Epstein have long been under the spotlight. In a 2002 interview, Trump remarked: 'He's a lot of fun to be with… he liked beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.' Trump has since said he distanced himself from Epstein well before the financier's crimes became public. Meanwhile, The Mail on Sunday has revealed that former US President Bill Clinton also contributed a 'warm and gushing' letter to the birthday book. The message, embossed with 'From the desk of William Jefferson Clinton', was included among hundreds of tributes from elite figures Maxwell is said to have courted for over a year.
Malay Mail
4 days ago
- Politics
- Malay Mail
NYT: Epstein was the only guest at Trump's Mar-a-Lago party with ‘young women'
NEW YORK, July 20 — Donald Trump hosted exclusive parties for Jeffrey Epstein at Mar-a-Lago, including a 1992 event featuring Buffalo Bills cheerleaders where NBC cameras captured Trump pointing at women while whispering in Epstein's ear, causing the financier to 'double over with laughter.' According to a New York Times report today, Trump arranged another Mar-a-Lago party for 'young women in a so-called calendar girl competition' where Epstein was remarkably 'the only other guest,' prompting event organiser George Houraney to ask, 'Donald, this is supposed to be a party with VIPs. You're telling me it's you and Epstein?' The two men spent nearly 15 years as public friends in their Palm Beach-and-Manhattan social circle, attending 'lavish dinners with boldface names at Mr Epstein's mansion on the Upper East Side and raucous parties with cheerleaders and models at Mr Trump's private club.' Court records show Trump flew on Epstein's private Boeing 727 at least seven times over four years in the 1990s, making trips between Palm Beach and Teterboro, New Jersey. Trump publicly praised their friendship in 2002, telling New York magazine: 'I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.' Prince Andrew, Virginia Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell pose for a photo at an undisclosed location in this undated image released on August 9, 2021 by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. — AFP pic Multiple women who say they were victimised by Epstein described encounters with Trump during this period, including Virginia Giuffre, who was recruited into Epstein's world while working as a spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago, and Stacey Williams, who alleges Trump groped her when Epstein brought her to Trump Tower. The friendship ruptured around 2004 over a real estate bidding war for a US$41.35 million Palm Beach mansion, with Trump later claiming he also banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago for acting 'inappropriately to the daughter of a member.' After Epstein's 2019 arrest on sex trafficking charges, Trump immediately distanced himself, telling reporters: 'I had a falling out with him a long time ago. I don't think I've spoken to him in 15 years. I wasn't a fan.' When asked if he suspected Epstein was molesting young women, Trump replied, 'No, I had no idea,' despite his earlier comment about Epstein liking women 'on the younger side.' Trump has repeatedly tried to deflect attention from his Epstein ties by targeting political opponents, telling Fox News in 2015 that Bill Clinton 'got a lot of problems coming up, in my opinion, with the famous island with Jeffrey Epstein.' Under pressure from supporters demanding the release of Epstein files, Trump this week ordered the Justice Department to seek unsealing of grand jury testimony, though the transcripts are unlikely to shed light on their personal relationship. Trump recently dismissed continued scrutiny of the Epstein case as a 'hoax' and expressed exasperation to reporters: 'Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy's been talked about for years.' A protester holds a sign outside the White House demanding the release to all files related to Jeffrey Epstein in Washington, DC, on July 18, 2025. — AFP pic
Malay Mail
5 days ago
- Politics
- Malay Mail
Trump, Epstein, why MAGA is in turmoil: Key facts you need to know
WASHINGTON, July 19 — The 2019 suicide of disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a New York jail cell generated conspiracy theories, fuelled by US President Donald Trump's conservative MAGA movement, that he was killed by one of his famous connections. Here are some facts about Epstein and the current controversy: Who is Jeffrey Epstein? The Brooklyn-born Epstein, a former high school math teacher who later founded consulting and financial management firms, cultivated the rich and famous. He was known for socialising with politicians and royalty, including Trump, Democratic President Bill Clinton, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Britain's Prince Andrew. Some friends and clients flew on his private plane and visited his Caribbean islands. Trump knew Epstein socially in the 1990s and early 2000s. During the 2021 trial of Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, the financier's long-time pilot, Lawrence Visoski, testified that Trump flew on Epstein's private plane multiple times. Trump has denied being on the plane. What was Epstein charged with? In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to a Florida state felony prostitution charge, after federal prosecutors agreed not to charge him with sex trafficking of minors. He served 13 months in jail and was required to register as a sex offender. That punishment is now widely regarded as too lenient. In July 2019, the Justice Department charged Epstein with sex trafficking minors, including sexually exploiting and abusing dozens of girls, in New York and Florida between 2002 and 2005. He pleaded not guilty. Epstein died on August 10, 2019, at age 66 by hanging himself in a Manhattan jail cell, an autopsy concluded. He was never tried on the 2019 charges. What is the current controversy over Epstein? Though the New York City chief medical examiner determined that Epstein's death was a suicide by hanging, Epstein's ties to wealthy and powerful people prompted speculation that one or more of them wanted him silenced. In several interviews, Trump left open the possibility that Epstein may not have died by suicide. During the 2024 presidential campaign, when asked on Fox News if he would declassify the Epstein files, Trump said, 'Yeah, yeah I would.' In February, Fox News asked Attorney General Pam Bondi whether the Justice Department would be releasing Epstein's client list, and she said, 'It's sitting on my desk right now to review.' Some of Trump's most loyal followers became furious after his administration reversed course on its promise. A Justice Department memo released on July 7 concluded that Epstein killed himself and said there was 'no incriminating client list' or evidence that Epstein blackmailed prominent people. The demands by Trump supporters for more Epstein-related documents have caused a rare fracture within the president's base. Supporters, inspired by conservative talk show hosts and podcasters, have said the federal government is concealing records to protect wealthy and influential people with ties to Epstein. Trying to contain the fallout, Trump defended Bondi and accused his supporters in a Truth Social post of falling for a hoax, calling them 'weaklings' who were helping Democrats. With backlash from his base not abating, Trump on July 17 requested that Bondi ask a federal judge to unseal grand jury transcripts related to Epstein's 2019 indictment. The government on Friday filed a motion in Manhattan federal court to unseal the transcripts. What happens next? Ultimately, a judge will decide whether to release the transcripts. Transcripts of grand jury proceedings are generally kept secret under federal criminal procedure rules, with limited exceptions. If a judge agrees to release the transcripts, it is likely that some material would be redacted, or blacked out because of privacy or security concerns. — Reuters
