Prince Edward has broken the family’s silence regarding the accusations against his brother, Andrew.
He did so in Dubai during the World Government Summit, when a CNN reporter asked him how he was handling the weekend’s publication of the Epstein files.
Edward initially avoided the question, stating that the audience was there to discuss education and the future, not that topic. But then he added something that no other member of the royal family had said on camera:
“It’s really important to always remember the victims in all of this.” He paused and added, “A lot of victims in this.”
The release of additional Epstein files continues to roil the British royal family, raising further questions about the former Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson's ties to the disgraced financier.
Earlier today, CNN's @EleniGiokos asked Prince Edward for his thoughts. pic.twitter.com/UlBVzX0GOB
— CNN International PR (@cnnipr) February 3, 2026
This is the first time anyone in the royal family, aside from Andrew himself, has commented on the matter on camera. In October, Buckingham Palace issued a statement announcing that Andrew would lose his titles of “Prince” and “Duke of York.” That was all.
Silence had been the strategy up to this point. Edward’s comments follow further revelations from the Epstein files, including emails released by the Department of Justice and the House Oversight Committee.
Among those emails, several mention “The Duke” signing with the initial “A.” In August 2010, Epstein offered to arrange a dinner for him with a 26-year-old Russian woman.
The Duke, then 50, responded with delight and asked if she would bring a message from Epstein. A month later, they arranged a dinner at Buckingham Palace with “lots of privacy.”
Meanwhile, a second accuser is threatening to sue Andrew. Her lawyer, Brad Edwards, who also represented Virginia Giuffre before her suicide in April 2025, says Epstein sent the woman, then in her twenties, to the Royal Lodge in Windsor in 2010 for a sexual encounter with Andrew. And then they gave him a tour of Buckingham Palace.
Andrew has always vehemently denied everything.