How the Epstein Scandal Is Haunting King Charles’s Reign
As new questions swirl about what the palace knew about Epstein and Andrew, the scandal is fueling quiet tensions inside the royal family and raising uncomfortable questions for King Charles.
Welcome back to The Red Letter.
The Epstein scandal isn’t just threatening Andrew Mountbatten Windsor anymore, it’s tearing the royal family apart.
Behind palace walls, blame is ricocheting between brothers, advisers, and the wider royal circle as the Epstein scandal closes in on the monarchy. And according to the former Prince Andrew’s unofficial royal biographer Andrew Lownie, the fallout could be so severe that King Charles III may ultimately step aside earlier than expected. Not because he wants to, but because he may have to.
As Lownie put it bluntly when I spoke with him this week on The Tara Palmeri Show: “This is pretty much a family at war.”
“There’s no love lost between Charles and Andrew,” he said. “And there seem to be now divisions breaking up in the whole family.”
The Yorks are being isolated. William and Catherine are keeping their distance. Other branches of the family are quietly choosing sides. And at the center of the storm is the question that has haunted the monarchy since Epstein’s crimes became impossible to ignore: Who knew what—and when?
The Problem for Charles
Prince Andrew has long been treated as the monarchy’s embarrassment. But Lownie argues the deeper problem may be that the palace knew far more about Andrew’s behavior than it ever admitted.
“The Queen knew,” Lownie told me, adding that officials from Britain’s Foreign Office and intelligence services complained about Andrew’s conduct for years, but were rebuffed by the palace.
“I’m afraid King Charles also knew and that puts him in a difficult position now because he’s claiming that the law must take its course,” he said. “Well if the course of the law reveals that he’s known about this and didn’t report any of it and protected and aided this man then he is in big trouble himself.”
If the monarchy protected Andrew while he was entangled with Epstein and other questionable figures, the scandal no longer belongs to one rogue prince, it becomes an institutional failure that Charles is deeply embroiled in.
“I think Charles knew everything,” Lownie said. “It was in the newspapers for 15 years.”
That reality puts the King in a delicate position as investigations into Epstein’s network expand in both the United States and the United Kingdom. If Andrew becomes the sole fall guy, he could retaliate.
“There’s no love lost between Charles and Andrew,” Lownie told me. “Andrew can easily say, ‘Charles knew all about these things. Why am I being the patsy?’”
In other words: if Andrew goes down, he may not go quietly.
Paid subscribers can read the full interview and analysis below, including:
• Why insiders say Charles may become the “lightning rod” for the scandal
• How the palace is pushing blame toward the York family
• Why William may be waiting for the crisis to burn itself out
• And the scenario in which Charles could step aside earlier than expected
