The stripping of Prince Andrew’s military roles and royal patronages marked a nadir for the queen’s second son since sexual assault accusations arose amid concern over his relationship with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. It was a fall from grace for the 65-year-old, who was once second in line to the throne.
19 February 1960
Prince Andrew is born at Buckingham Palace, becoming the first child born to a reigning monarch since Princess Beatrice to Queen Victoria.
1979
Andrew joins the Royal Navy as a trainee helicopter pilot. He studies at Dartmouth naval college and completes Royal Marines courses.
1982
The prince serves in the Falklands war, after Argentinian forces invade the British overseas territory in the south Atlantic. He serves on HMS Invincible as a Sea King helicopter co-pilot.
1984
Andrew is promoted to lieutenant, and the queen makes him her personal aide-de-camp. He serves onboard HMS Brazen as a flight pilot until 1986.
July 1986
Thousands line the streets in central London as Andrew marries Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey, and on the same day the queen makes him Duke of York, Earl of Inverness and Baron Killyleagh. They go on to have two daughters – Princess Beatrice, born in August 1988, and Princess Eugenie, born in March 1990.
March 1992
The Duke and Duchess of York announce they are to separate. Divorce is finalised in May 1996, although the two remain close.
1999
Andrew is reportedly introduced to Epstein, an investment banker and financier, through a mutual friend, Ghislaine Maxwell – the daughter of the late media tycoon Robert Maxwell. A photograph that comes to light during Maxwell’s 2021 trial for sex trafficking shows her and Epstein at the queen’s Balmoral residence that year.
2000
Epstein, Maxwell and Andrew are seen at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. Later that year, Epstein and Maxwell attend a joint birthday party at Windsor Castle hosted by the queen, and the prince throws a shooting weekend for Maxwell’s birthday.
March 2001
According to Virginia Giuffre, Andrew sexually assaults her at Maxwell’s home in Belgravia, London, and also twice more, at Epstein’s New York home and at an “orgy” on his private island in the Caribbean when she was 17.
The allegation prompts a comprehensive denial from the Duke of York.
July 2001
Andrew retires from the Royal Navy as commander. He is later promoted to rear admiral, in 2010, and vice admiral, in 2015.
The government appoints him as special representative for international trade and investment. He represents the UK at trade fairs and conferences around the world.
December 2010
The prince visits Epstein in New York after Epstein’s release from prison for pleading guilty to prostituting minors. They are photographed walking through Central Park.
May 2010
The Duchess of York is filmed by a tabloid reporter claiming the prince would meet a donor and pass on business contacts if she receives £500,000.
July 2011
Andrew quits his trade envoy role after a furore about him visiting Epstein in New York after he had been jailed for sexual offences. Ferguson admits accepting money from Epstein to pay off debts.
April 2015
Allegations that Andrew had sex with Giuffre emerge in court documents in Florida related to Epstein. They say she was forced to have sex with him when she was 17, which is under the age of consent under Florida law. Buckingham Palace denies the allegations.
August 2019
Epstein is found dead in his jail cell after being re-arrested and charged with sex trafficking.
November 2019
Andrew steps back from public duties “for the foreseeable future” after a disastrous BBC TV interview where he claims he could not have had sex with Giuffre because he was at home after a visit to Pizza Express in Woking, that her description of his dancing with her beforehand could not be true because he was unable to sweat, and that he had “no recollection of ever meeting this lady”.
12 January 2022
A New York judge rejects the prince’s attempts to throw out a sexual abuse civil lawsuit brought against him by Giuffre.
13 January 2022
The Queen strips her son of a range of military affiliations and royal patronages after more than 150 veterans write to describe their “upset and anger”.
Giuffre’s lawyer insists she would be unlikely to accept a “purely financial settlement” to end her sexual assault civil lawsuit against the royal. The lawyer says that although she does not have a firm idea of what she wants, it is important that any resolution happens “in a way that vindicates her and vindicates the other victims”.
14 January 2022
Giuffre requests testimony from Andrew’s former assistant Robert Olney on the grounds that she has “reason to believe” he has “relevant information about Prince Andrew’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein”.
15 January 2022
Andrew’s lawyers ask to question Giuffre’s husband and psychologist on the grounds that she may have “false memories”.
18 January 2022
Shukri Walker, who may have seen Andrew with Giuffre at a London nightclub 20 years ago, says she is willing to provide testimony in Giuffre’s civil lawsuit. Her lawyer said “she remembers the night clearly because she never saw a royal before or since”.
26 January 2022
In legal filings submitted to the New York court, Andrew denies he was a co-conspirator of Epstein and that the disgraced financier trafficked girls to him, and insists on a jury trial. His lawyers reiterate their previously unsuccessful claim that Giuffre’s 2009 settlement with Epstein shields Andrew from litigation.
5 February 2022
A date in March is set for Andrew to give evidence under oath.
15 February 2022
In a remarkable turnaround, Andrew reaches a settlement in principle with Giuffre in which he agrees to make a “substantial donation” to a charity, and accepts that Giuffre “suffered as an established victim of abuse”. In a document submitted to the New York court, Andrew says he regrets his association with Epstein.
22 January 2023
Ghislaine Maxwell, now in prison for sex trafficking, questions the authenticity of the photograph of Andrew and Virginia Giuffre, amid reports the Duke of York is considering overturning his settlement. In a video interview, Maxwell says: “I don’t believe it’s real for a second.”
4 January 2024
Court documents are unsealed by a judge in the US which include accusations against Andrew, from groping a woman’s breast in an alleged encounter involving a puppet version of the prince, to claims he had sex with an underage Giuffre. The 1,200 pages were gathered for Giuffre’s 2015 defamation case against Ghislaine Maxwell. Scotland Yard said it would not investigate the documents and suggested they did not contain new information.
16 December 2024
An alleged Chinese spy who befriended Prince Andrew is named as the businessman Yang Tengbo. A high court hearing had revealed that Tengbo, who was banned from the UK, was said to have been a “close” confidant of Andrew. It is announced that the Duke of York is to stay away from the royal family’s traditional Christmas gathering at Sandringham amid the controversy surrounding his links to the alleged spy. In a statement, Andrew’s office says he stopped all contact with the man, whom he had met through “official channels”, with “nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed”.
31 March 2025
Virginia Giuffre says she has just days to live after being involved in a vehicle accident, stating she has gone into kidney failure. On 26 April, Giuffre dies aged 41, with her family issuing a statement confirming she took her own life at her farm in Western Australia, where she had lived for several years.
14 August 2025
A biography of Andrew, Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York by Andrew Lownie, is released, having been serialised in the Daily Mail. It claimed Andrew and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, had known Epstein for a decade earlier than 1999, when they had said they first met him. The Prince was said to be a “useful idiot” for the financier. According to the book, compromising material on Andrew may allegedly have been passed to Israel’s the Mossad secret service, Saudi Arabian authorities and Muammar Gaddafi’s Libyan intelligence services by Epstein. Compromising material on Andrew may also have ended up in Russian hands, Lownie claims.
12 October 2025
A newly leaked email showed that Prince Andrew told Epstein “we are in this together” after a picture of the British royal with his arm around a teenage Virginia Giuffre was first published in 2011. The email appeared to contradict his previous claim on BBC Newsnight that he had ceased contact with the convicted child sex offender by that point.
