Prince Andrew had ‘daily massages’ when visiting Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, according to housekeeper
Prince Andrew had daily massages when he spent “weeks” at Jeffrey Epstein’s Florida home according to the billionaire’s former housekeeper, court documents have revealed.
The newly-released documents include the transcript of a video interview with Juan Alessi, who worked at the paedophile financier’s Palm Beach residence.
The unsealing of the first batch of papers caused the court’s website to crash earlier this week, but much of the content repeats information that was already in the public domain.
In a video-taped interview under oath in 2009, Mr Alessi faced questions on Epstein’s relationship with the Duke of York and his former wife, Sarah Ferguson.
Mr Alessi said he believes the Duchess of York visited the Florida estate “only once and for a short time” but identified Andrew as someone who “spent weeks with us”.
When asked if he would “frequently have massages”, Mr Alessi replied: “I would say, daily massages.”
Andrew stepped back from public life amid a furore over his friendship with Epstein in November 2019.
Jeffrey Epstein took his own life in prison in 2019. Pic: AP
He was then cast out of the working monarchy and stripped of his HRH title when Virginia Giuffre accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was 17. He strenuously denies any wrongdoing.
The third and fourth batches of documents with details on Epstein’s sexual abuse of teenage girls includes a total of 73 exhibits.
The third tranche consists of 411 pages and the fourth totals 649.
The papers were part of a lawsuit filed by Ms Giuffre against Epstein‘s former girlfriend and long-time associate Ghislaine Maxwell. The lawsuit was settled in 2017.
The documents are sprinkled with the names of celebrities and politicians who socialised or worked with paedophile financier Epstein in the years before accusations against him became public.
The third set of documents include photocopies of Epstein’s assistant’s notepad, revealing Harvey Weinstein – who was exposed as a sexual predator in October 2017 – once called the paedophile financier.
He also received a call from the wife of former Victoria’s Secret CEO Les Wexner “to talk about something private”, the documents reveal.
They also show that lawyers hunting for information on Maxwell’s computer searched for words including “Prince” and “Andrew” as well as the terms “masturbate” and “nipple”.
More from Sky News:
Why the court docs are being released now
All the names mentioned in the Epstein docs so far
Officers specifically searched Maxwell’s computer for information on Prince Andrew
Andrew has found himself back in the spotlight though, as the second release included testimony from a woman who claimed he touched her breast while on a couch at Epstein’s Manhattan apartment in 2001.
Buckingham Palace has previously said the allegations are “categorically untrue”.
Other notable names mentioned are Stephen Hawking, Michael Jackson and Bill Clinton but their inclusion does not mean they are accused of wrongdoing.
The tone has changed totally. It’s a remarkable turnaround from the Oval Office meltdown to the perfect phone call.
President Trump is wholly transactional. His desire for give and take far outweighs any ideological instincts. He has no particular alignment to Ukraine or, for that matter, to Russia.
He just wants a deal. Peace would stop the killing as he has said repeatedly. It would also allow for deals which can benefit America: recouping the taxpayer money spent on Ukraine and reconnecting the American economy with Russia.
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Will Trump turn on Putin?
But trumping all that is his legacy and his image. He wants to be seen as the peacemaker president.
Since the Oval Office moment, Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy seems now to have recognised all that.
Ukraine’s approach towards Trump has changed. Zelenskyy is now playing his game: transactionalism.
The minerals deal hasn’t dissolved. The indications I am getting is that it’s essentially been upgraded and broadened to a wider scope: fuller economic cooperation.
Zelenskyy needs to encourage America deep into his country economically. Has he bought into the idea that a US economic footprint amounts to a key part of a security guarantee?
Read more:
A timeline of Trump and Zelenskyy’s relationship
What could be the future of Ukraine?
Sky’s correspondents react to Trump-Putin phone call
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The old adage is: “If you are not at the table, you are on the menu.” That’s too true with President Trump.
Zelenskyy now feels like he’s at the table and I am told he doesn’t feel coerced.
The challenges remain huge though: he doesn’t trust Putin. That’s what he tried to tell President Trump in the Oval Office. The performance that day proved to him that Trump is inclined to trust Putin.
Zelenskyy must use transactionalism to draw an impatient Trump in.
President Trump is in a hurry for a deal. He’s inclined to accept wholly disingenuous commitments from Russia, or as one source put it to me: “Trump has a high tolerance for bullshit…”
That’s the jeopardy for Zelenskyy.
US
Donald Trump has ‘very good’ call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in which he discusses US ownership of Ukrainian energy plants
US President Donald Trump has had a “very good” call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the White House says, during which US ownership of Ukraine’s energy network was discussed to help protect it.
Mr Trump also agreed to “help locate” additional air defence support in Europe after a request from the Ukrainian leader, a statement about the one-hour phone call said.
Further talks will take place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in the coming days, and the US will continue intelligence sharing with Ukraine, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
Mr Trump also agreed to work to ensure missing Ukrainian children are returned home and both parties agreed to a temporary 30-day ceasefire involving attacks against energy facilities, with the US president saying the US “could be very helpful in running those plants with its electricity and utility expertise”, Ms Leavitt said.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio also issued a statement about the call saying that “President Trump also discussed Ukraine’s electrical supply and nuclear power plants.
“He said that the United States could be very helpful in running those plants with its electricity and utility expertise. American ownership of those plants would be the best protection for that infrastructure and support for Ukrainian energy infrastructure.”
The White House statement added that Mr Trump and Mr Zelenskyy also reviewed the situation in Kursk and agreed to share information closely.
The presidents instructed their teams to move ahead with the details of implementing a partial ceasefire, with discussions to include expanding any ceasefire to the Black Sea.
“We have never been closer to peace,” Ms Leavitt added.
In comments later on Wednesday, Mr Zelenskyy said that Mr Trump understands that Ukraine will not recognise occupied land as Russian, and that he would like the US president to visit Ukraine – adding that “it would be helpful for Trump in his peace efforts”.
In an earlier statement, President Zelenskyy said the two leaders had “a positive, very substantive and frank conversation”.
Mr Zelenskyy echoed much of Mr Trump’s statement about what was decided, and said later that he “felt no pressure” from the US president.
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Trump and Zelenskyy ‘on track’
“We agreed that Ukraine and the United States should continue working together to achieve a real end to the war and lasting peace. We believe that together with America, with President Trump, and under American leadership, lasting peace can be achieved this year,” Mr Zelenskyy said
He added that Ukraine would “continue working to make this happen”.
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“I stressed that Ukrainians want peace, which is why Ukraine accepted the proposal for an unconditional ceasefire,” he said. “I highlighted the importance of President Trump’s concept of peace through strength. We agreed to maintain constant contact, including at the highest level and through our teams.”
In an earlier post on Truth Social, Mr Trump said the “very good” phone call lasted around one hour.
Read more:
A timeline of Trump and Zelenskyy’s relationship
What could be the future of Ukraine?
Sky’s correspondents react to Trump-Putin phone call
“Much of the discussion was based on the call made yesterday with President Putin in order to align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs,” Mr Trump said.
“We are very much on track,” he added.
The call marks the first time Mr Trump and Mr Zelenskyy have spoken since the disastrous confrontation in the White House last month.
Mr Zelenskyy travelled to Washington expecting to sign a critical minerals deal but left early after he and Trump clashed in front of the world’s cameras.
On Tuesday, Mr Trump and Vladimir Putin held a phone call lasting about an hour and a half in which the Russian leader rejected a full 30-day ceasefire.
He agreed to not attack Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for 30 days. The two countries also swapped 175 prisoners each earlier this morning.
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