- In full:
- Andrew Albert Christian Edward Mountbatten-Windsor
- Formerly:
- Prince Andrew, duke of York, earl of Inverness, Baron Killyleagh
- Notable Family Members:
- spouse Sarah Ferguson
- father Philip, duke of Edinburgh
- mother Elizabeth II
- brother Charles III
- brother Prince Edward, duke of Edinburgh
- sister Anne, the Princess Royal
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor
Who is Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor?
Why was Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor arrested in February 2026?
Where was Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (formerly Prince Andrew) arrested?
Why is Andrew not a prince anymore?
Is Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor still in the British line of succession?
News •
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (born February 19, 1960, London, England) is the third child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, duke of Edinburgh, and the younger brother of Charles III. Mountbatten-Windsor was the first child born to a reigning British monarch (male or female) since 1857. For the first 22 years of his life, until the birth of his nephew Prince William, Mountbatten-Windsor was second in the line of succession to the British throne.
In the 21st century, he fell from grace and power in the royal family as the result of his close relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Mountbatten-Windsor has always maintained he did nothing wrong, but allegations that he had sex with a teenage girl, Virginia Giuffre, led him to step back from his public duties in 2019. In October 2025 he gave up his various royal titles, including duke of York. About a week later Charles III stripped him of his princely title, rendering him Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
In February 2026, the former prince was arrested on suspicion of misusing his public office by supplying Epstein with confidential documents Mountbatten-Windsor had access to in his role as British trade envoy. King Charles issued a statement about his brother’s address which said, in part:
I have learned with the deepest concern the news about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and suspicion of misconduct in public office. What now follows is the full, fair and proper process by which this issue is investigated in the appropriate manner and by the appropriate authorities. In this, as I have said before, they have our full and wholehearted support and cooperation. … Charles R.
•Epstein Files Fallout: The Resignations, Firings, and Arrests
Early life and military career
The working royals are senior family members who support the crown through various appearances and duties. They cannot hold an outside job and are paid by the monarch—except for the duke and duchess of Cornwall.
Mountbatten-Windsor was born in Buckingham Palace, London. After early instruction there and at a primary school, he attended the Gordonstoun boarding school in Scotland, as did Philip and Charles before him. In addition, he was briefly an exchange student at Lakefield College School in Ontario, Canada. After completing his secondary education, he entered Britannia Royal Naval College (BRNC), Dartmouth, in 1979 to train as a naval officer, following in his father’s footsteps. Mountbatten-Windsor completed the course at BRNC in 1980. He then underwent pilot training in both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters and received his pilot’s wings in 1981. The following year, as a Royal Navy sublieutenant assigned to HMS Invincible, he flew helicopter missions in the Falkland Islands War.
Mountbatten-Windsor remained on active duty after the war ended. Most of his service was in naval aviation, but he also commanded HMS Cottesmore, a mine countermeasures vessel, between 1993 and 1994. In his last years of active duty, he worked in London for the Ministry of Defence and the Royal Navy. He retired in 2001 with the rank of commander but maintained his naval affiliation, reaching the honorary rank of vice admiral in 2015.
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Marriage and royal activities
Mountbatten-Windsor married Sarah Ferguson, popularly known as Fergie, on July 23, 1986. On the same day, he was created duke of York, the title traditionally carried by the British monarch’s second son and held for life. The previous duke of York had been his grandfather, King George VI, before the abdication of Edward VIII in 1936. Andrew and Sarah had two daughters: Princess Beatrice, born August 8, 1988, and Princess Eugenie, born March 23, 1990. The couple separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996.
After his retirement from active military service, Mountbatten-Windsor took on more of the traditional duties of a royal family member, supporting charities and attending various ceremonies and events. In connection with his patronage of the Outward Bound Trust, an organization that sponsors outdoor adventures for youth, he was one of 40 people to rappel (abseil) down the side of the Shard, a skyscraper in London, in 2012.
Scandal
In the early 21st century Mountbatten-Windsor attracted controversy for his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, an American financier who became a convicted sex offender in 2008 and was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges when he committed suicide in August 2019. Virginia Giuffre said that in 2001, while underage, she was forced by Epstein to have sex with the prince. Mountbatten-Windsor denied the allegations, and in November 2019 he gave a televised interview concerning Epstein. Mountbatten-Windsor stated that he did not regret their friendship, which reportedly ended in 2010, and seemed to downplay Epstein’s conduct by calling it “unbecoming.” Those and other comments created an uproar, and days after the interview Mountbatten-Windsor announced that he was stepping down as a working royal. The interview later inspired the Netflix film Scoop (2024).
In 2021 Giuffre filed a civil lawsuit against Mountbatten-Windsor, claiming that he sexually abused her when she was 17. The following year Mountbatten-Windsor gave up his military titles and royal patronages. After attempts to dismiss the case failed, he settled the civil lawsuit with Giuffre in 2022; the financial terms were not disclosed. The following year he attended the coronation of Charles but had no role in the proceedings. In 2024 court documents related to Epstein were unsealed, and Mountbatten-Windsor’s name appeared in several documents, including a deposition in which a woman claimed that the prince had once groped her. In October 2025—days before the publication of a memoir by Giuffre, who had died by suicide in April—Mountbatten-Windsor surrendered his royal titles, including duke of York. About a week later it was announced that he would be stripped of his remaining titles, most notably prince. He also had to vacate Royal Lodge, his residence on the grounds of Windsor Castle.
In early 2026, amid a new release of Epstein files documents, Mountbatten-Windsor was again at the center of controversy when new photographs, showing him kneeling over a woman who was lying on the floor, were made public. The woman was fully clothed and her face was obscured to protect her identity, but the release prompted British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to call on Mountbatten-Windsor to agree to testify before Congress about what he knew about Epstein.
The new photographs weren’t the only incriminating evidence that emerged from the latest release from the Epstein files. The January 30 release of millions of documents included new email exchanges between Mountbatten-Windsor and Epstein. In one instance it appears that he forwarded to Epstein confidential reports from his visits to Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Singapore in 2010 that were the product of his role as a British trade envoy.
The release of those documents led to Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest on February 18, 2026, on suspicion of misuse of public office. As part of his statement acknowledging his brother’s arrest, Charles III said: “Let me state clearly: the law must take its course.”