Speculation continues that further files relating to Jeffrey Epstein could emerge that might rock the Royal Family again
Buckingham Palace officials are braced for further damaging revelations about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein – with three challenges in particular looming for the King and wider Royal Family.
Andrew’s downfall is still casting a shadow over the royals as they attempt a fresh start for 2026, as US politicians rifle through a further 5.2 million pages of documents in the Epstein files – on top of the 100,000 pages released last month.
Here, The i Paper examines the stumbling blocks that still lie ahead for the royals.
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Where Andrew will live: home or abroad?
King Charles and his advisers have tried to insulate the monarchy from collateral damage by removing just about everything royal from Mountbatten-Windsor and insisting it is nothing to do with them. “We don’t speak for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor or act for him” is the Royal Household’s constant refrain.
But although Mountbatten-Windsor, who denies any wrongdoing, has been stripped of his royal titles and honours and will be forced to quit his 30-room mansion, Royal Lodge, at Windsor in the next couple of months, the King is still providing his brother with a new home on his private Sandringham estate in Norfolk and – it is alleged – giving him an allowance.
An email between Ghislaine Maxwell and a user known as The Invisible Man is shown in this image released by the Department of Justice (Photo: US Department of Justice/Handout via Reuters)
The questions are likely to continue about what the royals and palace officials knew. One former senior aide said the fallout had left the King facing the worst of all worlds.
“[Mountbatten-Windsor] should have been forced to answer questions about his behaviour. He should have been taken to task and held to account,” the source said. “He will be given a home on the Sandringham estate, but my guess is he will end up living abroad.”
Mountbatten-Windsor has retreated from public life over the last few months (Photo: Toby Melville/Reuters)
Some close to the Royal Family believe it would be better if Mountbatten-Windsor were abroad, but others think he needs to be kept at close quarters. The problem for the palace is that he is always likely to be photographed when he is out in public. Royal aides have argued he is now a private citizen who has a right to privacy, but the 20,000 acres estate in Norfolk is crisscrossed by public footpaths that will make it difficult for him to be sealed off from media attention.
Royal trips to the US
There are other potential traps for the royals ahead where the Epstein scandal could come back to bite them.
Not least of these is a planned state visit by the King and Queen to the United States, probably in April, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of US independence from Britain and underpin the so-called “special relationship” between the two countries.
Prince William is also expected to visit the US in the summer to watch England play in the World Cup as patron of the Football Association, raising the possibility of politicians or Epstein victims hijacking the trips to make a point about Mountbatten-Windsor and Epstein or to launch fresh legal action.
Protests are rare on royal tours, but US Democrats, Epstein’s victims, and their lawyers may want to use the visits as an opportunity to embarrass the monarchy and to remind the public of the need for justice.
US politicians are clamouring for Mountbatten-Windsor, 65, to be forced to testify about what he knows of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell following the latest Epstein files release, which suggested the pair were procuring young women or “inappropriate friends” to entertain someone known as “A” or the “Invisible Man” at Balmoral.
The King and Queen will meet Donald and Melania Trump again in the spring (Photo: Zak Hussein/Samir Hussein/WireImage)
There are further problems ahead for the royals. The revelation that Mountbatten-Windsor was living rent-free at Royal Lodge has prompted a wider Commons Public Accounts inquiry, due to hold public hearings in parliament in the second half of 2026, into the housing arrangements of several members of the Royal Family, including William and Kate, who live in properties owned by the Crown Estate, an independent property company created to make money for the government.
Crown Estate and palace officials will be asked to defend themselves from accusations that the royals have been given subsidised housing.
The PAC’s focus on a wider group of royal homes leased from the Crown Estate has caused frustration at the Palace and illustrated the risk of Andrew’s disgrace spreading contagion.
Nobody inside the household relishes an investigation by Parliament’s public spending watchdog, but at the same time they and Crown Estate officials are confident that the lease agreements reflect market rates at the time and can be justified.
The Harry and Meghan rift
But it does not stop there. The King and his family have failed to resolve their rift with Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex. Harry has reportedly won his fight for armed police protection when he visits the UK, paving the way for a reunion between the King and his youngest son.
But the Duke of Sussex, 41, threatens to air the family’s dirty laundry at the High Court in London during an eight-week trial due to start in mid-January, in which he and six other prominent figures are suing the publishers of the Daily Mail newspaper over claims of unlawful information gathering.
Could Prince Harry air the Royal Family’s laundry during his latest court appearance? (Photo: Kristina Bumphrey/Variety/Getty)
Associated Newspapers – which also publishes The Mail on Sunday and MailOnline – strongly denies any wrongdoing.
In spite of all of that, the King has much to be positive about as he faces the new year. He is expected to step up his workload after his doctors advised that his weekly trips to a specialist centre for cancer treatment can be reduced.
The longer gaps between treatment sessions in London will allow him to spend more time working and travelling on duty. He is far from being cured of what is undoubtedly a serious illness but the mood music at Buckingham Palace is upbeat.
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Charles, 77, still managed to be the busiest working royal in 2025, undertaking 533 official engagements, including overseas trips to Poland, Italy, the Vatican, and Canada.
He also enhanced his reputation as the supreme diplomat by charming Trump during a state visit to Windsor in September that helped Britain avoid the worst effects of the US president’s trade war, according to some officials.