Sex toys and shotguns: What happened when Andrew invited Epstein to Sandringham

2 hours ago 1

By Robert Jobson

December 22, 2025 — 8.27am

“Am I right in thinking you threw a birthday party for Epstein’s girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell at Sandringham?” journalist Emily Maitlis asked during her BBC Newsnight interview with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

“No, it was a shooting weekend,” he replied curtly. “A shooting weekend… just a straightforward shooting weekend.”

Prince Andrew – now Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor – lies across several women at Sandringham in a newly released photograph.

Straightforward. The word lingered uncomfortably. Shocked household staff had a different account entirely.

For that December 2000 weekend, which marked Ghislaine Maxwell’s 39th birthday, defied conventional description.

As I disclosed in my latest book, The Windsor Legacy, staff encountered shocking discoveries in the bathrooms. Gift baskets. Not filled with luxury soaps or guest amenities, as they were when Prince Charles hosted a shooting weekend.

Instead, they contained sex drugs, toys and lubricant. Poppers – amyl nitrite, aphrodisiac substances – exotic condoms, too. Not concealed discreetly. They were distributed to the guest rooms, there on arrival, like party bags. Clearly somebody, presumably the host, had sanctioned the risqué handout.

Andrew walks with then Prince Charles and other members of the royal family to attend a Christmas service at St Mary’s church on the grounds of Sandringham Estate in 2011.

In an instant, he had turned the Queen’s private Norfolk estate – where she would be spending Christmas weeks later – into his royal version of Hugh Hefner’s Playboy mansion.

Insiders said the bathroom baskets – that were all used when the poor royal maids had to clear up – exposed the weekend’s authentic character before Andrew could reframe events.

After all, Sandringham represented everything the late Queen valued.

It was her Christmas refuge, and the private estate where her grandfather, George V, had delivered his first wireless broadcast in 1932. It was where the family assembled after Christmas lunch. Where protocol mattered absolutely.

The Queen (background centre) and Prince Philip sit with their children, Prince Edward (left), Princess Anne (background), Prince Charles (foreground) and Prince Andrew (right) at Sandringham in 1969.

This was the royal property where she would observe her accession anniversary annually, returning quietly to where her cherished father George VI had passed away in 1952.

Yet, when granted access, Andrew abused the privilege.

It has all come to light, as a photograph has now emerged from the so-called “Epstein files” – documents, published by the US department of justice, which represent the largest release of information so far on Jeffrey Epstein, a paedophile later convicted of sex trafficking, and his high-profile associates. The photo shows the former prince Andrew (now stripped of his royal titles) in black tie, reclined across multiple women’s laps. His eyes are shut, yet he is beaming in the saloon room at Sandringham.

Ghislaine Maxwell towers above, gazing downward, grinning.

British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell with ex-boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein.

The women’s identities remain obscured. Yet convicted sex trafficker Maxwell persists. Currently serving 20 years in prison in the United States, she remains identifiable.

Andrew, given the run of the place for a weekend, repurposed it for organised debauchery.

“He was your guest, as well, in 2000,” Maitlis pursued in her Newsnight interview. “Epstein was a guest at Windsor Castle and at Sandringham. He was brought right into the heart of the royal family at your invitation.”

Andrew, odious and pompous, attempted redirection. “Certainly, at my invitation, not at the royal family’s invitation. But remember that it was his girlfriend that was the key element in this. He was the, as it were, plus-one, to some extent.”

Andrew tried to blindside her with spurious palace protocol. A plus-one. More nonsense, as documentation from the Dance of the Decades – an event held at Windsor Castle to celebrate several landmark birthdays in the Royal family that June – revealed otherwise. Maxwell and Epstein received separate invitations, as only married or engaged couples are guests in their own right to royal properties. Yet the couple, who were not married, were given access to the inner sanctum by Andrew.

This was anything but a straightforward shooting party.

Under normal circumstances, when Charles organised shoots at Sandringham, participants were often affluent, titled landowners such as the late Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster; Nicholas Soames and Sir Nicholas Bacon were also regulars with their wives. But for them the only “extras” put out in their bathrooms were special soaps and bath oils from Highgrove.

Drawing-room drinks would feature staples such as sloe gin, whisky and sherry. Etiquette and continuity was observed.

Britain’s King Charles III and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, right, at Sandringham earlier this year.

Another regular was Tino, the late and exiled King Constantine of Greece. He unnerved the other guns, by dangerously swinging though the line – moving past the target before firing – a cardinal sin on a shoot. He wouldn’t stand and bow when first meeting Charles, unlike the other guests, because he was a king and then outranked him, technically.

But on Andrew’s December 2000 shoot it was very different. The guests mirrored Andrew’s louche circle. The gift baskets indicated the gathering’s nature beyond dispute.

Andrew possessed access rights to Sandringham, as Duke of York. Rights differ from ownership. The Queen held the title.

Yet the financial aspect bears examination. Who approved the bathroom baskets? It is still unknown, but somebody signed it off. Sex toys and poppers weren’t, clearly, routine provisions.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, pictured in 2021, has been stripped of his royal titles.

Epstein had bankrolled Andrew before – funding yacht trips to Thailand where they were photographed with topless women.

Andrew conducted himself as though Sandringham was his private domain, and sources saying he was more bumptious than ever.

He defiled a cherished dwelling. Exploited privilege for excess.

The household there were appalled. Sandringham embodied their principles. Andrew damaged its standing. The gift baskets in the bathrooms were bad enough.

Robert Jobson is an author, broadcaster and former royal correspondent with three decades on the front line of reporting on the royal family.

Telegraph, London

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).

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