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‘Miss Ghislaine Maxwell’ and ‘Mr Jeffrey Epstein’ were seen among the names Lords and Ladies and Dukes and Duchess’ for the party. Photo / Getty Images
A souvenir brochure from a royal party lists Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell as guests at an event at Windsor Castle in 2000 at the invitation of Prince Andrew.
On June 21, 2000, the couple attended the Royal Family’s Ball of Decades at the royal residence west of London.
The party held at Windsor Castle was to celebrate four royal birthdays: Prince Andrew’s 40th birthday, the Queen Mother’s 100th birthday, Princess Margaret’s 70th birthday, and Princess Anne’s 50th birthday.
The never-before-seen party program obtained by the Daily Mail is a reminder of how close the couple were to Prince Andrew.
The guest list individually names Maxwell and Epstein separately.
During last year’s iconic BBC interview with Prince Andrew, he claimed that Epstein was only invited as “plus one” by Maxwell.
However, royal protocol dictates that only married or engaged couples should be named together.
Maxwell says that she and Epstein dated in the 1990s, yet nothing else came out of their relationship.
In the BBC Newsnight interview, Emily Maitlis asked the prince a question about the party.
“In 2000, Epstein was a guest at Windsor Castle and Sandringham, he was taken directly into the heart of the royal family at their invitation.”
The prince replied: “But certainly at my invitation, not at the invitation of the royal family, but remember that his girlfriend was the key element in this. He was, so to speak, plus one, to some extent in that regard.”
Later, in 2000, Prince Andrew invited Epstein and Maxwell to Sandringham for a “simple shooting weekend.”
In March of the following year, Virginia Guiffre claims that she was forced to sleep with the prince for the first time, when she was 17, at Maxwell’s house in London.
This is an accusation that Andrew has categorically denied.
Musician Graham Dalby attended the party at Windsor Castle and told the Daily Mail that it was “very possible” that Epstein had danced with the Queen.
The swing band member said the Queen was in “great shape”, dancing with many guests.
“She was in such good shape. The dance was actually being led and directed by the Queen, I have never seen the Queen so lively, she had a really lovely smile on her face and she was wearing a beautiful light blue dress and she looked absolutely Awesome.
“She was just grabbing people and pulling them onto the dance floor.
“She almost grabbed me and I thought ‘don’t grab me, I can’t dance’ and she put the man next to me and he couldn’t dance either.”
Dalby told the Daily Mail that he does not remember the prince being on the dance floor.
“Andrew is not a dancer, so [him and Epstein] he would have been in a corner with a drink, talking, I suspect. “
He is sure that the queen would have met with the friends that his son invited to the event.
“Oh yeah, and she would have taken care of knowing who everyone was. I mean she knew who I was.
“I wouldn’t have known who Epstein was, he wasn’t known. I mean, I recognized all kinds of famous people among all the titles. Jackie Stewart, the racing driver, was there, but that’s certainly not a man I would have gone to. , ‘There’s Jeffrey Epstein’ because he didn’t mean anything to me, “he told the Daily Mail.
The next day the prince, Epstein and Maxwell were photographed at Ascot.
Six years after the ball, Epstein and Maxwell returned to Windsor Castle as guests for Princess Beatrice’s 18th birthday, where they were photographed in costumes alongside disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh did not attend.
Prince Andrew has denied wrongdoing.
Publicly, the US Department of Justice has said that they would like to question the prince about his connections to the billionaire.