New Photo Shows Jeffrey Epstein, Peter Mandelson and Prince Andrew Together

The Royal Family wanted focus. They got it. Not the polished kind, of course. Not the Commonwealth photo call, not the staged unity, not the careful choreography that always seems to appear whenever Prince Andrew becomes too radioactive to ignore. Instead, they got what they have spent years trying to outrun: another slow, humiliating drip of Epstein-linked images that keeps dragging Andrew back into view and, with him, the institution that protected him.

And the timing matters. Media reports newly released Epstein files contain the first known photograph of Jeffrey Epstein, Peter Mandelson and Prince Andrew sitting together at an outdoor gathering.

That is not the same image as the one highlighted five days ago, when a different, low-resolution photo appeared to show Andrew with a young woman sitting on his lap inside Epstein’s New York home. A second image shows a man resembling Andrew with another young woman standing behind him, her arms around his neck. 

Those are two separate developments. Two separate sets of images. Two separate reminders that this scandal is still widening, not shrinking. And each new disclosure makes the old palace line look weaker.

The media uncovers the first known image of Andrew, Mandelson and Epstein together

This latest development is striking because it moves beyond rumour and association into something more concrete: a single frame that puts all three men together. According to ITV News, the newly uncovered photograph appears in the latest batch of Epstein files and is understood to have been taken in Martha’s Vineyard sometime between 1999 and 2000, before Epstein’s 2008 conviction. In the image, Prince Andrew and Peter Mandelson sit with Epstein on outdoor decking, drinking from mugs decorated with the US flag. ITV describes it as the first known photograph of the three men together. 

ITV also places the photo in a broader context. The report says the January 30 release of more than three million Epstein-related documents, including roughly 180,000 images and over 2,000 videos, has continued to generate new revelations simply because the material is so vast. In other words, the scandal has not gone quiet. Reporters are still finding things. 

That is important because the Palace has long relied on a familiar tactic: wait for the story to crest, then carry on as though public attention has moved elsewhere. But this is not one explosive release followed by silence. It is a steady sequence. First one image. Then another, then emails, then more photographs and then another story linking Andrew back to Epstein after the point at which he claimed the relationship had ended. It was reported last month that Andrew’s team solicited Epstein’s help in preparing for Virginia Giuffre’s allegations more than four years after Andrew said he had cut contact. Now, these Epstein emails suggest Andrew tried to build a business relationship with Epstein while still serving as UK trade envoy. 

That is why this image lands so heavily. It does not sit in isolation. It joins a growing archive.

Five days ago, came the separate image of Andrew with a young woman on his lap

It is important to be precise here, because the chronology tells its own story. Five days ago, The Telegraph published a report on different images from the files. One allegedly showed a man resembling Andrew with a blonde woman on his lap. Another showed the same man with a different young woman standing behind him with her arms around his neck. The women’s faces were redacted. The Telegraph said the photographs appear to have been taken in the dining room of Epstein’s New York home and are among the 180,000 images released by the US Department of Justice. 

The paper also linked those images to Andrew’s known December 2010 stay at Epstein’s Manhattan property, the same visit Andrew notoriously tried to explain away in his 2019 Newsnight interview as an act of being “too honourable” to leave without saying goodbye in person. Other documents and correspondence disclosed by the Department of Justice suggest the trip involved socialising and continued contact afterwards. 

So let us be clear. The story from five days ago was about a photo inside Epstein’s New York house that appeared to show Andrew in intimate proximity to a young woman. The story from today is about the first known group image of Andrew, Mandelson and Epstein together in Martha’s Vineyard years earlier. These are not duplicates. One does not replace the other. They accumulate and that accumulation is the point.

The family keeps trying to move on, but Andrew keeps pulling them back

The pressure did not begin on Thursday. Last week, during the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey, anti-monarchy protesters greeted the King and Prince William with banners asking, “What did you know?” as new Epstein-linked images involving Andrew surfaced. Activists also confronted William at another appearance earlier in the week. Then, on March 12, the confrontation followed him again during his and Kate Middleton’s engagements in Southwark and Westminster. Protesters heckled him directly, shouting, “How long have you known about Andrew and Epstein?”

That question has become harder to brush off. Because this is the part the Palace never seems able to answer convincingly: if Andrew was such an obvious liability, why did the public keep seeing him folded back into family life after the Virginia Giuffre settlement?

Questions linger about the decision to bring Andrew back into public view, including his appearance at the Balmoral church service in 2023 alongside Prince William and Kate. Months later, carefully staged moments of “family unity” continued to surface, including the January 2024 royal appearance with King Charles, William and Kate that some commentators interpreted as an attempt to steady the monarchy’s image. Throughout that period, discussion of Andrew’s possible rehabilitation never entirely disappeared. The overall impression repeated itself again and again: the institution treated him as a reputational problem to manage rather than a line that needed to be firmly drawn.

Final thoughts

The institution’s defenders like to insist there is no proof of wider knowledge. Fine. But that is not the same as saying there are no grounds for public suspicion. The steady release of these images keeps reopening the same question: how much did the royal family understand about Andrew’s judgment, his continued closeness to Epstein, and the reputational danger long before they acted as though any of this was disqualifying?

That is an inference, yes. But it is not an irrational one. It arises from the pattern.

Nothing about this now feels accidental. The Palace wanted to contain Andrew as a personal embarrassment. The files keep restoring him to his proper scale: an institutional failure.

And the really damaging thing is not only Andrew himself. It is the way the rest of them keep ending up in the frame. William’s public appearances with Andrew after the Giuffre settlement were controversial enough. Now, the Epstein file releases that challenge Andrew’s claims are also drawing attention to William’s financial relationships with figures connected to Epstein’s network.

Charles is trying to push the wider family forward while the scandal follows behind. Courtiers are acting as though the problem is bad optics rather than the years of indulgence that created them.

Today’s photo matters because it is a visual confirmation of a network people were once asked to treat as loose gossip or an unfortunate coincidence. Five days ago’s image matters because it reinforced the deeply grim texture of Andrew’s world in the Epstein years. Together, they tell the same story: there is no neat wall between Andrew’s disgrace and the monarchy’s judgment.

The Royal Family wanted attention. Now they have it. And this time the scrutiny is not only on Andrew, but on the institution itself and what it knew about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.