International- Ghislaine Maxwell spoke about her "dear friend" Prince Andrew in a jailhouse interview with the Mail on Sunday.
- In legal documents, Andrew's lawyers previously insisted the pair are not close.
Ghislaine Maxwell used an affectionate term to refer to Prince Andrew in a rare jailhouse interview, potentially undermining the Duke of York's claims that the pair aren't that close.
Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, Maxwell, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for sex-trafficking girls for Jeffrey Epstein, referred to Andrew as her "dear friend," reported the outlet.
During the interview, which took place over the summer from the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn, New York, Maxwell, 60, went on to say that Andrew is "paying such a price" for his association with Epstein.
"I care about him, and I feel so bad for him," she told the Mail on Sunday.
Last August, Virginia Giuffre sued Andrew. She said Epstein, Maxwell, and Andrew forced her to have sex with Andrew when she was 17 in Maxwell's London home. Andrew denied the allegations, later reaching an out-of-court settlement with Giuffre.
As part of her complaint, Giuffre's lawyers described Andrew as a "close friend" of Maxwell. Andrew's legal team denied this — a claim which many have cast doubt on.
Insider previously reported on a former royal police officer describing the denial as "nonsense," adding that he saw Maxwell and Andrew together at least a dozen times. They were often spotted together in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and were even rumored to have been dating.
Two sources who were interviewed for the ITV documentary, "Ghislaine, Prince Andrew and the Paedophile," said that Andrew and Maxwell were so close that Buckingham Palace staff believed them to be in a relationship at one point.
Andrew said in his infamous November 2019 interview with BBC Newsnight that he'd known Maxwell since her university days.
When presented with Andrew's lawyers' claim that she and the Duke of York are not close, she told the Mail on Sunday: "I accept that this friendship could not survive my conviction."
Maxwell said that she is uncertain if their friendship will ever recover. "I don't have an expectation," she told the news outlet. "People who I have been friends with – and very close friends with – whoever they may be, well, I can't think about what they will want to do or not do. I can only control what I do."
Maxwell was also asked by the Mail on Sunday about the infamous photo showing her with Andrew and then-17-year-old Virginia Roberts — now Guiffre.
Andrew has claimed the photo was doctored, saying that he had reason — but not proof — to believe it was not genuine. Maxwell agreed with this in the interview, despite experts saying it is legitimate, per the Mail on Sunday.
The Duke of York's publicity team declined to comment.