{"id":362672,"date":"2026-10-02T07:41:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T07:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/362672\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T07:41:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T07:41:15","slug":"i-was-chased-by-the-queens-corgis-for-knocking-on-prince-andrews-door-about-epstein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/362672\/","title":{"rendered":"I was chased by the Queen’s Corgis for knocking on Prince Andrew’s door about Epstein"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the corgis came racing over, my first reaction was to laugh; these surely could not be the late Queen’s beloved dogs. They were manically aggressive and dishevelled, a far cry from the docile creatures that used to waddle after their adoring owner and were fed tasty scraps under the table.<\/p>\n

But it turned out they must be because, as I realised seconds after they chased after us across the garden, it was Andrew Mountbatten Windsor’s lawn they were barking at me from.<\/p>\n

Turning to go back and ring the bell, I was stopped by a blacked-out 4X4 throwing up pebbles as it screeched around the drive. The men inside were his security team and wanted a chat.<\/p>\n

Before I explain what happened next, I should probably fill you in on why I was knocking on the man formerly known as Prince Andrew’s door in the first place<\/p>\n

\"Montage<\/a><\/p>\n

Andrew has been living in Norfolk since he was stripped of his titles (Image: Express Report \/ Getty)<\/p>\n

Well, over the summer I had travelled to the USA to investigate the King’s brother’s relationship with the paedophile financier Jeffery Epstein.<\/p>\n

The first part of this trip took me to Palm Beach, where Andrew is known to have visited the convicted sex offender. There, we were told by locals about how the entire scandal was an open secret. When I attempted to visit an elite country club, where I was told the pair had met multiple times, security called the police on us after a spokesperson said he could neither “confirm nor deny” the information we had<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Next, I tracked down Virginia Giuffre’s ex-boyfriend, Tony Figueroa, who made explosive claims about his childhood sweetheart making a desperate call from London, during which she told him, “they’re going to make me have sex with Prince Andrew<\/a>” – an allegation Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has consistently and emphatically denied.<\/p>\n

Lastly, we experienced the righteous fury of the people of the US Virgin Islands who’d had a portion of their paradise polluted by the world’s biggest scandal. I saw firsthand just how isolated the woman taken to the infamous Little Saint James must have been when I swam up to the waters around the site known as Epstein Island<\/a>.<\/p>\n

All of which had racked up a pretty lengthy list of questions for Mr Mountbatten-Windsor. But the question was, how was I going to get him to answer them?<\/p>\n

You see, when Andrew had his Royal titles stripped, the Palace also stopped handling any media requests on his behalf. There was briefly a Gmail account that inquiries could be sent to, but there was never a reply and a colleague had told me their recent messages just bounced back.<\/p>\n

Then, as I dozed on the flight back to London Heathrow, the obvious answer occurred to me. We do it old-school: just knock on his door with the allegations on neatly printed Express letterhead.<\/p>\n

I got back to Britain and, after a few days shaking off the jetlag, compiled our specific findings into a detailed right-of-reply letter giving a clear deadline for response, and boarded a train for King’s Lynn alongside our videographer.<\/p>\n

The first sign this was not going to be a straightforward assignment came from the taxi driver who dropped us off outside Sandringham.<\/p>\n

“Are you sure you want to get out here?” She said looking at the golden fields that spread as far as the eye could see, “yes,” we assured her, “this is the place.”<\/p>\n

There’s a bit of a myth about the quiet countryside providing the perfect foil for someone keeping a low profile. While it might be true that having hardly anyone around means there are fewer eyes on you, the reality is that every unusual interaction is more pronounced.<\/p>\n

News in a village travels fast, even more so in the WhatsApp era.<\/p>\n

Normally, when delivering a right of reply, especially one this explosive, you like to keep a low profile. But I had the feeling that might not happen.<\/p>\n

So walking through the picturesque countryside, I felt unnerved from the outset. Regardless of what he might be now, Andrew remains powerful; he’s the King’s brother after all.<\/p>\n

As we followed the swirling Google Maps path down a country lane to where Andrew now lives I started to feel a bit confused. I don’t know what I was expecting, something Royal I guess, but passing some local businesses it just didn’t look right, I started to wonder ‘are we lost?’<\/p>\n

There was a cottage on the spot we needed to go, but I thought it looked far too modest to be the former Duke of York’s home. That was until the corgis came racing out barking wildly and a security vehicle pulled up.<\/p>\n

“Here for Mr Mountbatten-Windsor?” one of the two blue-shirted men inside the vehicle said.<\/p>\n

“Yes,” I explained, “I’m a journalist from the Daily Express here to deliver a right of reply.”<\/p>\n

The pair seemed sceptical and asked to see my ID. I pulled out my press card for them to inspect and having satisfied them that I was indeed legitimate, they took delivery of the letter filled with questions. “This is private land”, they added, “so if you don’t mind.”<\/p>\n

As we were walking back down the path, their car, which was now escorting us from the premises, suddenly sped up.<\/p>\n

They wanted to see my card again and, this time, take a photo of it. “Sure”, I said, “can I ask who you are?”<\/p>\n

“We’re not employed by the police anymore,” was their rather cryptic reply.<\/p>\n

As I wondered who or what exactly my ID was being sent to, the videographer and I increased our pace; we wanted to get out of there before they asked us for anything else.<\/p>\n

But just as we were nearing the exit, the car pulled up again, and the window came down again.<\/p>\n

“Just so you know you’re on private land so anything you’ve filmed, you might want to think about that,” the former police officer told us with a smile.<\/p>\n

Was that intended as a threat? I don’t know, but it felt like one.<\/p>\n

The biggest fear I have during any investigation is that people will try to take our footage.<\/p>\n

What we film on a job is a crucial record of not only what we’ve found, but also of the way in which we’ve obtained that information. If that is lost, we not only struggle to prove important things but any number of falsehoods can be slipped into the void.<\/p>\n

We continued walking and the car followed us before speeding off.<\/p>\n

I’m sure we remained under surveillance because, as we trudged up the county lane, the two ex-coppers appeared in front of us once again, driving the opposite direction.<\/p>\n

I didn’t shake the feeling we were being watched until we were back in King’s Lynn. It’s understandable, I guess, given that Sandringham is one of the country’s most high-profile targets that we might have had eyes on us the whole time.<\/p>\n

Not that that’s a problem. I can take the scrutiny, the issue I have is whether Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who let us remember is now just a private citizen, should be afforded a level of protection from media scrutiny.<\/p>\n

I believe that journalists should be able to ask questions in the public interest, regardless of who they are asking.<\/p>\n

Given how much this country has given Andrew and how much he has repaid that with scandal, the British public deserves more answers than the ones he’s provided so far.<\/p>\n

And look, I’m a fair-minded journalist; the reason I went there was to give him the opportunity to speak and answer serious allegations directly himself in person.<\/p>\n

So Andrew, if you’re reading this, the offer stands. Let’s sit down for an interview.<\/p>\n

Your dogs and your security already know who I am.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the corgis came racing over, my first reaction was to laugh; these surely could not be the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-362672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}