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Widely purported to have been the late Queen’s “favourite” child, Prince Andrew has suffered a sharp fall from grace over the last decade.

Plagued by a string of controversies, the latest blow has seen new messages between the duke and Jeffrey Epstein come to light – sent months after Andrew claimed to have cut the disgraced financier off.

Emails between Andrew and Epstein handed to a court in London reportedly show they were still exchanging messages until at least late February 2011, when the duke wrote: “Keep in close touch and we’ll play some more soon.”

In recent days, Andrew’s relationship with Epstein was once again put under the spotlight by the publication of extracts of Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir.

In her book, Giuffre claims that Andrew considered it his “birthright” to sleep with her when she was 17 years old. While recognising that Giuffre may well be a victim of abuse by Epstein, Andrew has always denied her allegations against him.

Andrew’s ties to the convicted paedophile eventually forced him to step down from his royal duties and in January 2022, he was stripped of his royal patronages.

In the years since, he has faced a number of other scandals, including a “close confidante” of his being banned from the UK over allegations he was a Chinese spy.

Here, The Independent takes a look at a timeline of An