Court filings and witness testimony revealed one of the most grotesque and surreal details of the Jeffrey Epstein saga: a caricature puppet of Prince Andrew allegedly used during an encounter at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse in 2001. Both Virginia Giuffre and Johanna Sjoberg testified that the puppet, resembling Andrew’s likeness from the satirical TV show Spitting Image, was brought out by Ghislaine Maxwell as a prop while Andrew sat with them on a couch. According to Sjoberg’s sworn deposition, Maxwell placed the puppet’s hand on Giuffre’s breast while Andrew simultaneously touched Sjoberg’s. Maxwell, when later questioned under oath, admitted to recalling the puppet but denied gifting it or participating in any sexual act. The bizarre nature of the claim—royalty, puppetry, and sexual humiliation—made it one of the most unsettling anecdotes to surface from the trove of unsealed Epstein documents.


Prince Andrew’s continued status as a Counsellor of State—a constitutional role allowing him to act on behalf of the monarch—remains one of the most glaring contradictions within the modern British monarchy. Despite being forced to step back from public life after his disastrous Newsnight interview and subsequent settlement in Virginia Giuffre’s civil suit, Andrew legally retains the ability to perform official duties if King Charles III were incapacitated or abroad. That includes signing state documents and receiving new ambassadors. The arrangement exists because the law automatically grants Counsellor status to the sovereign’s spouse and the next four adults in the line of succession over the age of 21, meaning Andrew’s position persists by statute, not choice. Critics across the political spectrum have called it a constitutional embarrassment—one that symbolically undermines the monarchy’s moral authority by keeping a figure tainted by scandal in a position of potential power.


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