Prince Andrew let Ghislaine Maxwell 'breeze' into Buckingham Palace like a royal

The protection officers were instructed not to put Maxwell's name in the visitors' book.

Ghislaine Maxwell, who is facing trial for allegedly trafficking young girls and grooming them for pedophile Jeffrey Epstein to abuse, roamed around Buckingham Palace like one of the royals and never made an entry in the visitor's book like other non-royals are required to do.

She was able to do this because of her pal Prince Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II, who was forced to quit his royal duties in 2019 due to questions surrounding his involvement with Maxwell and Epstein. He is himself facing a sex abuse lawsuit after Epstein's victim, Virginia Giuffre, accused him of having sex with her three times when she was still a minor and was being trafficked by Epstein.

While the Duke of York vehemently denies the allegations and any recollection of meeting Giuffre, revelations of his close relations with Maxwell and Epstein continue to spark controversy. In the latest, former royal protection officer Paul Page told Vanity Fair that he allowed Maxwell to "just breeze into the Palace like she was one of the royal family".

Page added that even though Epstein and Maxwell's involvement in child trafficking wasn't public knowledge at that time, the latter's appearance at the palace was regarded as "unusual" because she was the daughter of the disgraced media tycoon Robert Maxwell. It was thought that it was "not a good look for someone of Ghislaine's father's reputation to be mixing with the royal family."

Page recalled, "But that was neither here nor there to Prince Andrew. As far as he was concerned, she was allowed to come in and go as she pleased. We were instructed not to put her name in the visitors' book."

The protection officer, who worked for Andrew between 1998 and 2004, had previously told the Sunday Mirror about his first meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell in 2001. He recalled that he was informed that a guest is coming for the royal but her name is not to be entered in the book, after which she turned up in a chauffeur-driven Range Rover.

"Half an hour after that, me and my colleague walked through the garden to go back to the police lodge and he was having a picnic with her by the summer house, opposite the Queen's bedroom window. One of my colleagues saw her come in and out the Palace four times in one day," Page had said.