Prince Andrew & Ghislaine Maxwell had ‘intimate relationship’ which gave her ‘unrestricted access to Buckingham Palace’

PRINCE Andrew and Ghislaine Maxwell had an “intimate relationship” which gave the socialite “unrestricted access” to Buckingham Palace, a former Royal cop has claimed.

Maxwell and The Duke of York's relationship is coming under intense scrutiny as she was jailed this week for 20 years for her role in grooming girls for paedophile multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein.

And she had “unrestricted access” at Buckingham Palace – with cops being told to simply wave her in whenever she arrived to see the Duke.

Page – who worked at the Palace from 1998 to 2004 – said he and his colleagues were convinced Andrew was more than friends with Ghislaine.

“She was allowed to enter and exit the Palace night and day at will,” he told The Sun Online.

Maxwell and Epstein are said to have trafficked Virginia Giuffre, 17, to the socialite's London home where she was forced to have sex with Andrew after a night out dancing in the nightclub Tramp.

Page recalled Ghislaine was one of Andrew's most frequent visitors in the early 00s – a time which they are reported to have been growing closer and when she may have first introduced him to Epstein.

And for the cop, his mind was made up about the nature of their relationship when he saw them having an “intimate picnic” in the ground of Buckingham Palace.

“It was right outside The Queen's bedroom window,” Page told The Sun Online.

“So from that point on, I was under the opinion they had some form of intimate relationship.”

Page said he and his colleagues were instructed to keep her name out of the visitors book – which was “highly unusual”.

He went on: “We assumed they didn't want any evidence of her visiting the palace, perhaps because she was Robert Maxwell's daughter – it wouldn't have been a good look.”

She had access like no other individual outside the Royal Family. She was on another level

Paul Page

Ghislaine's father Robert was a disgraced newspaper magnate, a former Labour MP, and the owner of Oxford United.

He was found dead floating in the water near his yacht – The Lady Ghislaine – off the Canary Islands in November 1991.

And after his death, it emerged he stole hundreds of millions of pounds from in pension funds from his own companies.

Ghislaine is understood to have spent more and more time in New York after his death – but remained a high society fixture on both sides of the Atlantic.

And potentially it was a catalyst for her perverted relationship with Epstein.

Page explained: “We would wave her in and she would go straight to the quad and straight up to the Duke of York's apartments.

And he added they all knew if she was denied access, they would be “screamed and shouted at” by Andrew.

Asked what he remembered about Ghislaine, Paul said she was “very aloof”.

“She didn't say anything, she wouldn't say hello, just look at us and then look away,” he explained.

“Not a friendly person – I would almost say she looked down on us.”

Maxwell's trial showed revelations about her relationship with Epstein, which included a photo of them posing together at The Queen's lodge in Balmoral.

It is unknown when the photo was taken – but shows just how deeply they had managed to ingratiate themselves with the Royals.

‘LOVEY DOVEY'

Andrew denies any wrongdoing over his relationship with Epstein and Maxwell – and strongly insists he did not have sex with Virginia.

He settled a civil case with her out of court earlier this year to the tune of £12million – despite previously bullishly pledging to take the lawsuit to trial to clear his name.

Maxwell and Andrew are believed to have known each other for the better part of two decades before she is alleged to have introduced him to Epstein.

During his infamous car crash interview on BBC Newsnight with Emily Maitlis, the Prince dropped a few key hints about his friendship with Ghislaine.

He explained he met Epstein through the financier's “girlfriend” – Maxwell – who he had known “since she was at university in the UK”.

The Duke claimed his relationship with the paedophile was always through the prism of Ghislaine.

Events which Epstein and Maxwell attended together – such as at Windsor Castle – were normally arranged through her, with Epstein as the plus one.

Vanity Fair reports that friends claim Andrew changed his lifestyle as he became closer to Maxwell.

“Andrew's a very poor judge of character, easily impressed,” a source was reported to have said in the Evening Standard.

“He's gone from this couch potato to man about town, with nothing better to do than go from one holiday to the next.”

It was reported the duo were together at least eight times in the year 2000 – and were seen a various nightspots in London.

Pictures from this period capture the fact Andrew appears to have become firm friends with Ghislaine.

The Duke was pictured leaving a “lovey dovey lunch” with Ghislaine in at Nello's in New York in April 2000 where he was reported to be “holding hands with his new love”.

And she and Epstein both attended the Dance of the Decades in June 2000 – a birthday celebration for Andrew, Princess Anne, Princess Margaret and The Queen Mother, who turned 40, 50, 70 and 100.

The two were pictured together at the wedding of Aurelia Cecil and Rupert Stephenson at St Michaels and All Angels Church in Compton Chamberlayne in Wiltshire in September 2000.

Andrew was also snapped in October 2000 at a “pimps and hookers” themed bash in New York as he partied with Ghislaine and Heidi Klum.

And in that December, Epstein and Maxwell were also pictured on a pheasant shoot which was also attended by Andrew at the Sandringham Estate.

Not long afterwards, he was snapped on a wild holiday with Epstein and Maxwell on which he reportedly visited red-light district clubs and partied with topless women.

The Duke of York, who was 40 years old at the time with two young children, was infamously pictured partying with topless women on a yacht in Phuket, Thailand.

Maxwell is also reported to have accompanied him and the Prince and Epstein were reportedly spotted in bars around Patong resort town on the island, including one staffed by semi-naked go-go dancers.