Prince Andrew was ‘sex pest’, masseuse claims
A massage therapist who worked for Prince Andrew has told a British tabloid that the disgraced royal was a “constant sex pest,” who asked inappropriate questions about her sex life and “overstepped the line.” Andrew is facing accusations far more serious than being “creepy,” however.
In an article printed on Friday, massage therapist Emma Gruenbaum told The Sun that working for the Duke of York “always felt a bit sleazy and a bit odd really.” Reportedly hired by Andrew in 2005, she told The Sun that she massaged the prince six times and thought from the outset that he would prove a difficult client.
Andrew allegedly insisted on the massage taking place in his bedroom, despite Gruenbaum stating that this made her uncomfortable. When she noticed that the table was too high, she dropped to the floor to lower it, at which point she said Andrew allegedly complimented her “nice a***,” and asked if she would “take it up the a***.”
“And I went, ‘None of your f***ing business.’ And he just looked at me in sort of a dead stare and said, ‘You can’t talk to me like that,’” she recounted.
Gruenbaum said that Andrew would always be uncovered save for a towel, would frequently crack crude jokes and ask when she had last had sex, and after massage sessions would “try to hug me without fail.” Andrew would allegedly ask her to stay behind to watch a movie or have a cup of tea, offers she said she refused.
The masseuse also said that she would tell Andrew to “shut up” any time he said something inappropriate, and told The Sun that she felt the royal enjoyed being chastized by her. “He was a pest. But it was always in a ‘matron and schoolboy’ way,” she explained.
Eventually, she said that she stopped getting calls to arrange massage appointments with the royal. “His advances weren’t working and I think that his patience ran out,” she said.
Gruenbaum said that she was inspired to tell her story after she heard that Andrew accused Virginia Giuffre of suffering from “false memories” of her alleged abuse at the hands of the prince. "I don’t want to sit by and not speak out about the way he was towards me as he calls Virginia delusional,” she said.
Giuffre is currently suing Andrew in New York for sexual assault, claiming that she was trafficked to the royal by notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein on several occasions in the early 2000s. Ahead of the trial, Buckingham Palace stripped Andrew of his honorary military titles and patronages. He denies Giuffre’s accusations.
