EXCLUSIVE: Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's place of honor as Prince Andrew's special guests at 2000 Royal 'Dance of the Decades' ball in Windsor Castle is revealed in souvenir program
Surrounded by royalty and aristocracy, for Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell it was an invitation that cemented them at the heart of the establishment.
The pedophile and his alleged accomplice attended the Royal Family's Dance of the Decades at Windsor Castle as special guests of Prince Andrew on June 21, 2000.
Has unearthed a souvenir booklet from the party which lists them among the star-studded guests invited to celebrate four landmark royal birthdays - the Duke of York's 40th, the 100th birthday of the Queen Mother, Princess Margaret's 70th and the 50th of Princess Anne.
The never-before-seen official program for the evening is a stark visual reminder of how close Epstein got to the Royal Family in a scandal that has rocked the British monarchy and continues to dog Prince Andrew.
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell attended the Royal Family's Dance of the Decades at Windsor Castle as special guests of Prince Andrew on June 21, 2000
DailyMail.com has unearthed a souvenir booklet from the party which lists pedophile Epstein and his alleged madam among the star-studded guests
'Miss Ghislaine Maxwell' is seen among names of Lords and Ladies and Dukes and Duchess' for the 2000 bash
The party was to celebrate the Duke of York's 40th, the 100th birthday of the Queen Mother, Princess Margaret's 70th and the 50th of Princess Anne. They are pictured in 1990 celebrating their birthdays at Buckingham Palace
The US Department of Justice has publicly said they would like to question the Duke over his links to the billionaire and the underfire prince has stepped down from royal duties.
The ball was just a year after Andrew first met Epstein and while the financier, allegedly with Maxwell's help, was trafficking and sexually abusing underage girls.
Epstein and Maxwell are named separately on the list, despite the fact Prince Andrew last year claimed Epstein was only invited as Maxwell's 'plus one' in his infamous BBC Newsnight interview.
Musician Graham Dalby was at the dance performing with his band and said Prince Andrew and Epstein 'would have been in a corner with a drink talking'
Royal protocol, however, dictates only couples who are married or engaged be named together.
According to Maxwell she and Epstein dated in the 1990s, but that's as far as it went.
In a frank exchange about the ball on the BBC show, presenter Emily Maitlis said to the Duke: 'In 2000 Epstein was a guest at Windsor Castle and at Sandringham, he was brought right into the heart of the Royal Family at your invitation.'
Andrew replied: 'But certainly at my invitation, not at the Royal Family's invitation but remember that it was his girlfriend that was the key element in this. He was the, as it were, plus one, to some extent in that aspect.'
Later in 2000 Andrew hosted Epstein and Maxwell at Sandringham for what he has described as a 'straightforward shooting weekend' and in March the following year Epstein's alleged 'sex slave' Virginia Guiffre claims she was forced to sleep with Andrew for the first time, when she was 17, in Maxwell's London townhouse, an allegation the Duke has categorically denied.
Musician Graham Dalby was at the Dance of the Decades playing with his swing band the Grahamphones and today shares his recollections of the evening.
Dalby, 63, recalled how the Queen was in 'great form' at the royal ball, dancing with several of her guests.
He said: 'She was on such great form. The dancing was actually being fronted and being led by the Queen, I've never seen the Queen so animated, she had a really lovely smile on her face and she was wearing a lovely powder blue dress and she was looking absolutely stunning. She was just grabbing people and pulling them onto the dance floor.
'She nearly grabbed me and I thought 'ah don't grab me I can't dance' and she got the man next to me and he couldn't dance either.'
Asked if it is possible Epstein could have danced with the British monarch, he said: 'Yes quite easily. She was just grabbing people every time there was a new dance.'
The never-before-seen official program for the evening is a stark visual reminder of how close Epstein got to the Royal Family. Epstein is pictured with Prince Andrew in 2010
The ball was just a year after Andrew first met Epstein and while the financier, allegedly with Maxwell's help, was trafficking and sexually abusing underage girls. Andrew is pictured with Virginia Roberts, aged 17, and Maxwell in 2001
Epstein and Maxwell are pictured on a pheasant shoot with Prince Andrew at the Sandringham estate in December 2000, weeks before the royals arrived for Christmas
However, he also doesn't recall Andrew being on the dance floor, adding: 'Andrew's not a dancer so they (him and Epstein) would have been in a corner with a drink talking I suspect.'
Dalby is sure the Queen would have met the friends her son invited, he said: 'Oh yes and she would have made it her business to know who everybody was. I mean she knew who I was.'
Epstein was not arrested for child sex trafficking until 2006, so was an unremarkable guest who would have raised few eyebrows in 2000.
Neurosurgeon, academic and senior adviser to the president of the World Bank, Dr Melanie Walker (pictured) also attended the ball. She worked for a time as Epstein's 'science advisor'
Dalby said: 'I wouldn't have known who Epstein was, he wasn't known. I mean I recognized all sorts of famous people in amongst all the titles, Jackie Stewart the racing driver was there, but certainly that's not a man I would have gone, 'there's Jeffrey Epstein' because he meant nothing to me.'
The next day Andrew was pictured at Ascot, just seven miles from Windsor Castle, with Epstein and Maxwell.
It is not known if they stayed at the castle, although according to the booklet guests could get coaches back to Buckingham Palace at 12.30am, 1.30am and 2.30am.
Alongside dozens of royals from across the world, celebrities who attended the party included jockey Richard Dunwoody, Lord and Lady Palumbo, Cleo Laine and John Dankworth, Sophie Anderton and golfers Nick Faldo and Colin Montgomerie.
Another person on the guest list with a link to Epstein was Dr. Melanie Walker - a mutual friend of Andrew and the financier, who worked for a time as Epstein's 'science advisor'.
The American neurosurgeon - who attended the ball with her partner Dr Steven Sinofsky - met Andrew in 1999, the same year he met Epstein, and once claimed she and the Duke were so chummy he would playfully call her 'dork' and 'smarty pants'.
Dr Walker first met Epstein in 1992 after he said he could get her an audition for a Victoria's Secret modeling job and was hired as his science adviser from 1998-99.
She later worked as a senior program officer at the Bill Gates Foundation with the New York Times reporting she became an intermediary between Gates and Epstein, who's interactions have come under scrutiny.
The A5 program booklet says the reception and dance took place in the Castle's State Apartments and 'breakfast' was served at 11.30pm in St George's Hall, the Grand Reception Room and the Guard Chamber
Dalby's band The Grahamophones performed. Also providing music was the Lester Lanin Orchestra, a favorite act of the Queen Mother, who the royals flew in from the US, Dalby said
Dalby's band is pictured. He said he changed his band's name from the Grahamphones to the London Swing Orchestra for the Olympics in 2012
The A5 program booklet says the reception and dance took place in the Castle's State Apartments and 'breakfast' was served at 11.30pm in St George's Hall, the Grand Reception Room and the Guard Chamber.
It says bars were also situated in all three of those rooms and in the King Charles II's Dining Room.
As well as naming all the guests, it also included a plan of the State Apartments so guests could find their way around.
Dalby said: 'There was just a pile of them by the doorway so I thought that's a nice souvenir, I'll take one. It was just a little thing for guests to have so they could see who else was at the party. It has the program for the evening, a plan of the State Apartments so you could find your way around, the bands playing and what time breakfast will be served and stuff like that.'
According to Hello! magazine who ran paparazzi shots of people arriving, the '800 or so guests... enjoyed drinks and canapés served by 300 domestic staff in full livery', it also reported how 'the royal tradition of a cooked breakfast was not overlooked and, from 11.30am until 2am, guests enjoyed scrambled eggs, sausages, bacon, black pudding, kedgeree, toast, coffee and orange juice.'
Dalby recalls: 'It was a huge party, but it was incredible in so far as practically every member of every royal family in the world was there. It was quite extraordinary.
'I think I had kedgeree at one in the morning, it was quite good. It was a great party, I spent the whole night drinking the Queen's champagne. I mean what could be better than that?'
Also providing music was the Lester Lanin Orchestra, a favorite act of the Queen Mother, who the royals flew in from the US, Dalby said.
Dalby and his band also played at the royals' previous Dance of the Decade party held in 1990 at Buckingham Palace.
Dalby said his band landed the prestigious gigs after being spotted by Princess Margaret at a party for the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire at Chatsworth House some years earlier.
'Princess Margaret came up with her whiskey in her hand and said, 'I think you're absolutely marvelous and I'm going to tell my sister the Queen all about you',' he recalls.
Dalby was introduced to Andrew by the actor Anthony Andrews at the 1990 party but he remembers the prince was distracted at the time and was dismissive of him, in contrast to his sister Anne who at the same party came up to him and gave him a slap between the shoulder blades to say well done on his performance. He added: 'She's a fantastic lady.'
Dalby didn't interact with Andrew at the ball in 2000.
Dalby, 63, recalled how the Queen was in 'great form' at the royal ball, dancing with several of her guests. 'The dancing was actually being fronted and being led by the Queen, I've never seen the Queen so animated, she had a really lovely smile on her face and she was wearing a lovely powder blue dress and she was looking absolutely stunning. She was just grabbing people and pulling them onto the dance floor,' he said
'The Duke of Edinburgh was dancing with some rather attractive brunette and was trying to tell her funny stories or keep her amused whilst dancing,' Dalby said of the event
The 2000 party was notable as the first time Andrew's wife Sarah Ferguson, also a friend of Epstein's, had been brought back into the family fold after years of exile
The 2000 party was notable as the first time Andrew's wife Sarah Ferguson, also a friend of Epstein's, had been brought back into the family fold after years of exile.
Dalby, from Trowbridge, Wiltshire, in England said: 'The fact that Fergie was there was amazing. She was very high profile at Buckingham Palace in 1990 and so was Diana, of course Diana had gone by that time so she was kind of on her own and had to be on her best behavior, so she was very low profile I have to say.
'I did see her, but she wasn't dancing or anything like that, whereas at the previous party (in 1990) she'd been a right party animal and she and Diana pretty much occupied the dance floor from the word go.'
Dalby said: 'The fact that Fergie was there was amazing!'
Dalby's band played the guests in on arrival and he remembers playing some royal favorites, he said: 'We played A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square that was the Queen Mother's favorite and we also played Night and Day because that was Princess Margaret's favorite.
'The Duke of Edinburgh was dancing with some rather attractive brunette and was trying to tell her funny stories or keep her amused whilst dancing, at the end of the dancing the Duke walked up to the stage and just said right up to my face, 'can't hear yourself think in here', he just meant the band was too loud and he was trying to talk.'
Graham said he changed his band's name from the Grahamphones to the London Swing Orchestra for the Olympics in 2012.
He still runs the band and is also director of music for the Trowbridge Philharmonic Choir and the Choir of the Western Wynde.
Six years after the 2000 ball Epstein and Maxwell were still very much in the royal fold and the pair were back at Windsor Castle as guests for Princess Beatrice's 18th birthday where they were pictured in fancy dress alongside disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein.
The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh did not attend the 2006 ball where Beatrice wore a £10,000 gown created by Fergie's friend and Weinstein's future wife Georgina Chapman.
By the time of Beatrice's party US police had issued an arrest warrant for Epstein and had already raided his Florida mansion.
Andrew has denied having any knowledge of the probe into his friend at the time and continues to deny any wrongdoing.
Maxwell, 58, currently faces trial over criminal child sex trafficking charges in New York, having been accused of procuring girls as young as 14 for Epstein to abuse.
The former British socialite has pleaded not guilty and has denied any wrongdoing.
The probe into Epstein in 2005 started when a woman from West Palm Beach claimed her 14-year-old daughter had been lured to the mansion and ordered to strip to her underwear while she massaged Epstein.
The financier ultimately pleaded guilty to a single charge of soliciting an under-age prostitute under a sweetheart deal that saw him serve just 13 months in prison and required him to register as a sex offender.
Everything resurfaced in 2018 when the Miami Herald published a report about the plea deal, sparking an onslaught of allegations that led to Epstein being charged again in the summer of 2019.
He died by apparent suicide in his Manhattan jail cell on August 10, 2019 while awaiting trial.
