Prince Andrew gave Ghislaine Maxwell ‘unrestricted access’ to Buckingham Palace as part of their close friendship, a former royal police officer has claimed. 

The relationship between the Duke of York, 62, and Maxwell, 60, who has been jailed for 20 years for grooming young women for Jeffrey Epstein, is being scrutinized publicly. 

It is said that Maxwell was waved in by Palace police when she visited the Duke, being allowed to enter ‘at will’, to see him.

‘Myself and my other colleagues formed the opinion they were in some sort of relationship,’ he told The Sun

The duo are said to have known each other since Maxwell was at university in the UK, before she introduced the Duke to Epstein later down the line. 

Mr Page, who worked at the Palace as an armed protection officer, said that Maxwell was one of the Duke’s most frequent visitors during the early 2000s.

He told the news site that he had also seen the pair share an ‘intimate picnic’ in the Palace grounds, ‘right outside the Queen’s bedroom window’.

He and colleagues were asked not to record Maxwell’s name in the visitor logs, a ‘highly unusual’ decision, Mr Page said. 

This could have been because the socialite is the daughter of the disgraced Robert Maxwell, former newspaper owner and politician.

‘It wouldn’t have been a good look,’ Mr Page said. 

Buckingham Palace decline to comment on this claim.