The US trip will be a return visit after the Trumps were hosted at Windsor last year
There are increasingly loud calls for King Charles and Queen Camilla to meet survivors of the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during their state visit to the US later this month.
Lisa Phillips, a US survivor of Epstein, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We’ve already sent letters to him [the King], and we’re already requesting meetings with him“.
She added her voice to US Congressman Ro Khanna and the family of the late Virginia Giuffre, calling for the royal visitors to engage with Epstein’s victims, who have questions about the involvement of the King’s brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
Mountbatten-Windsor, who has faced his own calls to testify for a congressional inquiry, has denied any wrongdoing from his links to Epstein.
The four-day trip to meet President Trump, from 27 to 30 April, was already likely to be controversial.
It is against the backdrop of the Iran war, with no certainty about where the ceasefire might stand during the state visit.
It might be difficult to be chinking glasses in the White House if bombs are still falling. Not to mention the awkwardness if there are more volleys of disparaging comments from Trump about the UK’s prime minister, armed forces or Nato allies.
The King, facing one of the biggest speeches of his reign when he addresses Congress, will be expected to help restore the rather frayed friendship between the US and UK.
But it increasingly seems that the King and Queen, in the wake of the Mountbatten-Windsor scandal, will be the focus of some difficult questions themselves, with calls for some kind of public response to Epstein’s victims during their trip.
The survivors want to be part of the conversation.
Phillips, a former model who has spoken out about her experiences as a survivor of Epstein, believes there is a greater chance of meeting Queen Camilla than the King.
“It may happen with Camilla,” she told the Today programme on Friday.
“She’s always been supportive of the survivors. She’s taken a stand for us. She would be the more likely person to meet with us. So we’re hopeful that maybe she will”.
The Queen has been a longstanding campaigner against domestic abuse and violence against women and girls, including talking about her own experience of an assault.
“To every survivor of every kind of violence, many of whom have not been able to tell their stories or who have not been believed, please know that you are not alone,” the Queen told a reception at St James’s Palace, in a speech seen as a thinly-veiled reference to Epstein’s victims.
A previous statement from Buckingham Palace had said the King and Queen’s “thoughts and sympathies have been, and remain with, the victims of any and all forms of abuse”.
In terms of a practical response, the Palace has already taken unprecedented action by stripping the former Prince Andrew of his titles and removing him from his home.
So far, there have been no signs that the state visit will include any reference to Epstein or his survivors. A meeting with the King and Queen remains very unlikely.
It is understood that there are serious concerns that any comments or remarks in meetings could jeopardise the legal process underway following the arrest of Mountbatten-Windsor.
Although US Congressman Khanna has rejected this, telling The Times there could be a meeting between survivors and the King without any “specific facts regarding his brother” being discussed.
The Democrat, who co-sponsored legislation that required the US justice department to release the Epstein files, has already written to the King calling on him to engage with Epstein victims, saying: “As you are aware, this is not solely an American matter.”
The state visit falls only a couple of days after the first anniversary of Giuffre taking her own life.
Giuffre was a prominent accuser of Mountbatten-Windsor, and her brother and sister-in-law, Sky and Amanda Roberts, have said they “strongly urge” the King to “meet with survivors and us and hear what we have to say”.
The idea of the Epstein scandal becoming part of the state visit would be as uncomfortable for the Trumps as it would be for the visiting royals.
The First Lady, Melania Trump, felt it necessary to publicly deny any connection to Epstein, also calling for victims to be able to testify to Congress.
President Trump has been an enthusiastic supporter of the monarchy and has spoken warmly of the King’s visit.
On social media, he announced he would “look forward to spending time with the King, whom I greatly respect. It will be TERRIFIC!”
So the Trump administration will want to avoid anything disrupting the positive notes of the visit.
Although the UK public might seem less enthusiastic, a recent YouGov opinion poll suggests 49% are against the state visit, compared with 33% in favour.
The BBC’s Royal Watch newsletter has received emails from readers opposing the trip.
That’s included criticism such as a warning that “appalling insults” from the president are “punching at not just Starmer but at our soldiers, our institutions”. Another said, “Stay home. Why be insulted?”
But such state visits are carried out on behalf of the government and the US trip has been months in the planning, with an important task of improving relations.
State visits are tightly choreographed events, carefully planned in advance, with limited opportunities for adaptations. And the royals are not deciding the agenda.
But the calls over Epstein are getting louder and harder to ignore. Survivors are likely to be doing interviews and making their points during the visit, contrasting their stories with the ceremonial splendour.
There might not be answers from the royal visitors, but the questions will be inescapably part of the state visit story.
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