An aide to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was asked by sex offender Jeffrey Epstein about arranging a dinner with a "beautiful friend" of his, nearly three years after the then-prince claimed to have cut ties, new emails show.

"I have a very beautiful friend comoing [sic] to london on tues. ANdrew might want to have her for a dinner," Epstein wrote in October 2013 to David Stern.

Emails appear to show Stern, a trusted royal insider, acted as a go-between for the pair after the then-Duke's relationship with Epstein began to receive scrutiny following his 2008 conviction for soliciting sex from a minor.

Mountbatten-Windsor has always denied any wrongdoing. The BBC has tried to contact Stern for comment.

No further correspondence confirms whether Mountbatten-Windsor met Epstein's "friend".