Recent revelations have brought to light that the woman at the heart of allegations surrounding Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor at Royal Ascot was employed as a waitress during the renowned racing festival when the purported incident occurred.

This claim, which dates back nearly 25 years, is currently under scrutiny by detectives as they conduct a broader investigation into Andrew’s alleged misconduct while in public office.

The incident reportedly took place in June 2002, during Royal Ascot, coinciding with Queen Elizabeth’s attendance as part of her Golden Jubilee celebrations at the esteemed Berkshire event.

At that time, Andrew was a high-profile figure within the Royal Family, captured in photographs attending the gathering alongside his brothers, the future King and Prince Edward.

Last week, it was disclosed that police are probing allegations of inappropriate behavior by Andrew towards a woman during the event.

The woman is understood to have been working as a temporary waitress hired for the festival, which employs hundreds of additional hospitality staff each year to cater for guests in the royal enclosure and exclusive hospitality areas.

It remains unclear whether the allegation was ever formally reported at the time. Sources suggest racecourse management may not have been informed of the alleged incident in 2002.

The Duke of York, as he was then known, attending Royal Ascot in 2002

The development comes as Thames Valley Police continue an increasingly wide-ranging investigation into Andrew following his arrest in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

The 66-year-old was held for 11 hours before being released under investigation.

Andrew has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

Originally focused on his decade-long role as Britain’s trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, the investigation has since expanded significantly.

Detectives are examining allegations linked to his association with convicted paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein and are also considering whether other offences may have been committed.

Earlier this month, police disclosed that their inquiry was assessing a broader range of potential offences than previously understood, including allegations relating to sexual misconduct and corruption.

Senior officers have indicated that any fresh evidence uncovered could either be incorporated into the existing misconduct investigation or pursued separately.

Asked about the alleged Royal Ascot incident, a Thames Valley spokeswoman said: ‘We cannot go into specifics of our ongoing investigation, but we are following all reasonable lines of inquiry.’

The force has previously confirmed that specialist investigators, including officers experienced in serious sexual offence investigations and financial crime experts, are working on the case.

Detectives have also searched Andrew’s former residence at Royal Lodge in Windsor and his current home on the Sandringham estate in Norfolk, where material was seized for examination.

The inquiry has already reached senior figures connected to Andrew’s former public roles.

Former Business Secretary Vince Cable has confirmed that police contacted him regarding the wider investigation and requested a witness statement.

The royal, pictured with his brother, the Prince of Wales, at the Berkshire racecourse

Meanwhile, fresh questions have emerged over claims that emails allegedly showing Andrew sharing confidential government information with a business associate were passed to Buckingham Palace several years ago.

The documents reportedly formed part of a High Court dispute involving businessman Jonathan Rowland and were allegedly forwarded to the lord chamberlain, the most senior official in the royal household, in 2020.

The King has previously indicated that he would fully cooperate with any police investigation involving his brother.

Buckingham Palace said: ‘Since there is an ongoing police inquiry concerning Mr Mountbatten-Windsor, it is not possible to provide any comment on these matters.’

Ascot Racecourse declined to comment publicly on the allegations, although sources indicated the organisation would cooperate with any police requests for assistance.

Royal Ascot has long been one of the most prestigious events in the British social and sporting calendar.

Andrew was a regular attendee for many years and famously hosted Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in the royal enclosure in 2000.

His last appearance at the event came in 2019, shortly before he stepped back from public duties following his controversial BBC Newsnight interview.

Police have stressed that their investigation remains ongoing and could take many months before detectives decide whether to submit evidence to prosecutors.

OKLAHOMA CITY — The New York Knicks’ last appearance in the NBA Finals saw them face off against the San Antonio Spurs, a team led by a once-in-a-generation talent who was just stepping into the spotlight of the championship stage.

Fast forward to today, and history seems to be mirroring itself.

In that previous era, the Spurs’ centerpiece was Tim Duncan. This time around, it’s Victor Wembanyama taking the reins for San Antonio. The stage is set once more for a classic showdown: the 2026 NBA Finals will pit the Spurs against the Knicks. San Antonio is eyeing its sixth championship, while New York is desperate to break a 53-year title drought.

Game 1 tips off on Wednesday in San Antonio.

This matchup is compelling for numerous reasons. Firstly, it’s a rematch of this season’s NBA Cup championship game, which the Knicks clinched. The series also brings together the cultural and financial powerhouse of New York with the global allure of San Antonio’s French sensation, Wembanyama. Additionally, it marks another chapter in an era of unprecedented parity in the NBA.

No matter who wins this series, it’ll be the eighth different franchise to win a title in the last eight seasons – extending the longest such stretch in NBA history. Toronto won in 2019, followed by the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020, then Milwaukee in 2021, Golden State in 2022, Denver in 2023, Boston in 2024, Oklahoma City last year, and now either New York or San Antonio will be added to that list.

The Spurs’ win in Oklahoma City on Saturday night extended another part of the parity puzzle, that being no defending champion has even gotten back to the NBA Finals since Golden State won in 2018 and returned in 2019.

The Knicks are trying to do something not done since the days of Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Dave DeBusschere, Bill Bradley, Earl Monroe and Phil Jackson – that being, win it all. There have been 17 different franchises (18 if the Thunder and Seattle SuperSonics are considered separately, as some fans prefer) that have celebrated championships since the Knicks last won the title, with the Los Angeles Lakers having won 11 crowns in that span, Boston winning seven, Chicago six and Golden State five.

They’re the talk of New York right now, after earning their first finals trip since 1999. The mood was quite different a month ago, when New York trailed Atlanta 2-1 after back-to-back one-point losses in Games 2 and 3 of their first-round series.

New York is 11-0 since, winning almost all those games by blowout. And if the team didn’t hear the negative noise from Round 1, it can’t hear all the effusive praise coming now, Knicks guard Jalen Brunson said.

“When there’s negative things being said about you, it’s important to ignore them,” Brunson said. “When there’s positive things about you, it’s easy to be able to read them to make you feel good. But you can’t do one and not the other. Just block it out as best you can.”

The series

Technically, the teams went 1-1 against each other. New York won two of the three meetings, but the NBA Cup final matchup – essentially an 83rd game in an 82-game season – doesn’t count in any league records or statistics.

Both teams won their home game against the other this season. Julian Champagnie made 11 3-pointers and Wembanyama scored 31 points to lead the Spurs to a comeback 134-132 win over New York on Dec. 31. The Knicks pulled away in the fourth to a 114-89 win on March 1 to snap San Antonio’s 11-game winning streak, plus won the Cup final in Las Vegas.

The odds

As would be expected, the Spurs – who have home-court advantage – are the early favorites to win the series. They were listed with odds of -210 on Saturday night, meaning bettors would to wager $210 to win $100.

The Knicks had odds of +170.

BUNIA, Congo — In a promising development amidst an outbreak, five individuals have successfully recovered from a rare strain of Ebola, according to the World Health Organization’s chief, who made the announcement on Sunday while visiting Bunia, a key city in eastern Congo.

“Today, four individuals will be released, and one more was discharged the day before yesterday,” stated WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. His remarks came during the inauguration of a new Ebola treatment facility in Bunia, the capital of the Ituri province.

He emphasized, “While we continue to advance vaccines and treatments, it’s important to note that recovery from Ebola is indeed possible.”

The WHO reported on Friday that a patient had successfully overcome the Bundibugyo virus, the specific Ebola strain involved in the current outbreak, which presently lacks any approved treatments or vaccines. This marks the first recorded recovery of a confirmed Bundibugyo case in this outbreak.

According to the latest official statistics from the WHO, there are 906 suspected cases and 223 suspected fatalities. Additionally, neighboring Uganda has reported nine confirmed cases and one death, as announced by the Ugandan Health Ministry on Friday.

The virus continues to spread faster than the response despite better-organized health facilities and new aid arrivals, Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, said Saturday, calling for the immediate expansion of testing, faster deployment of aid workers and sustained access for medical supplies.

The dangers faced by health workers have been heightened by anger among residents over the stringent medical protocols for handling the victims’ bodies, which clash with local burial rites. Residents have launched at least three attacks against health centers.

Tedros stressed the importance of involving the community in the outbreak response during the opening of the new treatment center on Sunday.

“If you come to health facilities when you have symptoms, you can get the support and recover, so the key is to come forward as early as possible and to get the necessary support,” the WHO chief said.

“We can stop this Ebola and anyone who has it can also recover. But the rule … is this thing is everybody’s business and every citizen should be involved,” he added.

Attacks in the region by the Allied Democratic Forces, a rebel group allied with the Islamic State group, and a coalition of ethnic militias have also hindered the response.

ADF fighters killed seven people Saturday in Beni, North Kivu province, an area also affected by the outbreak, the Congolese army and civil society groups said.

The illness also has been reported in both North Kivu and South Kivu, south of Ituri, where the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group controls many key cities, including Goma and Bukavu.

“The final message we would like to share with the Ituri community is that there is hope,” Pierre Akilimali, Incident Manager at Congo’s National Institute of Public Health, said during the inauguration on Sunday.

“With the symptomatic treatment that we are currently providing, we are seeing patients recover,” Akilimali added.

“We truly have hope. The virus here is not as complicated as those we have dealt with in the past, and with the support of all our partners, we believe we will be able to bring this outbreak under control as quickly as possible,” said Davin Ambitapio, another doctor at the treatment center.

Recently, many have pondered a similar question: did something happen to Claude Lemieux at the start of the week? This question has been on the minds of both those who were close to him and those who encountered him recently.

NHL expert and author Liam Maguire raised this very question in a conversation with the Daily Mail following the unexpected news of Lemieux’s passing.

Rejean Tremblay, a seasoned hockey journalist who had a 30-year acquaintance with Lemieux, shared similar sentiments with the New York Post. He speculated, “It’s possible that the overwhelming affection he received on Monday night triggered emotions that were too intense to bear.”

The exact reasons may forever remain a mystery. We might never unravel what transpired during those five days in May, between the third and fifth games of the Eastern Conference Final featuring the Montreal Canadiens and the Carolina Hurricanes.

Lemieux was celebrated at both events: on Monday, he was met with enthusiastic applause as he carried the ceremonial torch in Montreal; by Friday night in Raleigh, the hockey community was mourning his sudden loss.

By then, the search for answers had started. Theories had begun to develop and details had begun to emerge. But there remains so much to untangle: what led a four-time Stanley Cup champion, one of the most celebrated and controversial figures in hockey, to take his own life?

Lemieux carries the torch in the opening ceremony of Game 3 of the NHL’s ECF

Hockey historian Liam Maguire (left) is pictured with ex-Canadiens teammates Claude Lemieux (center) and Chris Nilan (right) before a playoff game against the Carolina Hurricanes on May 25. Lemieux was found dead in Florida three days later after a suspected suicide

Maguire was among the last people to speak to Lemieux. He was there on Monday, when Lemieux returned to the Canadiens, where the Quebec native spent seven strong seasons and won a Stanley Cup title.

‘I said, “Geez, you look great, I don’t even think you’re five pounds over playing weight,”‘ he told The Daily Mail. ‘He laughed and just said he was running a business in Florida, doing some stuff, and living life. And I mean, it’s so ironic to say that now that he’s gone.’

Three days later, Lemieux’s body was discovered by his son at the family’s furniture business in Palm Beach County. He had hanged himself.

‘It might have reawakened old pains, old suffering,’ Tremblay told the Post about Lemieux’s night as torch bearer. It didn’t seem that way to Lemieux’s clients. Lemieux worked as a player agent, representing players such as Hurricanes goaltender Frederik Andersen and Golden Knights star Rasmus Andersson.

They will face off in next month’s Stanley Cup Final but both detailed their heartache after losing the man who helped guide their career. Andersen struggled to contain his emotions after Friday’s game in Raleigh; he described Lemieux as ‘like family’ and said he ‘has the biggest heart.’

Andersson heard from Lemieux on Wednesday. They had reportedly known each other since the Vegas star was 13 and they spoke most days, plotting the next move in Andersson’s career. ‘We laid out a plan,’ he told the Las Vegas-Review Journal this week. ‘I couldn’t believe it when I got the call.’

Not even his family had a sense that tragedy lay around the corner, apparently. According to a friend, Colombe Lacroix, Lemieux had been ‘depressed’ and going through ‘a difficult time.’ But, Lacroix told the Post, his loved ones ‘never saw it coming.’

So what had been troubling Lemieux? According to the Post, the NHL legend had – at one point – gone ten years without speaking to his children, which Tremblay said ‘hurt him tremendously.’ Then there was his snub from the Hockey Hall of Fame.

He won the 1986 Stanley Cup with the Canadiens as a rookie – his first of four titles

Lemieux’s son Brendan paid a heartbreaking tribute to the NHL legend after his death

Lemieux in 1991 during a game against the Minnesota North Stars

‘It’s ridiculous that he’s not [in],’ Maguire told the Daily Mail. ‘It’s only because the Hall of Fame is a political entity. The first-ballot guys are rubber-stamped, the ones who anybody would say is a no-brainer. 

‘When you get to the next level down, then you have to check off boxes, and Claude doesn’t check them all off because he didn’t play nice.’ 

Tremblay told the Post that Lemieux never got over the ‘injustice,’ adding: ‘The sense of rejection ran deeper than one might have imagined.’

One of only 11 players to win Stanley Cups with three different teams, Lemieux earned Conn Smythe Trophy honors with the New Jersey Devils as the 1995 playoff MVP. But while he’s celebrated by fans of the Canadiens, Devils and Colorado Avalanche, he’s widely hated by many others over allegations of dirty play.

Lemieux’s infamous hit on Kris Draper in Game 6 of the 1996 Western Conference Finals left the Detroit Red Wings center with a concussion as well as a broken nose, collarbone and jaw. Fallout from the incident spilled into subsequent seasons as Draper’s teammate, Darren McCarty, tangled with Lemieux on several occasions. 

Lemieux and McCarty would later bury the hatchet in a series of public events aimed at raising money for charity. Still, even in death, Lemieux’s violent past remained difficult to ignore. 

‘This is extremely sad no matter what feelings from past or present you hold,’ McCarty wrote on X after learning of the tragedy. ‘My thoughts and prayers to his family and friends and people who got to see the person off the ice wasn’t the person on [it].’ 

Even on Monday, when Lemieux was re-introduced to Maguire by former Canadiens forward Chris ‘Knuckles’ Nilan, the hockey historian sensed some nagging reservations over the player’s past. 

‘Chris introduces me as this hockey know-it-all,’ Maguire said. ‘For a split second I thought on [Lemieux’s] face I could sort of sense that he was thinking, “Oh God, please, please don’t go there. Please don’t say anything about the Draper hit…” It was something with his body language.’

Ex-Red Wings enforcer Darren McCarty fought Lemieux several times, but still remembered his rival fondly, saying the Quebec native was a different person away from the game

Lemieux won a Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe honors as playoff MVP with the Devils in 1995

Maguire did not talk to him about the Draper hit or another incident when Montreal coach Pat Burns accused Lemieux of diving before refusing to allow trainers to treat his ailing star. 

Such memories, Maguire felt, still caused pain for Lemieux. 

‘I think it was something that he always had to live with,’ said Maguire, who thinks Lemieux was still trying to change the perception of his career. ‘I think that’s why he did all the [charity events with McCarty].’

Monday’s heart-warming torch ceremony also seemed like an effort to change his ferocious on-ice reputation.

‘He could have said “no” to doing the torch, because he knows that regardless of how well it’s going to be received… there’ll be some dialog: “Why are you bringing that piece of s*** out here?”‘ Maguire said.

Instead, Lemieux embraced the moment and showed his affection for the fans who remember him with love instead of vitriol.

‘Getting that in front of 22,000 people, the full-on adulation he hadn’t gotten in 20, 25 years,’ Maguire wondered, ‘did it trigger something?’

Sadly, suicide among former hockey players is not uncommon. For instance, in 2024, Lemieux’s former Colorado Avalanche teammate Chris Simon took his own life at 52. Simon has since been posthumously diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head trauma.

Lemieux addressed Simon’s suicide at a December reunion celebrating Colorado’s 1996 Stanley Cup title.

Lemieux won four Stanley Cups with three different teams over his illustrious career 

Lemieux and his future Devils teammate Scott Stevens collide in New Jersey in 1991

‘It’s very difficult, and especially with Chris passing at such a young age,’ Lemieux said. ‘We have to count our blessings — be grateful for the days that we have and enjoy and appreciate those times when we get together.’

It’s too early to say if Lemieux’s death has any similarities with Simon’s, or how Monday’s profoundly emotional scene in Montreal impacted his final days.

But in ‘the hope that Claude’s life can continue to help others,’ Lemieux’s family is donating his brain to the UNITE Brain Bank at the Boston University CTE Center. 

‘This decision is a gift to science, to athletes, and to future generations of families seeking answers,’ a statement read. ‘No conclusions should be drawn at this time regarding any diagnosis.’

Lemieux is survived by his wife, Deborah, and his four children. On his trip to Montreal this week, reports claim, the NHL legend saw his own parents for the final time.

And during Monday’s outpouring of love, Lemieux’s famously stoic face was briefly replaced with a slight grin as he carried the torch at the Bell Centre. 

While he was never enshrined in Toronto alongside so many other Hall of Famers, Lemieux did cultivate his own admirable legacy, as some more astute fans can attest.

‘At the end of the day, he’s one of the most ferocious, fiercest competitors and winners in hockey history,’ Maguire said of the four-time Stanley Cup champion. ‘That’s how I’m going to remember him. In the realm of the world that I hang my hat on as a hockey historian, that’s who he was.’

If you or someone you know needs help, please call or text the confidential 24/7 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US on 988. There is also an online chat available at 988lifeline.org.