Katie Couric’s flirty lasagna with Prince Andrew at Epstein’s ‘Predator’s Ball’: What really went on at pedophile’s mansion – revealed by the woman who organized dinner

Katie Couric was so eager to schmooze at a now-infamous party at Jeffrey Epstein’s New York mansion in 2010 that the prize-winning journalist agreed to attend without having any clue who the pedophile was, the Daily Mail can reveal. 

Despite numerous reports about Epstein’s child sex crimes, Couric, 68, was one of several high-profile guests at the disgraced financier’s $75million Manhattan townhouse after accepting a last-minute invitation to the dinner honoring the now dishonored Prince Andrew, organized by entertainment publicist Peggy Siegal. 

Inside, surrounded by garish artwork and strange furniture, Couric joined Epstein and fellow attendees including Woody Allen and his wife Soon-Yi Previn, and comedian Chelsea Handler.

The former NBC anchor sat around a table with Epstein for cocktails and lasagna, and talked about international politics, Siegal told the Daily Mail.

She chatted up Andrew Mountbatten Windsor about the then-upcoming wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Siegal recalled an initially stiff, awkward mood that lightened up after Couric cheekily asked Andrew for his cellphone number so she could call him during the royal wedding.

Then, Handler fully broke the ice by asking director Woody Allen about how he met Soon-Yi Previn, his step daughter who he infamously later married.

‘Everyone was screaming [with laughter] after that and lightened up’, Siegal said of the event, which she now regrets organizing.

‘In hindsight, it was the biggest mistake of my career, and it cost me my career and my reputation’, said Siegal, who previously worked with Netflix and movie producers Annapurna Pictures. 

Couric’s controversial attendance was thrust back into the spotlight this week after Megyn Kelly criticized her and other guests on her podcast. 

Kelly took aim at Couric and George Stephanopoulos, an anchor on ABC News’s Good Morning America, who also attended the party. Former CBS News journalist and host Charlie Rose was in attendance, as well.

‘Katie Couric knows full well that you cannot solicit a minor prostitute,’ Kelly said on her podcast. ‘That’s rape.

‘Those two journalists (Couric and Stephanopoulos) went and sat with Jeffrey Epstein at his home where these alleged crimes occurred, for dinner, knowing all of that.’ 

But according to Siegal, Couric may have an excuse – she and the other journalists supposedly didn’t know who Epstein was.

Instead, Siegal claimed they accepted the invitation as a chance to meet Andrew, but seemingly didn’t do their homework on the pedophile they were about to have dinner with.

Others who rejected the invitation include journalist and former Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown, who this week recalled turning down an invite to what she dubbed ‘the Predator’s Ball.’

By that point Epstein had served 15 months in prison for having sex with minors – his year-long house arrest ended in July 2010 and the party took place in December that year.

Numerous articles had been written about him including a major profile in Vanity Fair, which came out in 2003.

Couric has spoken about the dinner, and in her 2021 memoir, Going There, she said it was ‘like Eyes Wide Shut with a twist – creepy chandeliers and body-part art.’

She described eating lasagna out of shallow bowls, and said Epstein ‘held court’ in front of the fireplace as the guests mingled.

‘I couldn’t imagine what Epstein and Andrew were up to, apart from trying to cultivate friends in the media,’ she wrote in the memoir. ‘Which, in retrospect, they must have figured they’d need when the pedophilia charges started rolling in.’

Another connection between Epstein and Couric is that she appeared on Poetry in America, a PBS TV series and educational initiative, that was funded in part by a donation from Leon Black, a billionaire client of Epstein’s, as well as money from the pedophile himself.

Siegal told the Daily Mail that Epstein called her up the day he wanted the dinner in Andrew’s honor to take place.

‘I couldn’t figure out who to invite because it was such a short notice. I decided to call these newscasters who I knew were going to London in April (2011) to cover Prince William’s wedding,’ she said. 

‘When I called them, I said Prince Andrew was coming to a businessman’s house, I gave them the name (Epstein), they did not know who he was. 

‘I said there will be no palace guards around. It’s a small intimate dinner, and if you want to come and talk to Andrew about the wedding that would be interesting.

‘That’s why they came. They did not come to meet Jeffrey Epstein, they had no idea who Jeffrey Epstein was. They came because they trusted me that I was inviting them to an interesting dinner that would be helpful. That’s the only reason they came.’ 

Siegal said there were about 10 guests, and described the vibe as feeling ‘off and awkward’ at first.

‘Everyone was looking at the furniture and just wondering what they were doing there,’ she said. 

Once the guests arrived they seemed more impressed with Allen than Andrew, Siegal said.

Rose and Stephanopoulos tried to talk about international politics with Andrew but ‘got nowhere.’

That was when Couric boldly asked for Andrew’s cellphone number so she could later get the wedding ‘scoop’ from inside the walls of Westminster Abbey as she stood outside reporting.

‘Everyone exploded with laughter,’ Siegal said. ‘Then, Chelsea Handler made her comment to Woody Allen, and everyone laughed again.’

Handler has previously said in an interview that the joke was a brain lapse and that she momentarily forgot that Allen and Previn became a couple in 1991 even though Previn was adopted by Allen’s ex-wife Mia Farrow as a child.

Allen and Previn married in 1997 when he was 62 and she was 27 – both of them were friends with Epstein for years and were frequent guests at his dinner parties.

Four months after the dinner, in April 2011, the Daily Beast ran an article which named a number of those in attendance.

Siegal told the Daily Mail she suffered fierce blowback and spent years trying to salvage her reputation.

‘I only organized the party because I was helping Harvey Weinstein’s Oscar campaign for the movie The King’s Speech and wanted to get a DVD into Andrew’s hands. It was one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done.

‘I did not know about his nefarious behavior. I know like all billionaire bad boys he dated young girls, but I never knew he had an organized ring of underage girls.’  

The 2011 report in the Daily Beast also irked Epstein, and days after it came out, he emailed his associate Boris Nikolic: ‘RE Woody Allen, my fault. Charlie Rose was also there. He has a big mouth.’

Around that time, Andrew was in the headlines, too, after the late Virginia Giuffre went public for the first time with her allegations that Epstein loaned her to him for sex when she was 17. In 2017 Rose was fired from CBS and his other presenting roles with PBS and Bloomberg after allegations of sexual misconduct.

The Daily Mail has contacted Couric’s office for comment but has not heard back.