His lifestyle, his links with Jeffrey Epstein and an accusation of sexual assault: his pans pushed the British crown to gradually remove Prince Andrew from the royal family.
He is the most unpopular member of the royal family: according to the latest YouGov barometer, 89% of Britons have a negative opinion of Prince Andrew. And for good reason, the eighth in the order of succession to the throne is gradually dismissed by the royal palace because of accusations of sex scandals which embarrass the Crown.
In early 2022, Andrew avoided a civil trial in New York by settling a financial compromise with Virginia Guiffre. This American accused her of forced sex three times in 2001 when she was only 17 years old. The agreement is confidential, but the British press advanced the amount of 14 million euros.
Faced with this scandal, Prince Andrew was stripped of his military titles and all honorary functions. He is also no longer referred to as a Royal Highness. The humiliations are linked for himself if that of a public trial would have been still important. The royal family had already little appreciated the interview given to the BBC by Andrew despite the disagreement of his communications adviser.
The result was a disaster: no apology or empathy for the victims, very clumsy defense and no regrets for having been close to the pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Netflix has even launched the production of a film on the underside of this interview, a sign of the disastrous echo of this choice of Andrew. The Guardian daily summarized the interview as follows: “He appeared unaware of the seriousness of the matter, laughing and smiling several times during the interview and expressing no regret or concern for Epstein’s victims. .”
This interview had put an end to the public activities of the prince in order to stop the costs for the royal family. The city of York also obtained the loss of the honorary title of Duke of York, a sign of its very low popularity. Yet Andrew once again stood out by showing his dissatisfaction with his mother’s inheritance.
According to revelations from The Mail on Sunday, Andrew would harbor “resentment” towards his brother King Charles and would be “in despair” at the inheritance of his mother entirely passed on to Charles. This choice by Elizabeth allows Charles III to escape inheritance tax through a monarch-to-monarch bequest.
This avoids Charles III having to pay to keep the residences of Balmoral and Sandringham for example. The bequeathed fortune is estimated between 370 million pounds according to the Times and 650 million pounds according to the DailyMail (i.e. between 419 and 736 million euros).
Andrew’s gradual downgrade
In addition to the loss of his honorary titles in the royal family and then of his military titles, Andrew could be dislodged by Charles III. He has occupied the Royal Lodge home with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson since 2003. After investing nearly 9 million euros to renovate this house, the prince hopes to keep it. But it will be difficult for him to finance his lavish lifestyle: his annual grant, awarded by the Crown (nearly 283,000 euros), will soon disappear with his exclusion from the royal family. He will therefore have to make do with his military pension of 22,000 euros per year, which constitutes the bulk of his income.
During the amicable agreement made with Virginia Guiffre, the British press indicated that it was her mother Elizabeth II who had to pay the $12 million to avoid trial even though Andrew had sold his chalet in Verbier, Switzerland, for $14 million. The tabloid The Sun reported in January that: “The King has made it clear that Buckingham Palace is no place for Prince Andrew. Firstly his office was closed last year and now his quarters dwelling.”
Andrew’s role at the funeral of Elizabeth II
Andrew was there throughout the funeral of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, but his presence did not make everyone happy. The Queen’s third son, also known to be her favourite, lost his royal titles earlier this year three years after being embroiled in the Epstein scandal. It is again through this prism that Andrew has appeared to the eyes of the United Kingdom in recent days even when he paid a personal tribute to the Queen in a press release published on September 18, the day before the funeral. “I have found your infinite knowledge and wisdom. […] I will miss your ideas, your advice and your humor. As our page of adventures turns, another opens, I will always keep you close to my heart with my deepest love and gratitude, and I will go to the next one cheerfully with you as my guide.” he writes as a son, subject and admirer.But more than moving the message angered internet users and Britons for whom Andrew smeared the royal family.
Andrew’s previous tributes to his mother have also been tarnished in addition to being stripped of certain symbols. At each official performance and during the funeral processions, including those at the funeral on September 19, Andrew was the only one of the Queen’s four children unable to wear military uniform. Worse, the man was arrested and called an “old pervert” when he paraded behind the coffin of his late mother on September 11 in Edinburgh.
Andrew could not count on the support of his brother, King Charles III, who did not deign to entrust him with the slightest public role during or after the funeral of Elizabeth II. His only privilege being to have inherited the queen’s dogs, the corgis adored by his mother.
Andrew’s message to Queen Elizabeth II
A statement. It is by this way that Andrew sent a last word to his mother Queen Elizabeth II, on September 18 on the eve of the state funeral. The man speaks to his mother in three respects, “dear Mama, Mother, Your Majesty”, and recalls how knowing and serving her “has been an honor and a privilege”. “Mom, I will forever cherish your love for a son, your compassion, your caring, your assurance. I have found your infinite knowledge and wisdom, without limits or restraint. I will miss your insights, your advice and your humor”, he explains at greater length before concluding: “As our page of adventures turns, another opens, I will always keep you close to my heart with my most sincere love and gratitude, and I will go towards the next cheerfully with you as a guide”.
While she had relieved him of his duties within the monarchy in 2022, she regularly showed himself on his arm during his last public appearances as if to show the British the forgiveness she had granted him. Actions and maternal love that failed to erase her son’s bad reputation and the hatred that the United Kingdom has for Andrew.
What are the charges against Prince Andrew?
The one who has long been presented as the “favorite son of the queen” found himself involved in a scandal of sexual assault due to his links with Jeffrey Epstein. One of the billionaire’s victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre also accused Prince Andrew of having had sex with her, for pay, when she was only 17 at the time of the incident, in 2001, on Epstein’s private Caribbean island, but also in London and New York. Prince Andrew has always disputed the facts, but the successive revelations about the sex trafficking orchestrated and organized for years by Jeffrey Epstein have given considerable depth to these accusations.
A financial agreement with Virginia Giuffre to avoid a lawsuit
In February 2022, legal proceedings against Prince Andrew were dropped, following a financial settlement. “Virginia Giuffre and Prince Andrew have reached an amicable settlement”
, Ms. Giuffre’s lawyer had publicly announced, without the terms of the contract being revealed. The court document unveiled at the time simply stated that Prince Andrew “intends to make a significant donation to Virginia Giuffre’s organization which supports victims’ rights”. Also written in the same document: “Prince Andrew never intended to disparage Ms Giuffre, and he acknowledges that she suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unjust public attacks”. By this step, Prince Andrew then avoided the holding of a trial, which would have considerably embarrassed the royal family. There is also no mention anywhere of regrets concerning a misconduct on his part with Virginia Giuffre.
Andrew embroiled in Epstein case
If Prince Andrew is also unpopular, it is in particular for the way he defended Jeffrey Epstein in 2019. He has been widely criticized for a lack of empathy towards Epstein’s victims, after having assured no ever “suspected” sexual abuse by his friend. Faced with the media storm, the prince had chosen to withdraw from public life and no longer perform his official duties. “It has become clear to me in recent days that the circumstances of my past association with Jeffrey Epstein have become a major disruption to my family’s work and the [mien]”, he wrote in an official statement in 2019. A resignation which had led to the transfer of his office from Buckingham Palace and his team to his private home in Windsor. Lawyers for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, accused of child prostitution minor girls, had also summoned Prince Andrew to testify on the activities of the American billionaire, who committed suicide in prison in August 2019.
A failed interview with the BBC
In November 2019, Prince Andrew wanted to extinguish the fire of the Epstein affair by giving an interview to the BBC. This was deemed catastrophic by the British press. Many observers criticized him for not seeming “aware of the seriousness of the matter, laughing and smiling during the interview”, reported the British daily at the time. The Guardian. Prince Andrew’s arguments had also been widely questioned or mocked by the press, starting with the alibi invoked by the seventh heir to the Crown. The latter had indeed claimed to be in a restaurant of the Pizza Express chain, in Woking, south London, at the time of the facts of which he is accused. Prince Andrew then launched into muddled explanations of Virginia Roberts’ description of him sweating profusely on the dance floor of a London club in 2001. “Impossible”, according to Prince Charles’ brother, in due to an illness linked to an adrenaline rush during the Falklands War in 1982, where he was a helicopter pilot.