King Charles facing disaster with royals ‘out of control’
The King is struggling to contain a series of crises with less than 100 days to go until his coronation.
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Won’t anyone think of the teddy bears? Right now, 72 fluffy animals ranging from hippos to bears on tiny thrones or wearing sailor suits are stuffed in a series of (I’m guessing) plastic bags from Bahrain Duty Free, homeless and with nowhere to go after decades of enjoying the good life in a suite of Buckingham Palace.
Their owner, you see, is Prince Andrew, Duke of York and official Pal Of A Paedophile who has found himself booted out of his Palace apartment, according to The Sun, along with his horde of beloved furry toys.
While it would be pleasing to be able to put this down to King Charles developing a backbone and deciding that Andrew should no longer be allowed to enjoy à la carte genuflection inside Monarchy HQ, the reality is that the Palace is currently in the midst of a 10-year, $643 million renovation and the Chamber Floor, where Andrew has an apartment, is being gutted. (Good news? He won’t be allowed back when it’s done and the relative ignominy of rooms inside St James awaits.)
If being able to conveniently get rid of his brother is good news for Charles, it is one of few bright spots. The King faces a new warning that things are “out of control” as that same brother was revealed to be considering a legal push to have his $21 million settlement with sex abuse accuser Virginia Giuffre overturned.
In an interview with The Sun, veteran royal biographer Angela Levin has done a spot of alarm bellringing, saying: “Andrew is out of control – who’s guiding him on this?”
The teddy-loving duke’s (shudder) latest comeback attempt comes hot on the heels of Harry and Meghan’s Netflix series and Harry’s memoir release, all of which means, according to Levin, Charles’s “coronation plans will absolutely be thrown into chaos.”
In further bad news for the third Charles to have a go at being King, she said of the timing of this latest Andrew development (so soon after Harry’s book came out): “It seems very odd. I’ve got no evidence. But the people who feel full of resentment could be going up against King Charles.
“The nastiness is just beyond imagination really.”
Well, this sounds like a right mess for His Majesty doesn’t it?
With less than 100 days to go until his coronation on May 6, things are clearly not going swimmingly for Charles as he seems at something of a loss as to how to counter or even contain two of the biggest crises to embroil the Crown in decades.
The first – and worst – mess is what the hell to do with his brother, egoist extraordinaire, teddy collector, and defenestrated former frontline royal, Andrew.
After an oddly quiet period that has seen the disgraced duke stay away from people, cameras and anyone with a press card, thus displaying a surprising degree of good sense, this week Andrew staged his latest attempt to return to public life.
It was The Daily Mail that broke the story that he had “consulted” lawyers over a possible bid to clear his name after accuser Virginia Giuffre retracted her abuse claim against high-profile lawyer Alan Dershowitz saying that she “may have made a mistake.”
(That report came last weekend, amid a surprisingly upbeat series of pieces for Le Famille York, including one that revealed the last Queen had agreed to allow him to start using his HRH in a private capacity and that his wife Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York had gotten all matey with Queen Camilla.
I spy with my little eye, a fresh PR push …)
The most bewildering part of all this is that Charles, according to the Mail, “will not oppose any legal action Andrew might take to clear his name” i.e. is allowing the Duke to re-open this particularly horrifying Pandora’s Box. It’s hard to imagine a more self-defeating move for the King aside from inviting the republican movement to set up shop in one of those freshly reno-ed Palace apartments.
Andrew is reviled – quite literally – by the British public and his renewed, looming presence in the headlines is nothing short of disastrous for the Crown & Co.
Andrew’s lawyers are yet to file anything like paperwork – and some experts have poured cold water on what possible legal grounds he might have here – but for Charles any week that sees the royal family and “rape” in the same headline is never going to be a good one now is it?
The Duke of York has lost his military titles, patronages, right to use his HRH, Palace office and apartment, royal career, his Pitch@Palace charity, public standing and any goodwill he might have had. And yet, that is still not enough to get the man to go quietly into the night.
Like some sort of antibiotics-resistant strain of gonorrhoea, Andrew just keeps coming back and Charles seems to have no idea how to deal with him so the royal family is able to move on.
The second fire His Majesty seems unable to put out is the one started by Harry and Megan, two people who have shown that one person’s truth can look a lot like another person’s treachery.
For two months now, with the release of their nearly six-hour Netflix series, the release of his memoir Spare and the approximately 64 interviews Harry has done to keep his publisher happy have made them an inescapable presence.
We all know the big revelations now: that Prince William assaulted his brother in a row over Meghan, triggering the most notable destruction of royal jewellery since Edward the Confessor broke his brother-in-law King Harold’s puka shell necklace; and that Charles, Camilla and Willy’s offices leaked like Poundland sieves to the press when it suited them to take the Sussexes down a peg or two. (Let us not forget of course Meghan singing to seals, Harry’s icy pole of a “todger” and learning that the couple seemed put out that they once had to pay for their own sofa. The horror!)
While the Palace might have somehow scraped through the TV series, interminable interviews and book’s release, with Charles, Camilla, William and Kate’s public approval only having suffered slightly according to polling, it would be naive to think this particular crisis is over.
His Majesty and his loyal troop of HRHs might be slowly emerging out the other side of Spare, but the Sussexes are going nowhere.
Some reports have suggested that their deal with Penguin Random House is for multiple titles, with some speculation that Meghan might consider doing a book of her own, with it emerging she kept a diary during her 20-month royal stint. (Which might explain the strange series of omissions in Spare such as anything to do with the “concerns and conversations” about “how dark” their first child’s skin colour might be, as she told Oprah, or any sort of meaningful discussion of the bullying allegations made against her, leaving plenty of bombshells for her to write about.)
The question for not only the Sussexes but for the Palace too is, will Harry and Meghan prove a viable commercial concern for Netflix et al when they are no longer dishing royal dirt with all the gusto of a palace gardener with a new spade?
Basically, will anyone care – or watch, listen or click – about what they have to say when it’s not about fraternal fisticuffs but about preserving the Peruvian tree frog or paid parental leave?
The bottom line is that the Duke and Duchess now have to pay their own way and revelations about their London days are a proven money spinner. (Just look at those record-breaking sales Harry has managed to achieve …)
For the time being, Harry and Meghan might have scuttled back behind the gates of their Montecito estate and disappeared from view, but for how long?
The current respite the Palace might be enjoying from any sort of Sussex tempest may well only be temporary.
One of the big unknowns in all of this is what the hell is going to happen with the King’s coronation. It has been widely reported that the duke and duchess, despite their pariah status, will be invited to the big day but whether they will attend is the multimillion-dollar question. (Perhaps quite literally if they deign to bring cameras with them.)
If they did jet in, could or would the Sussexes be given entrée into the royal inner sanctum given that photos taken inside Buckingham Palace (without Queen Elizabeth’s permission, according to the Telegraph) ended up splashed across screens for Netflix subscribers?
What both this and the Andrew situation reveal is that Charles has no real idea how to handle these ticking time bombs.
No wonder Levin is talking about possible “chaos.”
Charles is already facing the repercussions of his inability to outmanoeuvre or even manage both the Andrew and Sussex imbroglios, which continue to clog headlines. For example, earlier this month, the Palace announced that Charles will be forgoing the $1.4 billion windfall he is entitled to after the development of a wind farm on the Crown Estate and wants the money to go to help the UK in what is the most extraordinary moment of regal largesse …. perhaps ever.
And yet, poor Charles barely got 24 hours in the spotlight before news of Andrew’s possible legal bid pushed him off all of the front pages. (Talk about inflation – $1.4 billion doesn’t buy you the sort of good PR it used to, does it?)
In all of this, Charles does not have the luxury of time to twiddle his signet ring while he tries to work out what to do with his brother, son and daughter-in-law with the coronation inching ever closer. As the Palace gets ready for this once-in-a-lifetime moment, the pressure is mounting for someone to try and find solutions, and fast.
Tick tock, Your Majesty, tick tock.
Daniela Elser is a writer and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.
Originally published as King Charles facing disaster with royals ‘out of control’
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