Prince Andrew ‘cried’ after tense meeting with King Charles
Prince Andrew was left “bereft” after pleading with King Charles for a return to royal duties in a face-to-face meeting.
World
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Prince Andrew was left “bereft” and “tearful” after a tense meeting with the then Prince Charles, where he was told that he would never return to royal duties, it has been claimed.
The Duke of York believes he could “still be of value” as a working member of the royal family despite his association with Jeffrey Epstein.
But The Mail on Sunday reports that his hopes were dashed in a morning meeting at Charles’s Birkhall estate in Scotland just days before the Queen’s death.
“Prince Andrew was totally blindsided,” a source told The Mail on Sunday, adding that the decision left those close to the Duke of York “concerned” for him.
“He is utterly bereft, the source said. “He always believed there was a way back.”
“Andrew was extremely close to the Queen and tried to raise the issue of his return to public life many times with her,” said the source.
“On some occasions she would say mildly conciliatory things but most of the time she would change the subject immediately.”
Most senior figures in the royal family had thought the matter over Prince Andrew being stripped of his duties had been settled, but this had not been his understanding, the Mail on Sunday reported.
“Naive as it may sound, he always had hopes of regaining his position as a senior royal,” continued the source.
“At the meeting Charles told him that he can go off and have a good life, a nice life, but that his public life as a royal is at an end.
“He was told: ‘You have to accept this’.’’
Prince Andrew will be noticeably absent from the Remembrance Day service at The Cenotaph next Sunday – the first in 70 years without the Queen.
The Duke of York has been accused of not yet carrying out any charity work despite vowing to make amends for his sex abuse scandal, The Sun reports.
It has been reported that he has instead been playing golf, horse riding and enjoying life at his home, the Royal Lodge in Windsor, which he shares with ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.
Prince Andrew was forced to pay millions in an out-of-court settlement to his Australian-based sex abuse accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre earlier this year.
She alleged Prince Andrew sexually abused her at Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands, at his mansion in Manhattan and at his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell’s home in London.
The Duke of York has always vehemently denied that he sexually abused Ms Roberts Giuffre.
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