King Charles’ disastrous Prince Andrew move
Prince Andrew’s alleged “underage orgy” has exposed a huge mistake made by King Charles as his brother’s reputation sinks further into the gutter.
COMMENT
I have some shocking news to report: Indignant pudding Prince Andrew, the Duke of York still has friends. Yes, still. Even now.
Bosom pals, chums, boon companions who, even after the renewed allegation that the royal took part in an “underage orgy” on an island where an untold number of girls were sexually abused, Andrew will, as one of these friends told the Daily Beast, “still be a prized guest at some of the best shoots in the country.”
Right, who’s got the clipboard with the list of names for when the revolution comes?
This week the Duke of York is back in the news, confirming that he is the royal equivalent of the herpes simplex virus, a deeply unpleasant and painfully recurring blight.
On Wednesday, a judge in New York ordered the unsealing of more than 900 pages of documents connected with convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell and which name more than 170 individuals associated with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew himself appears at least 69 times in the trove along with the allegation that the duke took part in an “underage orgy” on Jeffrey Epstein’s private island where the sex trafficker is accused of assaulting numerous girls.
On Thursday, the UK antimonarchy group Republic reported Andrew to London’s Metropolitan Police in a bid to have officials look into King Charles’ brother.
“To date there appears to have been no serious criminal investigation, no interview of the accused or other witnesses and no clear justification for taking no action,” Graham Smith, Republic’s CEO, has said.
Thanks to this week’s document haul, you can understand why right this very minute Charles is reaching for his strongest geranium tincture.
You would have to feel sorry for His Majesty at this juncture, starting 2024 with so many storm clouds gathering over Buckingham Palace they’re created their own low pressure system – that is, until you realise that the King spent plenty of the 2023 wholly complicit in moves to rehabilitate Andrew.
Notably, on Christmas Day as the extended royal family made their annual walk from Sandringham to St Mary Magdalene Church, there in their well-pressed midst was not only an irksomely Cheshire cat-like Andrew but his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York.
For no discernible reason other than maybe Charles was feeling magnanimous after too many pre-prandial Snowballs – or because he fancied doing something to wipe from the public’s goldfish-like memories that he and Kate, the Princess of Wales had been dragged into a royal race row – there were the full complement of car-crash senior Yorks on December 25.
The grand return of the duke and duchess to frontline positions was the story of the day and the week; the message one of family unity and togetherness such that I’m surprised we were not treated to a quick rendition of Kumbaya on the church steps courtesy of Prince Edward and his favourite lute.
Except now that entire ploy of Charles’ has backfired as badly as a homemade firecracker, and this weekend The Firm has gotten its hands badly burnt thanks to Andrew and their seeming ludicrous belief the debacle-de-duke was over.
While there is nothing new really in the 900 pages of documents, still, they serve as a reminder of just how unsavoury and distasteful the World According To Andrew was for so many years prior to his downfall.
It might have receded in memory now given the tectonic royal events of 2022 and 2023 but it was only two years ago that Andrew paid out a reported $22 million (£12 million) to Virginia Giuffre, who had accused him in a New York civil court of sexually assaulting her on three occasions when she was a teenager. (The duke has never made any admission of wrongdoing and has always denied Ms Giuffre’s claims.)
That money, reported to have come in part from Her late Majesty’s private coffers, was paid out and away Andrew was meant to go, the entire scummy Epstein chapter slammed shut; away to take his licks in the privacy of his estimated $56 million 30-room home. Brave.
I have absolutely no idea why but the bright minds of the Palace seem to have thought that was that. The Epstein mess, concluded. That chapter, firmly closed. Time then to gradually reinstate Andrew into the royal line-up!
In the last year, the King saw fit to let his brother wear his Order of the Garter robes to his coronation while Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex had to wear civvies; had Prince William and Kate, the Prince and Princess of Wales performatively drive Uncle Andrew to church to signal his being welcomed back; allowed Andrew to continue to keep his extensive collection of putters and Benny Hilly VHSs in the prize bit of real estate that is Royal Lodge; and greenlit the duke stepping back into the royal spotlight at Christmas.
None of this would even have been contemplated without the full buy-in and agreement Charles.
Now, instead of the King able to focus on the year ahead and really getting some legacy-defining work done before teatime, he is reaping what he has sown.
I say, be it on Charles’ head.
What I cannot comprehend is that while, after the Giuffre settlement, the Andrew bin fire might have died down a bit, that no one inside Buckingham Palace seems to have twigged that it was always going to rear its ugly head again.
In December, the judge in New York announced that she would unseal these documents so what did the King do? Distance the monarchy from his sordid brother? Like hell. He invited the duke to have a starring role in their very own nativity play.
Anyone who had ever thought that Andrew’s soiled, seedy reputation could be Napisan-ed and revived is nothing short of deluded, like thinking you could give mouth-to-mouth to an Egyptian mummy.
What this whole episode demonstrates is that the royal family can and will never truly be able to move on from Andrew’s downfall. His ties to Epstein, Ms Giuffre’s claims and his ‘I’m just too honourable’ Newsnight puffery are so mucky and so grubby that they can never be tidied away into the Palace’s ancient history files. This will never all be truly forgotten or ever fully recede completely from view, which is as it should be.
Even if this week’s document cache had not been released, there are two movies currently being made about Andrew’s Newsnight interview.
So now Charles is stuck – stuck having staked some of his capital on bringing Andrew back into the fold and stuck with the blowback from this fresh bout of scandal.
The King and Queen Camilla are seemingly doubling down on the duke, with that same friend who thinks Andrew is a “prized guest” (pause for retching) having told the Beast that Their Majesties: “made it very clear over Christmas that Andrew had their full support and wild, unproven allegations about orgies won’t change that. He has been totally loyal to the Crown throughout this whole thing and that counts for everything.”
However, a former Buckingham Palace courtier had a different read, telling the Beast that the King “doesn’t really have any choice. It would look much worse to suddenly ditch him all over again.”
Charles is notorious for his healthy diet and seeds’n’nuts snacking but this week? I’d day he’s facing some just desserts.
Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.
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