’Real cause for concern’: King Charles facing major threats from Prince Andrew and Harry

With new royal biographies in the works and the matter of the Duke of York’s home still undecided, things could get even rockier for the King.

COMMENT

If there are any economics researchers out there, for further evidence for the famed Pareto Principle, they just need to spend more time reading royal news.

In the late 19th century, Vincent Pareto came up with his famous 80/20 thesis, arguing that 80 per cent of consequences stem from 20 per cent of causes.

And right now, we have two royal dukes who are living, breathing, grievance-holding proof of exactly what Pareto was on about.

The vast majority, if not nearly all, of Buckingham Palace’s biggest headaches, stressors and causes of anxiety-related skin rashes stem from the actions of only two people, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York and Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex.

(Sadly, you don’t see Princess Anne, her secret penchant for baccarat and all the money she owes two blokes called Dennis – I’m guessing – forcing Palace communication staffers to have to issue historic statements, do you? Or that one time Prince Edward fixed the Highland Games being exposed rocking the monarchy, huh?)

For years, Spare One and Spare Two have wrought Palace PR havoc and mayhem, but things have been quiet of late.

Two major threats are facing King Charles. Picture: Cameron Smith/Pool/AFP

However, if King Charles had thought his brother and son’s controversy-sparking, crisis-inducing stints were over, both men ready to settle in for a few years of forlorn house-moping and aimlessly filling the hours, then I have some very bad news.

Because there are a number of signs and details that suggest both the Andrew and Harry-related brush fires could be about to roar back to rash-inducing life.

I know, if you’re reading this, that you are utterly au fait with how we got here.

There was Andrew’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, a man who would go on to become a convicted sex offender and was facing a child sex trafficking trial when he took his own life in 2019.

Caught in the fallout, Andrew then proceeded to make a bad situation infinitely worse by popping up on TV screens to make the case that really, his biggest mistake was being “too honourable” towards Epstein while simultaneously ignoring the at least 125 women who are believed to have been abused by his friend.

The duke was exiled within days.

Then, of course, in 2021 the Duke of York was sued by Virginia Giuffre who alleged that he had sexually abused her on three occasions – claims he vehemently denied. In early 2022, Andrew settled with Giuffre with some estimates putting the figure as high as nearly $23 million. (Others have put it as low as just over $5 million).

And thus an optimist might hope the Andrew story had run its course – with shame, infamy and a man consigned to spend the next three decades persona non grata at the best golf courses and Wilton’s.

And then … well, I’ll get to that.

Prince Andrew is reportedly digging in his heels. Picture: Mark Kerrison/In Pictures via Getty Images

Likewise, it would be impossible to not know Harry’s story: man leaves royal family with wife, man proceeds to spend years complaining about royal family, man makes millions complaining about royal family, man finds life filling hummingbird feeding curiously lacking.

Again, this is the point that one might have assumed that Harry and his wife and their new-found millions would lope off into the sunset to practise tree pose ad infinitum.

And then …

In recent weeks, various new details would suggest that both of these ducal disaster zones are by no means resolved, and both ducal sources of Palace strain could be set to return to front pages.

Firstly, Andrew, who holds the distinction of being the most disliked member of the royal family, a suitable designation in my book. (Currently seven per cent of Brits have a positive view of him, which is probably the same percentage of people who don’t have Wi-Fi, identity as hermits and who live in closed religious communities).

Earlier this year, it was widely reported that the King had decided he wanted his brother out of his vast Windsor home, Royal Lodge – one of the grandest properties going for the HRH set.

Given that the Duke of York was disdained, disliked and disinvited from every Pizza Express outlet (just guessing), letting him remain in such a significant bit of real estate sent all the wrong signals.

It was also reported that the King was set cut Andrew’s $476,000 allowance, meaning that although the duke has a lease on the Lodge, he will likely not be able to afford the upkeep.

Think of it as eviction by chequebook.

Both sides would appear to have been digging their heels in, setting the scene for some sort of showdown or dramatic denouement.

Then earlier this month came the news that his Royal Lodge flatmate Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York had been diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer and had undergone a mastectomy. Currently she is recuperating, and it has been reported that the move has been temporarily put on ice while she recovers.

But this is just a temporary reprieve.

The Harry situation is also far from resolved. Picture: Kate Green/Getty Images

Acclaimed biographer Andrew Lownie told the Daily Beast: “Andrew is digging his heels … it’s part of a wider power and status game with Charles. Optics don’t look good, but that won’t worry Andrew. I don’t see him ever leaving.

“Charles and William have united to bring him down a peg or two and try and keep him and his family under the radar because they, as the future of the monarchy, have most to lose by his antics.”

However, ejecting Andrew from the 30-room monster is not some notion His Majesty might forget, so consider this still very much a live issue. Given this, what could or would the duke, backed into a corner and desperate to hang onto this plum bit of his royal identity, resort to?

All of which is to say, this looks like a fresh disaster-in-waiting for the King and his crisis team.

In other news that should have Palace sorts twitching is the fact that Lownie, an acclaimed biographer, has revealed that he is working on a book about Andrew and Fergie. Want to know how concerned the Men in Grey should be?

Lownie is the biographer who first broke the allegations in 2019 that Lord Mountbatten, Prince Philip’s uncle and King Charles’ adored godfather, had sexually abused teenagers from a boys’ home. Then last year, in Lownie’s Traitor King, he revealed that King Edward VIII had helped the Nazis invade France.

Which is to say, Lownie gets scoops like no other.

Again, there could be fresh Andrew (and Fergie) bombshells to come.

And for our second course here, Harry.

So too is there a Sussex book in the works that should be a real cause for concern back in SWI. Omid Scobie, author of 2020s Finding Freedom, is set to release Endgame later this year.

There could be fresh bombshells to come that will impact William and Charles. Picture: Samir Hussein/WireImage

And it’s at this point Queen Camilla should see if she can source some CBD gummies, because her husband might be in need of a bit of relief given what could lie ahead.

Endgame is somewhat hysterically billed as a book that is going to pull “back the curtain on an institution in turmoil – exposing the infighting, family deterioration, and outdated practices threatening its very future. This is the monarchy’s endgame. Do they have what it takes to save it?”

Still, Scobie is a staunch Sussex sympathiser who has become their de facto mouthpiece.

In 2021, Meghan apologised for misleading a British court after failing to recall that she had okayed senior royal aide Jason Knauf briefing Scobie and his co-author Carolyn Durand for Freedom.

We now face the possibility that various insider supporters of the Sussex cause have been leaking like cheap sieves and Charles & Co could be in for some new, fresh hell.

The bottom line is the same for both Andrew and Harry – they are unfinished business for the King.

Buckingham Palace might be gagging to move on from the drama of the last few years, but the chances they will be able to do so are about as likely as Camilla forgoing a Below Deck marathon.

Both Andrew and Harry face uncertain futures, so what might they say or do if push comes to shove?

And with new books coming out, what new allegations and claims might two well-connected biographers dig up?

The 20 per cent still have a lot more 80 percenting to do it looks like …

Daniela Elser is writer, editor and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.