Royal biographer lifts lid on ‘absurd’ way Prince Andrew’s secrets are protected

A royal biographer has lifted the lid on the “extraordinary” way Prince Andrew’s royal secrets are being protected, after repeated requests for access.

Official documents relating to Prince Andrew’s time as a UK trade envoy – including details on meetings and travel arrangements – are being kept locked up, it’s been alleged.

Royal biographer Andrew Lownie is now writing a book about the Duke and Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, and told the UK’s Telegraph that he has been blocked from accessing the government papers until 2065, despite repeated requests.

Lownie explained that he had asked for a full list of who joined Andrew on his business trips, as well as trying to obtain official communications relating to his travel arrangements.

However, Lownie claims his Freedom of Information [FOI] requests only yielded the fact that those documents will not be released by the Foreign Office until 2065, meaning they won’t be made public during Andrew’s lifetime.

The King’s younger brother is currently 63 years old and would be 105 by that time.

It’s understood that normal rules state that government department records transferred to Britain’s National Archives in Kew are kept secret for 20 years, but that members of the royal family operate under a different policy.

Andrew on an official visit to Jakarta with former Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2011.

“This culture of secrecy is often the default position. But I think possibly, they don’t want us to know who was on these delegations because there may have been people who really weren’t there to drum up trade for Britain, but were there as chums,” Lownie told The Telegraph.

“Members of the Royal family are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act but I would hope with a new reign that only pertinent FOI exemptions such as national security, relations with another country, information given in confidence etc will be applied alongside data protection considerations.

“We are in the absurd position that Prince Harry can reveal the most intimate details of royal life from months ago for personal commercial gain and royal households currently brief against each other, yet historians cannot look at files.”

Lownie pointed out that Harry was able to release royal secrets - but historians cannot access official files.

Lownie added that it was “extraordinary” that Prince Andrew-related files will remain closed until 2065.

The now-disgraced Duke held the role as the UK’s special representative for trade and industry envoy for a decade after first being appointed in 2001.

As Lownie told Tatler: “Prince Andrew had a public role with public money, and we have to know how he took on those public roles. He was a public servant as a trade envoy to promote British interests, but we’re not entitled to know his delegation.”

The Duke of York was forced to resign from official royal duties in 2019 amid intense scrutiny over his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and following his disastrous Newsnight interview.

He settled a lawsuit with Virgina Giuffre in 2022, after she claimed she had been sex trafficked to him as a 17-year-old by Epstein.

Andrew has strongly denied the allegations made against him.

Despite being largely kept out of the public eye in recent years, he was invited to join the royal family for their annual holiday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland last month, where he was photographed in a car with Prince William and Kate, Princess of Wales.