Queen’s Platinum Jubilee: Prince Andrew tests positive for Covid

He was banished from Trooping the Colour celebrations. Now Buckingham Palace has announced Prince Andrew will miss all Jubilee events.

The Queen’s disgraced second son Prince Andrew has contracted Covid and will not attend a thanksgiving service for the monarch’s Platinum Jubilee, Buckingham Palace has announced.

“After undertaking a routine test, the Duke (of York) has tested positive for Covid and with regret will no longer be attending tomorrow’s service,” a spokesman said after there was no sign of the prince at Trooping the Colour.

The Duke of York, who has been largely sidelined from royal duties because of public outrage at his links to a convicted sex offender, had seen his 96-year-old mother in recent days.

But he has not seen her since he tested positive.

Prince Andrew was spotted riding with a friend as his family gathered on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. Picture: danapress / MEGA

Though banished from most Jubilee events, Prince Andrew was expected to attend the thanksgiving service for the Queen’s 70 years on the throne, which is due to be held at St Paul’s Cathedral in London on Friday local time.

The service will mark the largest gathering of the royal family since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding at Windsor Castle in 2018.

It comes as a slimmed down royal family gathered on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to commemorate Trooping the Colour, with a few prominent faces missing.

The Queen appeared with senior members of the royal family during Trooping the Colour celebrations. Prince Andrew was nowhere to be seen. Picture: AFP

Prince Harry and Meghan were unsurprisingly absent because the Queen confirmed that only working members of the royal family would appear.

Again, Prince Andrew was nowhere to be seen as four days of celebration kicked off in the UK to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years on the throne.

As senior royals waved to the crowd from the Buckingham Palace balcony in London, a smiling Prince Andrew was 40km kilometres away in Windsor where he took an early morning ride with a friend.

Prince Andrew will largely be absent from the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Picture: Getty Images

The prince is persona non grata after he was stripped of his royal title amid his friendship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and an undisclosed cash pay out he made to Australian-based woman, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who accused him of sexual assault.

He claimed never to have met her. Seeking to limit the reputational damage to the monarchy, he was stripped of his honorary military titles, effectively giving him no frontline royal role.

In late March, there was widespread public disapproval in Britain that he accompanied his ailing mother to her seat for the memorial service of her late husband Prince Philip.

That prompted speculation he was angling for a return to duties. Earlier this week, the highest-ranking cleric in the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury, suggested Prince Andrew was “seeking to make amends”, urging people to “step back a bit”.

There was widespread disapproval from the British public when Prince Andrew accompanied his mother to a service for Prince Philip. Picture: Getty Images

The archbishop, Justin Welby, also pulled out of the St Paul’s service due to Covid.

Last month, it was reported that Prince Andrew would accompany his mother to the Epsom Derby this Saturday. However, The Sunday Times reported that the Queen is no longer planning to attend her favourite horse race given her ongoing “mobility issues”.

Her health challenges have resulted in her cancelling her appearance at the state opening of parliament earlier in May and having Prince Charles stand in for her at the last minute.

But the 96-year-old Queen’s appearance at the Platinum Jubilee, a milestone never previously reached by any British monarch, brought a cheer to the tens of thousands of people assembled outside Buckingham Palace.

Aside from a remembrance service for his father, Prince Andrew has stayed out of the public eye in the past few years. Picture: AFP

Dressed in dove blue, her hands clasped on a walking stick, she took a salute from the centuries old Trooping the Colour military parade in central London as the royal standard fluttered in bright sunshine.

After gun salutes and a fly-past of military aircraft, she made a second appearance with her immediate heirs, princes Charles, William and George, and close family members.

The Mall below was awash with red, white and blue union flags, with some diehard royal fans camping for days to be in prime position for the display of pomp and pageantry.

– with AFP

Originally published as Queen’s Platinum Jubilee: Prince Andrew tests positive for Covid