Prince Andrew has settled – but his future is far from secure

The legal battle is over. Can the duke resist the lure of the royal spotlight? And where has all the money for the unspecified settlement come from?

Prince Andrew’s main known sources of income are handouts from the Queen and his naval pension of £20,000 ($37,930) a year. Picture: Getty Images

Until this week we could have been forgiven for thinking we had heard the last of Prince Andrew for some time.

It is, after all, more than two years since he stepped back from public duties “for the foreseeable future” in the wake of his disastrous BBC Newsnight interview, and only a few weeks since the last shreds of his royal dignity were forcibly and publicly removed.

“With the Queen’s approval and agreement, the Duke of York’s military affiliations and royal patronages have been returned to the Queen,” said a statement issued by Buckingham Palace on January 13.

“The Duke of York will continue not to undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a private citizen.”

In future he would no longer use his HRH title in any official capacity. He was pictured being driven away from his meeting with her at Windsor Castle looking suspiciously damp-eyed. Only last week there were reports in The Sun that Prince Charles told his brother to stay firmly out of sight at Royal Lodge, his home in Windsor Great Park.

A trial was expected in New York in within months, for which Andrew was expected to provide evidence given under oath.

Instead, he has settled the civil case brought against him by Virginia Giuffre, who alleged that he sexually assaulted her on three occasions when she was a minor.

On Wednesday it was reported that the prince and Giuffre have reached a “settlement in principle”. He agreed to make a “substantial donation” to Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights.

Queen Elizabeth reportedly had no intention of funding Prince Andrew’s legal woes. Picture: AFP

“He accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks,” the statement said.

The prince said in October that Giuffre was a “liar” who was seeking “another payday at his expense” and had spent more than a decade “profiting from her allegations against Epstein and others”.

Her lawsuit against him was “frivolous”, the statement filed by his lawyers added, and “should not be tolerated as it continues to harm innocent people”. He refused to “admit or deny” whether the infamous photograph of him with his arm round Giuffre’s waist was real, and Giuffre admitted this week that she had lost the picture.

Yesterday the prince said he had “never intended” to malign her character and in fact “commends the bravery of Ms Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others”.

Courtiers have long feared that the spectre of the Queen’s second son being sued for sexual assault would cast a deathly pall over the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, second only to the release of Prince Harry’s ghostwritten autobiography later this year written, he has promised, “not as the prince I was born but the man I have become”.

There were rumours that Prince Charles, a long-time advocate of a slimmed-down monarchy, would have a clear-out of the Z-list royals from their grace-and-favour homes, which in Andrew’s case is Royal Lodge, the 30-room mansion he shares with his ex-wife Sarah, Duchess of York.

Sarah Ferguson shares a 30-room mansion with Prince Andrew, her ex-husband.

Another nightmare now raises its head: will Andrew, who has been accused of many things but never of good judgment, think it may be good PR to remarry Fergie, who has been staunch in his defence?

Will he instruct one of his valets to dust off his uniform this northern summer, and elbow his way on to the jubilee balcony at Buckingham Palace?

And where has all the money for the unspecified settlement come from? His main known sources of income are handouts from the Queen from her Duchy of Lancaster estate and his naval pension of £20,000 ($37,930) a year.

Early in January, he sold his chalet in Verbier for more than £17m, although it was rumoured to be encumbered by debt, and only after the duchess and his two daughters spent one final holiday there.

The sale came amid reports the Queen had no intention of funding his legal woes, with Prince Charles and Prince William said to be “absolutely furious” at the very idea. Andrew’s legal bills alone are estimated to run to £5m or £6m, with money for the undisclosed settlement with Giuffre on top.

“He is meeting all the costs himself, so he needs to raise cash fast to pay the bills,” a source told The Mirror last month. “If there was the potential to settle, well, that is an option, but ... the Queen would not assist him in doing so.”

Prince Charles reportedly told his brother Prince Andrew to stay firmly out of sight at Royal Lodge, his home in Windsor Great Park. Picture: AFP

What Prince Andrew’s future looks like is now unclear. The man whose birth was greeted by an RAF flypast and cheering crowds at Buckingham Palace may be hoping for a return to royal life and the popularity that greeted his return from the Falklands conflict and his marriage to Fergie.

Shortly after the Duke of Edinburgh’s death last year he was eager to speak to the waiting TV cameras about his father, allegedly to the chagrin of the Prince of Wales.

Andrew’s reputation will always be tainted by his friendship with a convicted paedophile, and his prolonged, doomed and ultimately desperate attempts to make Giuffre’s case go away.

Courtiers will be hoping that that promise in November 2019 to step back “for the foreseeable future” might instead be interpreted as “for ever”.

They might pray that his status in fighting the Giuffre case “as a private citizen” will turn out to be permanent.

The organisations, charities and military affiliations that he once said he was proud to have given his support to have made it painfully clear how little they value it.

And wise heads in the Firm will no doubt be arguing that a period of silence from the man rumoured to be the Queen’s favourite son would now be welcome. Whether he heeds them remains to be seen.

The Times