“She won’t go quietly, that’s the problem. I’ll fight to the end,” so said the late Princess Diana, referring to herself, three decades ago in her explosive Panorama interview, laying bare the tensions her failed marriage to then-Prince Charles had caused between the “people’s princess” and the core Royal Family.
That rift has uncomfortable echoes today as another troublesome blue-blood is induced to “go quietly”. After lengthy and tense negotiations about his status and entitlements in the wake of more damaging revelations about Prince Andrew’s entanglement in the sleaze and cover-ups surrounding his friendship with the late paedophile and trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein, the fallen prince has announced that he will no longer use his many titles or honours.
Agreeing that he will no longer use the Duke of York title and relinquish his membership of the Order of the Garter – the heraldic arms awarded by the sovereign for “service to the crown” – does not however seal the deal of what privileges Andrew retains. The aloof tone and huffiness of his statement hints at many ambiguities about what the move really means beyond a PR strike by the Palace.
The aim has been to distance King Charles and Prince William from the fallout amid growing evidence that Andrew lied about cutting off contact with Epstein after his first conviction for soliciting under-age women for sex – and after harrowing accusations in a memoir by the late Virginia Giuffre that she was induced to sleep with the then Duke of York when she was 17.
square ANNE MCELVOY King Charles sacked petulant Prince Andrew to avoid royal ruin
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But Andrew remains a prince – stripping him of that is too constitutionally fraught – albeit one living a half-life in virtual hiding in the Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park, which he rents from the Crown Estate in a long lease and refuses to relinquish. Being now “persona non garter” does not affect the apostate royal’s access to crown estates or the general perks of royal life in terms of hunting and shooting rights. Friends of Andrew say that living in the seclusion of the Windsor estate is a necessary protection for his mental health, as is his access to country sports.
King Charles, in fragile health and acutely aware that the Andrew disaster is a cloud over the monarchy that will not blow away, has sought a middle path here, frustrated by his younger sibling’s petulance, but ready, as the statement on Friday showed, to let Andrew retain some agency in phrasing such as: “I stand by my decision five years ago to stand back from public life.”
In truth, Andrew was given no choice. But the Palace is walking a fine line between cutting loose a reprobate member of its inner circle – and angering Andrew so much that he becomes, in the manner of Diana, so furious at his treatment that he vents criticism of the main figures in the monarchy.
Look at the small print and Andrew is still signalling that he does not feel inclined to give in to what he perceives as unfair treatment by the King – and doubly so by Prince William, who has made clear that he does not want his tarnished uncle anywhere near a future coronation or part of the monarchy’s transition to the next generation. Andrew has, however, insisted his daughters, Eugenie and Beatrice are still referred to as princesses (which is logistically true, as he remains a prince – though the circumstances mean that they too will be exiled further from public visibility).
Clearly, the emotional heft of Diana’s vast heartfelt public appeal does not apply to a royal whose popularity was never high and who is now a morally corroded figure. At the same time, Andrew’s statement re-emphasises his perception of innocence: “I vigorously deny the accusations against me” indicates that he feels unjustly treated – and that, as the royals discovered in the Diana era, is a powder keg.
Having given obfuscatory explanations of his conduct repeatedly to Emily Maitlis in that Newsnight interview in 2019 and to a dwindling group of friends, Andrew’s excuses have worn thin, even with those who remained loyal to him. The scale of Epstein-related documents emerging from US Congress files make him look less like a swinging bachelor who enjoyed the high life funded by a vastly rich acolyte – and more a key figure in sleazy inner circle of men whose fondness for young masseuse visits masked sexual abuse on an epic scale.
The accusation that Andrew leaned on his private protection to try to encourage the Metropolitan Police to dig up dirt on Giuffre when she first alleged a sexual relationship with him also looks bad. There may well be worse or more details of dishonesty to come.
The point is not whether Andrew has a leg to stand on in his flimsy self-exculpation – but that he feels he does. That puts the royal household in a bind: the more aggressively it seeks to exclude an angered prince – who remains eighth in line to the throne – the greater the risk of him seeking his own retribution. On that score, there is a subtle difference between King Charles’s “more in sorrow than anger” approach and William’s chilly fury and desire to have Andrew internally exiled.
How sustainable this stand-off will prove is questionable. One of Andrew’s traits is stubbornness and that is not going to change. The monarchy now has its own involuntary hermit, living at the heart of its Windsor estate – still a part of the institution into which he was born, however inconvenient that may be for those who bear the crown now and in the years to come.
Anne McElvoy is executive editor at Politico and host of Politics at Sam and Anne’s
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