The King is offering support in private but publicly leaving his brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to fend for himself.
The strategy comes as the monarchy braces itself for the release of more US Government files about the late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who was a friend of Andrew’s, next month.
In a previous tranche of documents, Andrew, who has always denied any wrongdoing, appeared to be recorded as a passenger on Epstein’s jet. The files also said a person named “Andrew” received massages paid for with $200 cheques.
A mention of Andrew in the new files could mean further embarrassment for the monarchy – just weeks after Charles had to publicly eject him from the family.
King Charles has ruled out trying to get the US Government documents redacted or making any other efforts to protect his brother –who has been stripped of his princehood – from scrutiny in the US, according to well-placed sources.
The monarch and his advisors argue it would be inappropriate to seek to intervene in a foreign nation’s investigations.
“We don’t act or speak for him,” one palace official said of Andrew, while Buckingham Palace declined to discuss him.
The palace’s refusal to get involved comes amid plans by Democrats on the Congressional Oversight Committee to investigate Andrew’s links to Epstein further after he ignored their request for him to testify.
Senior Democrats have accused Andrew of continuing “to hide”, adding there are “serious questions he must answer” in light of testimony from the late Virginia Giuffre. She alleged she was forced to have sex with Andrew three times – claims he has strongly denied.
They promised to continue pursuing the issue, adding that if Andrew is “hoping that the story will just go away by ignoring us and being silent, he will be sorely disappointed”.
The King with brother Andrew in 1977. Andrew will now live on the King’s private Sandringham estate (Photo: Anwar Hussein/Getty/Hulton Archive)The Palace’s twin-track approach
Faced with accusations that the family and palace covered for Andrew for years, Charles III and his advisers appear to be pursuing a twin-track approach.
Despite the King’s anger and frustration at the embarrassment his brother has caused, Charles and his aides seem to be supporting him. The King decided to give his disgraced brother somewhere to live on his private Sandringham estate, after Andrew was pressured to leave his 30-room Royal Lodge mansion near Windsor.
But they also think the best course of action for the monarchy is to be seen to cut him loose publicly in order to limit damage to the institution.
His pictures and biography have been removed from the Royal Family’s official website since the King stripped him of his royal titles and honours, while two other former working members of the family, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, remain. The line of succession has been updated to include Andrew’s new commoner name.
Andrew’s private office, which was forced to move out of Buckingham Palace after he stepped back from official duties in 2019, is now no longer contactable at a royal email address. Since October, Andrew is on a private email address.
The approach is not without its problems, though.
Take Andrew’s fondness for horse riding in the grounds of Windsor Castle. Photographs of him out riding there emphasise that he is still given the run of the taxpayer-funded royal residence. On the other hand, the exercise is good for him and helps him deal with the pressure.
Joe Little, a seasoned royal watcher and managing editor of Majesty magazine, sees the value of the King’s twin-track approach and thinks he cannot completely abandon his brother. “It’s a fine balancing act and very hard to achieve on the King’s part, given the level of public and media scrutiny surrounding Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor,” he said.
“It’s a complex issue made all the more difficult because of the familial and fraternal bonds.”
Princess Anne and Prince Charles with newborn Andrew in 1960 (Photo: RDB/Ullstein Bild/Getty)Craig Prescott, a constitutional expert at Royal Holloway, University of London, said: “They have drawn the thickest of black lines that they can between Andrew and the rest of the family, but privately, he is being supported. He is now a private citizen. He’s getting a house at Sandringham, which is the King’s private estate, and perhaps a personal allowance, again, from the King’s private funds.”
Prescott suggested that the whole scandal had brought a new era of scrutiny for the monarchy, something that Queen Elizabeth II was not subjected to for much of her reign. There is now a need to differentiate between those justifying their existence by undertaking official duties and those who did not, he said.
“It’s become much like any other public institution subject to scrutiny. It’s there for the public good.”
There is also the need to keep Andrew inside the tent.
Andrew’s friends insist he has remained publicly loyal to his brother and the late Queen. They suggest that his agreement to reach an out-of-court settlement with Giuffre in 2022 in a civil sexual assault case avoided overshadowing his mother’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations that year. He made no admission of guilt in relation to the case.
Andrew’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson has also vowed to remain loyal to the King, according to those close to her.
They dismissed claims that she is considering six-figure offers to write a tell-all book. “She would never do anything like that. When has she ever written a tell-all book or threatened to do anything like that? That’s not Sarah,” one friend said.
Her cooperation may be helped by the fact that the King has ensured that her and Andrew’s daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, are still valued members of the family, despite neither undertaking official duties on behalf of the monarch.
Questions in Parliament for Andrew?
Andrew faces further scrutiny on this side of the Atlantic. His loss of royal status means he is no longer protected from scrutiny in Parliament under the Erskine May rules prohibiting MPs and peers from “casting reflections upon” – engaging in incidental criticism of – members of the Royal Family.
That opens up the possibility of ministers being asked questions about Andrew’s controversial role as the UK’s Special Representative for International Trade and Investment between 2001 and 2011, with claims that he pushed for the Government to pay his travel costs.
The Liberal Democrats, who failed an attempt to ask an urgent question about Andrew in the Commons a couple of weeks ago, are still threatening to use an opposition day debate to discuss his conduct.
Activists from the anti-monarchy group Republic stage a protest at the gates to Royal Lodge (Photo: Peter Nicholls/Getty)And Andrew could, in theory, be called to give evidence to Parliament’s public spending watchdog, the Commons Public Accounts Committee, which will decide whether to take further action after receiving information from the Crown Estate about his rent-free lease at Royal Lodge.
Although his conduct and the apparently advantageous terms of his lease and those of other family members have raised wider questions, the authorities in Parliament have ruled out a review of the wider restrictions preventing scrutiny of the Royal Family at Westminster.
However, a Parliamentary official told the Labour peer and former minister Lord Foulkes that as Andrew is no longer treated as a member of the Royal Family “for the purpose of the rule against casting reflections”, questions may be asked about him if the context is lies within government responsibility.
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