“Smile and wave” is a crucial part of the armoury at the disposal of a senior royal. It’s deployed during good times and bad; they’ve had plenty of the latter over the decades.
It was dusted off once again with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s visit to a police station where he faced questions rather than cut a ribbon, which is what his relatives normally do in such a location. When he left, the brother of the King was in no state to abide by the Windsor playbook. The photograph of a poleaxed past prince, being driven away in the back of a car, became iconic in a nanosecond and dominated newspaper front pages.
Earlier in the day, while her brother was being grilled by detectives, Princess Anne was visiting a prison in West Yorkshire and keeping cartoonists and headline writers in a job. The King was also out on display at an event launching London Fashion Week. The man whose once very private comments about wanting to be a tampon were made very public is well aware that there is no hiding place on these occasions.
The representatives of a battered yet enduring institution believe that no matter how bad the crisis they just have to turn up, ignore the shouted questions about Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein that have become endemic, and hope they can weather the storm.
They should be in no doubt that the current one is of hurricane severity. The arrest of a former blood prince is an unprecedented event. In 2015, when the claims of the late Virginia Giuffre that she’d been forced to have sex with Andrew became public (allegations he’s consistently denied) I shouted a question at him: “Can you recover from this, sir?” It was ignored back then; we all know the answer now.
A similar question will be exercising the minds of his relatives. Can they recover from the toxicity of Andrew’s catastrophic failure of judgement that led him to maintain a friendship, and one which he told BBC Newsnight had “seriously beneficial outcomes”, with a convicted child sex offender?
Their consistent strategy has been to try and keep the focus on Andrew and away from a wider debate about the monarchy. They’ve been helped by a government that’s been onside and MPs who’ve been remarkably docile.
It’s a strategy that has involved warm words about Epstein’s victims and statements of the obvious which, because they’ve been issued by a King, take on a unique status. Imagine a constitutional head of state declaring that he wouldn’t help the police or that he wasn’t in favour of the law taking its course.
There have also been actions, but not enough of them. Andrew’s very essence was pummelled as his older brother stripped him of his titles and birthright. However, to avoid the necessary legislation and a potentially awkward debate in the House of Commons, the person Thames Valley Police refer to as “a man in his sixties” remains eighth in line to the British throne. And the King has also failed to state publicly that he believes his brother should help US lawmakers investigating Epstein’s crimes.
For now, the live police investigation means the Windsors are spared having to make any further comments. After the novelty wears off, reporters may well tire of shouting questions at them as they go about their business unveiling plaques, launching vessels and asking people if they have come far.
However, the questions won’t go away. Who knew what, when represents uncharted waters for the House of Windsor. On the specifics of the Thames Valley investigation, did anyone raise concerns with Buckingham Palace about Andrew’s conduct as a trade envoy and were they acted upon? If not, why not?
More generally, his sustained friendship with Epstein poses even more challenges for the Palace that they’ve fended off, until now. A burning one is the source of the reported £12m Andrew paid Giuffre – a woman he said he’d never met – to settle her civil case.
The British monarchy has adapted, survived and thrived down the centuries as others have been toppled elsewhere. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor knows just how ruthless it can be when protecting the institution trumps the needs of a relative.
Now though, there is no obvious end in sight – with several other UK police forces investigating aspects of the Epstein case – and they are not in control. The ongoing fallout from Andrew’s relationship with Epstein threatens King Charles’s legacy and has left an indelible stain on his reign. His mother’s weakness, when it came to her favourite son Andrew, may mean her legacy is revisited.
The British royals have entered a period of jeopardy.
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