Arrogant, rude and a bad loser is how Prince Andrew has been described by senior figures who have worked with the royal.
Sources have also spoken out about how he lived much of his life at the taxpayer’s expense – including pushing for the government to pay his travel costs.
Andrew is under renewed scrutiny after it was revealed that he has lived virtually rent-free at his 30-room mansion in Windsor for years.
The growing pressure for him to leave Royal Lodge follows the posthumous memoir of Virginia Giuffre – an accuser of Jeffrey Epstein – who claims that Andrew believed having sex with her was his “birthright”.
Andrew vehemently denies Giuffre’s allegations that she had sex with him three times. The Metropolitan Police, meanwhile, is looking into claims he asked his protection officer to dig up information about Giuffre.
The i Paper has spoken to people who have known or worked with Andrew to get a better understanding of the Prince behind the headlines. Numerous sources painted a picture of a man with a sense of “entitlement” who very much “likes to get things for free”.
The controversy over Andrew’s “peppercorn” rent arrangement at the Royal Lodge is not the first time that concern has been raised about how much he has cost the public purse.
Official figures published in 2011 showed that £4m of taxpayers’ money was spent on flights and hotels to fund Andrew’s work as a special trade representative over the previous decade.
‘Expenses rubber-stamped because he was royal’
One former senior government source – who met Andrew twice while he was trade envoy between 2001 and 2011 – told The i Paper that the Prince was “clearly bored and underemployed”.
They said Andrew pushed the government “to underwrite his travel, on the basis it was promoting UK PLC”.
There was unease about the cost of Andrew’s expenses, according to Andrew Lownie, who spoke to several former government officials and diplomats for his book Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York.
“He absolutely pushed the government to cover expenses,” said the author. “People rubber-stamped stuff because he was a royal.
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“The Foreign Office didn’t feel they could do anything,” said Lownie. “The problem was, he wasn’t properly supervised. No one quite knew who was in charge.
“So he was left to run his own show,” he added. “He likes to get things for free. It’s back to the sense of entitlement – that the taxpayer owes him everything.”
Dai Davies, the former head of Scotland Yard’s Royal Protection Command between 1994 and 1998, said he found Andrew “arrogant, rude and abrasive”.
He said the royal had a reputation in the police service of being “dismissive and not treating people well”.
Davies recalled Andrew being “rude and dismissive” on the phone with him, unhappy about a security matter. “He wanted speak to someone of higher rank than me. I remember telling my wife afterwards, ‘God, that man is an arrogant so and so.’”
Andrew was ‘bad loser’ at golf
Diplomats nicknamed Andrew “His Buffoon Highness” during his trade envoy years because of his gaffes, according to Lownie’s new book.
Sir Ivor Roberts, UK ambassador to Ireland from 1999 to 2003, told The i Paper that he found “a sense of entitlement” in Andrew.
He claimed the royal was “pretty graceless in his approach to my staff” during an official visit to Ireland in 2001.
Roberts said he was told by someone in Andrew’s office to remove a golf game from the schedule. “I said, ‘Really? I thought he liked golf?’ They said, ‘But he’s such a bad loser, it will create a problem if he doesn’t win.’”
Ironically, he was later chastised by Andrew for not arranging any golf, Roberts recalled.
Prince Andrew has been described as a bad loser in golf (Photo: Ross Kinnaird/Getty)Roberts, who became ambassador to Italy from 2003 to 2006, also claimed Andrew insulted a member of the Schiaparelli family, a well-known fashion house, during a visit to Italy in 2004.
“He simply said, ‘I’ve never heard of you.'” The diplomat said he had to work hard to smooth “ruffled feathers” afterwards.
“I don’t think anyone thought he would be God’s gift to trade promotion. I think it was just a way of keeping him employed,” he added.
Obsessed with status
The word “arrogant” was also used by royal commentator Jennie Bond to describe Andrew, who she has met a few times.
“From my own experience, and from the many people I’ve spoken to who know him, it always comes back to the same word – arrogant.
“People find him self-serving and self-centred. I don’t think I’ve heard anyone say a good word about him, apart from his immediate family.”
Bond recalled speaking to Andrew in the immediate aftermath of the Windsor Castle fire in 1992. “I asked him in a human way, ‘How is your mother doing?’
“He looked affronted and said, ‘Her Majesty the Queen you mean.’ He made clear I should have used the full title. It’s small illustration of how he is absolutely stuck on status.”
Prince Andrew was a trade envoy for many years (Photo David Lefranc/Gamma-Rapho/Getty)‘Chipper and jovial’ after Newsnight interview
Mark Harrison, the official photographer who captured stills for the disastrous Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis, said Andrew “looked through me like I was invisible”.
He said Andrew shouted at a courtier and tried various power plays during the Buckingham Palace encounter – including advising the sound crew on how to deal with squeaky chairs.
Despite the awkward interview – which ultimately led to him stepping back as a working member of the Royal Family – the Prince was visibly pleased with his performance afterwards. “He was beaming, very chipper and jovial,” said Harrison.
But he suddenly got angry when a courtier appeared while he was posing for photos with Maitlis. “I hear Andrew’s booming voice shouting ‘Not now!,’” said the photographer. “It was another way of showing who’s in charge of the gaff.”
Andrew has ’caused more trouble than Edward VIII’
Calls among MPs have intensified for Andrew to end his “peppercorn rent” lease with the Crown Estate and quit the Royal Lodge estate. Some are pushing the Government to formally strip him of all royal titles, after he voluntarily agreed to stop using the Duke of York moniker.
The latest Ipsos poll found that 82 per cent of Britons now have a negative view of the Prince. Bond thinks he may have to live in exile overseas, perhaps Switzerland.
“To be held in such contempt, to be such a pariah, and stuck in a grand cage [at the Royal Lodge], leaving the country seems the easiest solution,” said the former BBC royal correspondent.
Lownie also believes he will be pushed to live overseas, if he can be persuaded by King Charles to give up the Royal Lodge. “I think he will be forced out eventually.”
Davies compared Andrew to Edward VIII, who spent his final years in exile in France after abdicating to marry divorcee Wallis Simpson.
“I think the trouble he’s caused is way above Edward VIII,” said the former chief protection officer.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment. Andrew’s office has been approached for comment. The Foreign Office has been approached for comment.
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