Following further damning revelations about the Duke of York’s relationship with the late Jeffrey Epstein in The Mail on Sunday, the question is once again on everyone’s lips: how do you solve a problem like Prince Andrew?
The latest leaks are certainly irksome. To recap, in February 2011, a now-infamous photograph emerged of Andrew with his arm slung round the waist of the teenage Virginia Giuffre, with Ghislaine Maxwell grinning alongside them. The very next day, the Prince wrote to Jeffrey Epstein, the paedophile for whom Maxwell procured a string of young girls, reassuring him that ‘we are in this together and will have to rise above it’.
He then added: ‘We’ll play some more soon!!!!’
This email was sent 12 weeks after Andrew – according to his 2019 Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis – had supposedly severed all ties with Epstein. So not only does it show that he lied during that BBC interview, but it also offers an insight into his frame of mind at the time.
Utterly cavalier, dismissive, arrogant. He clearly thought it was all just a massive fuss about nothing. It would blow over. Things would be back to normal before long, it’s just a question of riding it out. Hold tight, dear friend, we’ll be back in the saddle soon!
It’s the language, isn’t it? ‘Play together’: what exactly does he mean by that? I don’t imagine he’s talking Scrabble. Not if all those nudge-nudge, wink-wink exclamation marks are anything to go by. It’s deeply creepy: at that stage, Epstein was not long out of jail for sex offences.
So what happens now? How much longer can the Palace pretend that this is not a massive problem, one that – if further revelations are in store – could even threaten the stability of the Monarchy?
How can the King mitigate the slow-motion car crash that is his younger brother? Calls are mounting for him to Do Something, even as Palace courtiers admit there is nothing, really, he can do.
Prince Andrew, King Charles and Prince William at Katharine, the Duchess of Kent’s funeral last month
Andrew shares joke with Fergie after Duchess of Kent’s funeral
The Prince’s lease on Royal Lodge (which doesn’t expire until 2078) is watertight, provided he can keep up the payments, which it seems he can. He’s already been stripped of his military titles and charity affiliations and is banned from using the HRH honorific.
It is theoretically possible that he could also be stripped of his dukedom, but that would require Parliamentary intervention. And anyway, what would that achieve? The man is clearly immune to all forms of humiliation, as his recent, shameless public appearances show.
Unable to lock him up in the Tower of London, or have him executed on trumped-up charges of treason (tempting, one imagines), what are the King’s options?
Everyone’s asking the wrong question. We shouldn’t be wondering what more the King can do to solve the problem, we should be asking what Andrew can do to make himself less of a thorn in his brother’s side. Hasn’t Charles got enough on his plate, what with having been ill and dealing with that nightmare brat of a younger son?
Why can’t Prince Andrew, for once in his pathetic, pampered life, just do the right thing – and fall on his sword?
We all make mistakes. And, yes, Andrew has never been found guilty of anything. But the fact that he paid off the late Giuffre to the tune of many millions, and the fact that he obfuscated and, as we now know, lied to the British public on the BBC and chose to remain friends with a paedophile – all that and more add up to one almighty stink.
It’s time he accepted some responsibility. I know he’s used to hot and cold running staff, but Charles III is not Andrew’s butler. If he has any affection or respect for his family and for the monarchy, if he cares even in the slightest about protecting the legacy of his late mother, he would go without being pushed.
For once in his life, can’t he act like a grown-up instead of a spoilt man-baby? Hand back the keys to Royal Lodge and voluntarily take himself off somewhere away from the cameras where he – and the Duchess of York, if she so wishes – can live out their days in private.
Prince Andrew, Virginia Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell in a photograph published by the Mail on Sunday in 2011
No more guffawing at funerals, no more jostling to the front at photocalls, no more scowling through Windsor Great Park on horseback. Beat a dignified retreat, and maybe – just maybe – the public might retain a glimmer of residual respect for him.
It’s not just what’s right for the Royal Family, it’s also what’s right for Andrew. In fact, I would say it’s his only chance. Not just to be on the right side of history, but also to save his own skin. It’s the only chance of retaining what few remnants of his royal status he still has, of holding on those last glittering baubles.
Why? Because however bad things may seem for him now, they could yet get a whole lot worse.
If the Andrew situation isn’t resolved while his kind, rather gentle, indulgent and thoughtful brother is in charge, it will have to be resolved under King Charles’s successor.
I can’t say for certain, of course, but I don’t imagine Prince William – or for that matter, the Princess of Wales – has much time for friends and associates of known sex traffickers. And given that they have decided to make Windsor their ‘forever home’, are they really going to tolerate Bad Uncle Andrew living it up next door?
They will want to put some serious distance between themselves and this whole stink, and that might not bode well for the Duke, especially if his brother is no longer around to shield him. Who knows what Prince William will do. Perhaps the Tower isn’t such a far-fetched idea after all.
If he reaches a voluntary agreement with Charles in the meantime, Andrew can retain some degree of control. Maybe he can live out his days in a comfortable corner of one of the remoter royal estates; maybe he can attend the odd family gathering on the quiet, provided there’s a suitably discreet side entrance on offer.
Of course, all this requires a degree of self-knowledge and humility on Andrew’s part – two traits he sorely lacks. But perhaps those around him can bring some pressure to bear. Either that, or they could just send Princess Anne to do the job.
Fundamentally, though, Andrew must understand that for him, the game is finally up. He has disgraced himself to the point where his very existence has become a liability to the Royal Family. For a long while his doting mother protected him from the consequences of his mistakes. But sadly, she is no more. He has to go.
He can either do so graciously of his own volition, and salvage something from the wreck of his charmed life; or he can continue to pretend none of this matters, that he’s done nothing wrong, that it’s all just an unjustified vendetta.
He can either carry on acting like the arrogant, deluded toff he’s been all his life, or take a long hard look in the mirror, and make the right choice for once.
