It’s easy to forget that Prince Andrew wasn’t always a pariah. In 1977, when he arrived at Lakefield College School near Peterborough, Ont., as a 16-year-old, the dashing young prince attracted crowds of swooning young women. He had a bit of a bad boy rep: back at Gordonstoun School in Scotland, he had picked up the nickname Randy Andy when he was caught in the girls’ dormitories. But he called his six months in Canada “life-changing,” and he stayed on first as a trustee, before becoming a patron of the school.
Then, in 1982, when Andrew returned from active duty as a Royal Navy helicopter pilot in the Falklands War, the media declared him a war hero, and he posed with a literal rose between his teeth (for his mom, the Queen Elizabeth II).
His popularity lasted through his 1986 wedding to Sarah Ferguson, who was seen as a breath of fresh air addition to the next generation of royals. But, the divorce was messy and the seams of Andrew’s reputation began to unravel. Following his retirement from military service in 2001, Andrew took on the role of U.K. special representative for trade and investment, and earned a new nickname – Airmiles Andy – for the frequent and lavish trips he took on the public dime. His reported associations with dodgy international business and government contacts, which resulted in documented personal gain, started to add up.
The publication of a photograph of Andrew walking with financier Jeffrey Epstein in Central Park in 2010 (following a jail stint for Epstein, for soliciting minors) marked the beginning of the end of the story playing out now. He stepped down from his role as trade envoy in 2011, after the notorious photo of him with his arm around Epstein victim the late Virginia Giuffre, who alleged she was trafficked into sexual encounters with the Prince, surfaced. Months after Epstein’s 2019 second arrest – accused of sex-trafficking, he was found dead in his jail cell later that year – raised new questions about his friendship with the Prince, and Andrew felt the need to get on the record.
In the aftermath of that now-legendary 2019 BBC Newsnight interview about his association with Epstein, the Queen stripped her second-born son of his HRH title and military honours and he was made to step down as a working royal.
The pressure further increased on Andrew in 2021 when Giuffre sued him for damages. The Prince settled with her for a reported £12 million. Protesting his innocence, he claimed he took this route so as not to mar his mother’s Platinum Jubilee rather than to escape being deposed under oath. Andrew was once again in the hotseat after Giuffre’s suicide earlier this year, as well as the ongoing political imbroglio surrounding the Trump administration’s Epstein files and the resignation of the British ambassador to the U.S., who was also revealed to have ties to Epstein.
The bad news for Andrew grew from a trickle to a flood this October, with more reports of meetings with an alleged Chinese spy (a scandal that first blossomed last December), alongside leaked emails showing Andrew had remained in contact with Epstein despite his claims to Newsnight anchor Emily Mathis that he had ceased all communication with the disgraced mogul months before.
But the fatal factor leading to Andrew’s further downfall was the buildup to the October 21 release of Giuffre’s posthumous memoir, Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice. Born Virginia Roberts, Giuffre’s memoir details her long and sad history of abuse, beginning in childhood then culminating in her years as an alleged underage sex slave to Epstein and his girlfriend, procurer and fellow abuser Ghislaine Maxwell – the confidante who introduced Andrew and Epstein and who is seen smiling beside Giuffre in the infamous photo. The book is described as harrowing reading.
Andrew announced his latest punishment via a Buckingham Palace release – that he was giving up the usage of the title Duke of York, along with his other titles, the Earl of Inverness and Baron Killyleagh, and his membership in the Order of the Garter. In his official statement, he phrased it to make it sound like his idea:
In discussion with The King, and my immediate and wider family, we have concluded the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Family. I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first. I stand by my decision five years ago to stand back from public life.
With His Majesty’s agreement, we feel I must now go a step further. I will therefore no longer use my title or the honours which have been conferred upon me. As I have said previously, I vigorously deny the accusations against me.
There is no doubt that the Prince’s hand was forced by King Charles and Prince William. The timing was clear: it’s not unlikely that more scandals may emerge. Andrew has become a dangerous liability for “The Firm,” and a threat to its future, hence the tabloid’s latest nickname for him, The Duke of Hazard.
Which brings us to that latest news: the settlement paid to Giuffre to settle her civil suit against Andrew in the United States in 2022, just months before Queen Elizabeth’s death, has come under fresh scrutiny. Andrew – who is famously perpetually broke due to his spendthrift habits – is now being called upon to reveal where the money came from. It was also reported that Andrew has been accused of trying to dig up dirt on Giuffre – specifically, that he asked his security detail to find out info on his American-born accuser, who had moved to Australia. Somehow, Andrew allegedly gained access to Giuffre’s date of birth and her social insurance number, and was trying to hang rumours of an (unsubstantiated) criminal past on her. Further, Giuffre revealed in her book that Andrew tried to get internet trolls to harass her online. The Metropolitan Police are currently investigating both of these accusations.
There are calls in the British Parliament to open up the act that forbids Members of Parliament from investigating the Royal Family, as well as public calls (including from Giuffre’s family and other Epstein survivors) for the King to take things a step further and strip Andrew of his title as prince. This would take an act of Parliament, as Andrew is a blood prince, son of a monarch. Even the former King Edward VIII, later the Duke of Windsor, who abdicated his throne and later was revealed to have strong Nazi ties, did not lose his birth title.
As for Fergie, she’ll lose the use of her Duchess of York title as her ex-husband – with whom she continues to reside almost 30 years after their divorce – has lost his. She had come back from toe-sucking and cash-for-access scandals to be invited back into the Royal Family but her own damning emails with Epstein, which were leaked in September, has caused her to become persona non grata. Palace sources swiftly let it be known that neither will be seen attending the traditional royal Christmas at Sandringham House this year.
All through the turmoil, Andrew had been included in “family” events, but an incident earlier this month at the funeral of the Duchess of Kent showed how incapable Andrew is of reading optics in any situation.
Sidling up to his nephew and the heir to the throne, William, Prince of Wales, he tried to engage in conversation and share a laugh at a poorly timed solemn moment, as the funeral cortege rolled past. William iced him out expertly. The senior members of the Royal Family are not keen to allow Andrew to slide into any future photo ops. Part of the reasoning is that Andrew has been accused in the past of drumming up personal funding by the inference that he has access to the real royal decision-makers. Being photographed with Andrew could cause reputational harm for William and Charles, and increase risk for the institution.
It remains to be seen how the banishment of their parents will affect Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie. They had been confirmed to attend the recent British Museum’s inaugural Pink Ball but they dropped out last minute.
The Epstein scandal has tenacious tentacles in high places all over the world, and the drumbeat, both in the British and American press and in the halls of government in both nations, pounds on relentlessly. Andrew, up until now, has gotten off relatively unscathed – he settled a civil suit with Giuffre, and he remains at liberty. He continues to live a cushy life in Royal Lodge, a 30-room pile in Windsor Great Park on the Windsor Estate, once the esteemed home of the Queen Mother. Though his tenancy agreement was released by the Crown Estate on Monday, revealing he has not paid rent since 2003, renewing calls for him to vacate the home. There are already rumours afoot that William would ban his uncle from his coronation, when the day comes. The big steps are being bandied about.
Did Charles (and William, currently working to shape and define his own eventual rule) go far enough? The computations going on inside the Palace are about the blast radius of this ongoing scandal. If Parliamentarians were to insist on investigations into Andrew, which encompass his sources of income, it could put the entire monarchy’s tradition of shrouded finances under a microscope. If Charles doesn’t act swiftly and definitively enough as this swirling of scandals collects even more steam, it could pressure-test the future of the monarchy in this populist age. At the time of writing, there were literally republican protesters at Andrew’s gate. King Charles is privately wealthy. Could he not have paid off their recalcitrant and stubbornly unaware brother to “retire” somewhere far away? Will now be the time for Charles to ditch his final filial affinities to save the monarchy?
