Capping off a bombshell week in the Royal Family, the Prince and Princess of Wales took a star turn on the 2026 BAFTAs red carpet on Sunday night. Kate pulled out a crowd-favourite: a diaphanous blush Gucci princess gown with a garnet velvet waistband. William wore one of his jewel-toned velvet dinner jackets in the exact same shade. A necessary united front?  

The news takeaway was William’s brief comment about having not seen the emotionally charged film Hamnet, because, he said, “I need to be in quite a calm state and I am not at the moment. I will save it.” Naturally, following the arrest last Thursday of his uncle Andrew – on the same Sandringham estate where William was staying with his family for school half-term holidays at their Anmer Hall country home – the quote was immediately interpreted to be about The Andrew Problem.

Indeed, the fallout from the latest drop of Epstein files has capped a long run of humiliating downgrades for Andrew, who was stripped of his titles by the Queen in 2019, lost his status as a prince and was evicted from Royal Lodge by his brother last November. He was arrested and released and remains under investigation by British authorities for suspicion of misconduct in a public office, dating back to his time as a trade envoy from 2001 to 2011, when he was first canned for Epstein ties

The Andrew Problem has also begun to cast doubt and open a fresh can of worms – chiefly, who in the senior royal ranks knew what and when. In an interview with Zoomer in the aftermath of the former prince’s arrest, Andrew Lownie, author of Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, said that reports of King Charles contributing to Andrew’s earlier payment to settle civil court claims in America were ominous. These claims were brought by Virginia Giuffre, who accused Andrew of sexual misconduct on three occasions when she was underaged. “There is the possibility that Charles, [if proven] to be complicit in the cover-up, would have to stand down. They’d finesse it, you know, say he’s standing down for health. They’d find a way of dressing it up.” Enter a screaming headline on the Daily Mail: “Emails Prove Charles Was Warned About His Brother’s Secret Deals.”

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor rides a horse in Windsor Great Park, near Royal Lodge, where he resides, on February 2, 2026. Read more: https://t.co/MWweEozVh5 pic.twitter.com/5OSehaEWjq

— Reuters (@Reuters) February 2, 2026

The dishiest piece of the weekend dig through the narcissistic morass of Andrew’s childhood was by The Times’ Hilary Rose (check it out here). A blow-by-blow of Andrew’s tantrums and theatrics – from kicking dogs, laughing at his own jokes and force-coercing partygoers into conga lines, to living off the glory days of his high-school athletic prowess into his 60s – it is Rose’s fed-up-with-the-guy tone that leaves you cheering. Forget gilded cages – up until now, she writes, “Andrew’s gilded existence knew no bars.”

Meanwhile, Sarah Ferguson, formerly Duchess of York, is no longer in the jurisdiction. Over the weekend, it broke that she has been hiding out at Paracelsus Recovery – a Swiss rehab and wellness retreat for whom she had previously done promotional videos. The exclusive hideaway charges up to $154,000 USD per week and features private villas and a team of doctors for every patient. She is said to have been checked in from Christmas through the end of January. Her current whereabouts are unknown.

In the fictional universe, Fergie is currently being played onscreen by Game of Thrones star Natalie Dormer in a television series called The Lady, based on the real-life murder case of her former dresser, Jane Andrews. (The series will be broadcast in Canada on March 18 on BritBox.) It is an unfortunate fictionalized return to the spotlight for Fergie, who is dodging questions of her own regarding emails  released in the Epstein files. They include photos she sent to the late convicted sex offender of her daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, and statements including her wish to marry the financier – this all after he had been imprisoned the first time. Fergie’s future plans (and any further consequences from her Epstein involvement, which has already meant losing all of her patronages, as well as philanthropic, work and business associations) remain up in the air.

The roles of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie are generating a lot of column inches. Again, the narrative is not just who knew what when, but also who supported whom and when. Beatrice has supposedly remained “loyal” to Andrew, while Eugenie, who runs a charity fighting slave trafficking, is said to have disconnected from their father. Their future role in the Royal Family is being hotly speculated upon. The King made a point to invite them to the family Christmas at Sandringham (sans parents, of course). And the York sisters (as they are still popularly known, despite their parent’s titles being put in abeyance) have been very helpful to their uncle Charles and cousin William, popping up in supporting roles at events as both Charles and Kate were in cancer treatments over the past couple of years. Both sisters retain use of “grace and favour” properties on the royal estates, but Beatrice and family live mainly in her own country home and Eugenie lives primarily in Portugal. As more of their roles in their parents’ finances become revealed, can they actually still remain in their public roles? Or will they have to step down too? 

King Charles’s documentary, Finding Harmony: A King’s Vision, is also being overshadowed by all the Andrew ugliness. The film, now airing on Prime, was produced in 2025 and features interviews with the King at both Dumfries House and Highgrove House. Charles’s lifelong commitment to the environment and to advocating for sustainable practices – and exploring them in the grounds of his own estates – is the focus.

The Guardian called the film “fawning,” but it’s also frustrating: because the King has been right since the 1960s. It’s the environment that is the key issue of our times. The man once derided as a nutter for talking to plants is now the man who was leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the world. 

Coming in March is a new book by Daily Mirror royal editor Russell Myers, William & Catherine: The Intimate Inside Story. The story, plotting the couple’s joint trajectory since their meeting at St. Andrews University, is set to light up new headlines. This book is one to watch as it seems to come straight from the couple themselves, via intermediaries, and Myers is well-placed within the royal rota, giving him credibility. It has the same texture of delicate repositioning as William’s interview with Canadian comedic icon Eugene Levy for the travel series Unexpected Traveller. William is finding ways of countering the narrative set by his brother Harry’s autobiography, Spare, published in 2023.

Among the early reveals, via the Daily Mirror, are the assertion from palace insider sources that William wanted uncle Andrew, who is, in William’s words, “a stain on the Royal Family,” out long ago “before the rot sets in.” To wit, he wanted the Crown to get out ahead of the fallout that seemed poised to come. And which has come to pass.

The early tidbits also include the idea that it was Kate who felt that, according to the book’s source, “William and Harry’s fundamental differences as the heir and the spare had created an inevitability of Harry wanting more from his role than a bit-part player.” Further, the book will go into that brawl between the brothers, with William “adamant there was no physical violence.”

And finally, a royal-inflected novel from Omid Scobie, who is of course famous for the book Finding Freedom, widely seen as aided by Harry and Meghan. His book, written with Robin Benway, called Royal Spin, is about a White House press office flunkie scooped up by the Palace comms team to breathe modern PR life into the medieval spin machine. The press release reads that our heroine finds herself “torn between duty, loyalty, success and happiness.”

Such an American idea, happiness! 

MONARCHIAL MOVERS & SHAKERS

Developments are going to stay hot on all these fronts. Here are the best royal sources to follow along.

For an even-handed, doesn’t-take-sides ringside report, tune in to Tom Sykes. He was born well-connected to royal circles, then cut his reporting teeth on the nightlife circuit in NYC before returning to laser in on the BRF on his The Royalist YouTube channel.

Vanity Fair correspondent Kate Nicholl and Roya Nikkah of the Times combine for a delicious insider take on the headlines in The Royals podcast.

And the queen of royal reporting, Tina Brown, formerly of Tatler, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, author of The Diana Chronicles and The Palace Papers, is now delivering the royal news with a ready quip on her Fresh Hell substack.