Queen Elizabeth II was once mentioned to have had “a blind spot” when it got here to Prince Andrew as his arguable friendship with intercourse perpetrator Jeffrey Epstein exploded inside of Buckingham Palace.
“When the Jeffrey Epstein-Prince Andrew scandal erupted in 2011, Elizabeth proved to be the ‘Queen of Denial,’” Christopher Andersen, creator of “The King,” claimed to Fox Information Virtual.
“Andrew simply denied that the salacious accusations were true, and that was good enough for the queen,” Andersen claimed. “The late queen had a blind spot when it came to Andrew, whose sexual exploits earned him the nickname ‘Randy Andy’ decades before the Epstein affair . . . At Her Majesty’s direction, Buckingham Palace issued a series of statements in which Andrew insisted he ‘did not see, witness or suspect’ that Epstein was a notorious sexual abuser of underage girls.”
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“The late queen had a blind spot when it came to Andrew, whose sexual exploits earned him the nickname ‘Randy Andy’ decades before the Epstein affair.”
“When a 2010 video surfaced showing Prince Andrew standing inside the doorway of Epstein’s New York mansion, waving to a very young woman outside, the palace issued yet another statement claiming that the Duke of York was ‘appalled’ and the suggestion he would condone, participate in or encourage any such behavior was ‘abhorrent,’” added Andersen.
Andersen’s claims got here in a while next DailyMail columnist Ephraim Hardcastle informed the opening that the past due monarch was once “quite dismissive” of the allegations situation Andrew’s connection to Epstein.
“Three senior members of the Royal Household wrote to Her Majesty suggesting it would be wise if Andrew were suspended from royal duties pending a full inquiry,” he claimed. “The trio received a curt reply conveying the royal displeasure from an assistant private secretary. And their invitations to the staff Christmas party that year appeared to have got lost in the post.”
A spokesperson for Buckingham Palace didn’t instantly reply to Fox Information Virtual’s request for remark.
Andersen believes the fresh claims. And he insisted that the queen’s eldest son, the previous Prince Charles, tried to interfere.
“When one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, stepped forward to directly accuse Andrew of abusing her on three separate occasions, Andrew decided to sit for a lengthy prime-time BBC-TV interview to refute the charges, but that backfired, spectacularly,” Andersen mentioned.
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“While Queen Elizabeth, true to form, thought the interview ‘went well,’ there was otherwise unanimous agreement that the BBC interview was an unmitigated disaster,” he claimed. “Outraged over his brother’s behavior, Charles met with the queen and finally convinced her drastic action was in order. Andrew was summoned to Sandringham for lunch with Charles and [their father] Prince Philip, both of whom informed him that he would be essentially ‘retiring’ as a senior member of the royal family.”
“Eventually, the queen grudgingly agreed to parcel out Andrew’s patronages among other royal family members, strip him of his honorary military titles, and order him not to use his HRH status in any official capacity,” Andersen mentioned.
It’s been reported that the queen “came to her favorite child’s rescue” and reached into her personal wallet to support pay the estimated $14 million agreement Andrew’s attorneys reached along with his accuser, Andersen identified.
“It wasn’t so much that the queen felt Prince Andrew was guilty – she just didn’t want the sleazy headlines a civil trial would generate to mar her majesty’s upcoming Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June 2022,” Andersen claimed.
“Despite all the shame that has rained down on the monarchy because of Andrew, the late queen never stopped doting on him,” he shared. “Mother and second son remained close right up until the end; Queen Elizabeth and Andrew were far closer than she and Charles would ever be.”
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The queen, England’s longest-reigning monarch, died in September 2022 at life 96. In spite of their alleged sibling competition, it was once reported that Charles invited his more youthful brother to Balmoral Fortress, the place he’s going to be staying for the residue of the summer season to host family members.
The Scottish retreat was once additionally the place the queen died.
“Summers at Balmoral are a royal family tradition, and Charles can be terribly nostalgic when it comes to the Scottish Highlands, his mother’s favorite place in all the world,” mentioned Andersen. “Perhaps that, and the fact that he is battling cancer and wants to gather the family around him, explains why he has invited Andrew to Balmoral.”
Royal expert Hilary Fordwich informed Fox Information Virtual that with out the loved matriarch by means of his aspect, Andrew is on his personal.
“As any mother would, Queen Elizabeth II was protective of her son,” Fordwich defined. “In the end, it took more than 150 Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy veterans to persuade her to strip him of all his military titles and ranks within the British Armed Forces. They wrote to the queen, signing a joint letter. They were all well aware of her most difficult position, addressing it head-on: ‘We understand that he is your son, but we write to you in your capacity as head of state and as Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Navy and Air Force.’”
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“The letter concluded: ‘Officers of the British Armed Forces must adhere to the very highest standards of probity, honesty and honorable conduct. These are standards which Prince Andrew has fallen well short of,’” Fordwich shared. “While there is unlikely to ever be a full rehabilitation of Prince Andrew, he has been invited with his former wife . . . who is recovering after breast cancer, to join his brother King Charles III and the rest of the family at Balmoral. [But] his royal public life is over.”
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“He should be focused on knuckling down to something worthwhile to help others,” Fordwich persisted. “He needs to remain confined to only a private life. His lack of contrition, combined with lack of any public empathy for [Epstein’s accusers], has only served to worsen his situation.”
Royal creator and Self-importance Honest correspondent Katie Nicholl up to now informed Fox Information Virtual that the queen “saw Andrew very regularly right up until her death.”
“They remained incredibly close, and she was very protective of him,” she mentioned.
Nicholl additionally described how when the Epstein allegations got here to luminous, the past due queen quizzed her son.
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“Andrew assured her that he was innocent of those allegations,” mentioned Nicholl. “She believed him. This was her son, after all. And she didn’t just believe him. She stood by him.”
A alike public pal informed Nicholl that Andrew had given his mom his guarantee “on more than one occasion that he was innocent.” However the ones alike to the queen felt she will have to had been “more ruthless.”
“There was a question being asked: Had some of her sharpness softened?” an insider who labored intently with the monarch informed Nicholl.
Andrew stepped again from royal tasks in 2019.
In a lawsuit filed in 2020, Giuffre accused Andrew of sexually exploiting her on 3 events in 2001 when she was once 17. Andrew has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
In 2022, a U.S. pass judgement on pushed aside the intercourse abuse lawsuit towards Andrew, who settled with Giuffre. The prince made a considerable donation to his accuser’s treasure and declared he by no means supposed to malign her personality.
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Epstein was once discovered useless in the back of bars in 2019 at life 66. The U.S. legal professional in Ny prosecuted Epstein’s former female friend, Ghislaine Maxwell, for serving to charter his underage sufferers. She was once convicted in 2021 and is serving a 20-year jail time period.
Andrew was once named in up to now invisible court docket paperwork indistinguishable to Epstein that have been unsealed within the fresh yr. It was once a part of a 2015 lawsuit filed towards Maxwell by means of Giuffre.
The information, together with transcripts of interviews with a few of Epstein’s sufferers and impaired police reviews, contained reminders that the millionaire had surrounded himself with well-known and robust figures, together with a couple of who’ve additionally been accused of misconduct.
The Related Press contributed to this document.