Andrew Mountbatten Windsor was ‘arrogant, boorish and entitled’ and his behaviour ‘consistently embarrassed’ Charles to the point he had no choice but to excise him from royal life, a confidant of the King has claimed.
Jonathan Dimbleby said he was in ‘no doubt’ that the monarch has been ‘consistently embarrassed, frustrated by and angry about’ his brother’s behaviour.
Last night, King Charles sensationally stripped Andrew of his Prince title and is throwing him out of the Royal Lodge where he had paid ‘a peppercorn rent’ for decades – effectively banishing the disgraced ex–duke from royal life for good.
A ‘culmination’ of recent revelations – including that Andrew told his friend, the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, that ‘we are in this together’, as exclusively revealed by the Mail – forced Charles’ hand, Mr Dimbleby told the BBC.
‘I suspect he will be feeling a measure of relief,’ he said of Charles. ‘His brother – this is not an easy thing for any brother to do, to be banished, eternal imprisonment in a way, on Sandringham Estate.’
He added: ‘We know his brother was boorish, arrogant, entitled, that he made an awful lot of bad friendships, all sorts of questions about how he got his own money – there is a lot that will be discussed.
‘If there are further investigations, which I’m sure there will be into Andrew himself, the King himself will be quite separate from that and more importantly the institution of the monarchy will be detached from that.’
The family of Virginia Giuffre – who claimed to have been trafficked to and made to have sex with Andrew at 17 – are now calling for him to face justice in the US, where he could potentially be extradited as an ‘ordinary member of the public’.
Today, the ex–Duke of York wakes up as commoner Andrew Mountbatten Windsor – and ministers have suggested that he could be less protected from, for example, demands to testify in America having been stripped of his royal status.
Trade minister Sir Chris Bryant told BBC Breakfast: ‘I think that just as with any ordinary member of the public, if there were requests from another jurisdiction of this kind, I would expect any decently–minded person to comply with that request.’
He added: ‘What I’m basically saying is that I think that if Andrew is asked to do something by a Senate committee, then I would have thought that he would want to comply.’
It comes amid the dramatic fall from grace for the former prince, as it emerged:
Sky Roberts, the brother of Virginia Giuffre – who claimed to have been trafficked to Andrew for sex as a teenager – has warned there could be more trouble for Andrew as his family’s fight for justice ‘was not over yet’.
He told BBC Newsnight: ‘It’s not enough – we have to have some kind of investigation that goes further into this. He’s still walking around a free man.
‘I commend the King – I think he’s doing an amazing job as a world leader setting a precedent – but we need to take it one more step further: he (Andrew) needs to be behind bars.’
Amanda Roberts, Virginia’s sister–in–law, also told Newsnight that she supported the notion of a joint US–UK investigation.
‘I think both countries need to look at collaborating here – the US government holds the key to the larger scope of the Jeffrey Epstein case,’ she said.
‘The UK is setting an example for what the US should be doing right now. And I would ask that your leaders put that pressure on our leaders to do the right thing.’
Mr Dimbleby has suggested that the King would be unlikely to step in if a request was made by the US to extradite US in order to face questions over his alleged behaviour.
‘If there is an extradition, it will not have to do with the King himself,’ he told the BBC.
‘One of the proper things to do now is to have made it clear that the (ex) prince, his brother, is beyond the pale.’
When contacted by the Daily Mail, the Metropolitan Police did not rule out a possible prosecution.
Andrew’s daughters Beatrice and Eugenie fled Britain in the days before their father’s final humiliation that finally sees him kicked out of Royal Lodge, where he was said to have had a ‘cast iron’ 75–year lease.
The pair, who will retain their titles, were pictured abroad: Beatrice at an investment conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Eugenie snapping selfies with friends in Paris – all while moves began to evict their father back home.
It had been suggested that Andrew was pressured by Prince William into giving up the residence under threat of having his daughters’ titles taken away.
While Andrew has been all but cast out from royal life – with no titles, peerages or even the right to call himself a ‘prince’ – a royal expert has questioned why he remains eighth in line to the throne.
Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty Magazine, said this morning: ‘I’m sure at some point quite soon, somebody will ask, if they’ve not already done so, why he hasn’t been moved from the line of succession.
‘Clearly it would take quite a catastrophe for him to become king given all those that are ahead of him. So might it not have been tidier to withdraw him from the line of succession?’
Andrew is a counsellor of state – who can effectively stand in for the King – but this role has previously been described as ‘inactive’. Mr Little suggested it may have been ‘tidier’ to remove that role from Andrew’s portfolio too.
Yesterday, the anti–monarchy campaign group Republic said it had instructed lawyers to investigate Andrew and, if appropriate, press ahead with a private prosecution.
The Daily Mail understands the allegations it is focusing on relate to accusations he sexually assaulted Giuffre, that he asked a royal protection officer to look into her background and impropriety when he served as an official UK trade envoy.
Republic said it is mounting its own bid to take him to court because the legal and political response to the claims has been ‘weak and inadequate’ to date.
‘If not us, then who?’ asked Graham Smith, the group’s CEO. ‘It’s a devastating indictment on the UK’s criminal justice system, police and politicians – not to mention the king and heir – that we must resort to a private prosecution.’
Last night the group said that Andrew’s punishment was ‘nowhere near enough’, adding: ‘He will never be an “ordinary person” – ordinary people don’t get away with being accused of sexual abuse.’
Andrew’s royal biographer Andrew Lownie, whose forensic biography of the disgraced Duke of York, Entitled, was released last week, has promised there will be more revelations to come in a new book in the summer.
Lownie told The Mail on Sunday that friends of Andrew have come forward ‘in droves’ to say they are now willing to paint the ‘full picture’ about his past.
Many are formerly loyal associates who had originally declined to be involved in the book but have been emboldened to come forward since its publication.
And so many have now offered to contribute that the historian – who spent four years working on Entitled, and interviewed hundreds of people for his research – has been invited by his publisher to produce an updated edition.
‘The amazing and astonishing thing that’s happened since Entitled came out is that people have come forward in droves with more stories to tell about Prince Andrew,’ he said.
‘A lot of respectable people who declined to be involved in the book are now coming forward, keen to unload the secrets they’ve been keeping for all these years.
The Palace said the ‘censures [were] deemed necessary’ amid the ongoing Jeffrey Epstein scandal – the paedophile financer who Andrew lied about cutting ties with.
It comes after the Mail on Sunday exclusively revealed scandalous correspondence where the shunned prince told Epstein ‘we are in this together’ a day after the infamous picture of the royal with his alleged then–teenage sex victim Virginia Giuffre was released.
As Andrew’s links to the disgraced financier continued to bring shame on the royals, last night he finally agreed to surrender his Windsor lease where he resided with his ex–wife Sarah Ferguson for over two decades, paying ‘peppercorn rent’.
Sources revealed the former Duchess of York, who has also been embroiled in scandal relating to sex–offender Epstein, ‘will make her own arrangements’ when it comes to her future.
His Majesty’s younger brother will now be banished to a private property on the monarch’s Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, but no further details have been shared.
It is understood Prince William and the Royal Family fully support the King’s decision.
Annie Farmer, one of Jeffrey Epstein’s earliest accusers who testified in the trial that resulted in the conviction of his long–time aide Ghislaine Maxwell, told the BBC: ‘Virginia did what most thought impossible. She showed the world that even the most powerful predators can be held accountable.’
Andrew Lownie believes the recent fallout doesn’t mark ‘the end’ of controversy for the shunned royal.
‘I don’t think it’s the end of it. I think there are many more disclosures to come, but at least they’re taking some decisive action. So, I don’t think it’s all over for him,’ he told The Mirror.
When queried if he believed a police probe into Andrew was more likely following yesterday’s announcement, he remarked that the ex–duke was being ‘throw[n] under the bus’.
‘Yes, I’ve been saying for some time they’re [the Royal family] going to throw Andrew under the bus to save themselves and this is the first indication of that,’ he added.
The Palace is thought to have been spooked by the detailed allegations laid out in the posthumous memoir from Andrew’s sex abuse accuser Giuffre, who took her own life this year, aged 41.
Ms Giuffre’s explosive book Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice was released in this month, with the manuscript having been completed before she died.
Inside, she detailed her years spent as a sex slave to Epstein and his British madam Ghislaine Maxwell, amid claims she had been trafficked to the ex–duke three times, and whom she called ‘entitled’ and viewed sex as his ‘birthright’.
Within the 400–page autobiography, she also alleged the ex–duke said ‘thank you’ in a ‘clipped British accent’ after their alleged first encounter when she was 17.
She also recalled how Maxwell praised her following the encounter, saying, ‘You did well, the prince had fun’.
Andrew denied ever meeting Ms Giuffre. In 2022, he settled a US civil case she lodged for a reported £12million, reportedly receiving money from his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, to help meet the costs.
The settlement came with no admission of liability.
Residents of York – long ashamed of their connection with disgraced Andrew – will be relieved today. York Central MP Rachael Maskell said the monarchy needed to become more ‘accountable’ in the wake of the King’s decision to strip Andrew Mountbatten Windsor of his titles.
Ms Maskell, who introduced a Bill in the Commons to make it easier for the King to remove peerages, told the BBC’s Today programme: ‘I think the world’s moved on, and we need the monarchy to be accountable by all means, not least to the public.
‘When we saw 80 per cent of the public saying remove those titles, I’m sure there is relief across the country now that that has been done.’
It is understood earlier this month the Metropolitan Police was ‘actively’ looking into the claims Andrew had asked his personal protection officer to investigate Ms Giuffre, and that he was interviewed by detectives at home last week.
A bombshell email published by the Mail on Sunday earlier this month revealed how Andrew asked his taxpayer–funded protection officer to dig into her past, two months after the infamous photo of him with Giuffre and Maxwell was published by the Mail.
In an extraordinary message to Ed Perkins, Queen Elizabeth’s deputy press secretary, he wrote: ‘It would also seem she has a criminal record in the States. I have given her DoB [date of birth] and social security number for investigation with XXX, the on duty ppo [personal protection officer].’
Emails between Andrew and Epstein showed the former duke expressing ‘concern’ about the impact this newspaper’s revelations would have on his friend after the infamous picture of the royal with Ms Giuffre was released.
He reassured the vile billionaire they would ‘rise above’ press scrutiny – in correspondence sent to Epstein 12 weeks after Andrew had supposedly ceased all contact with the convicted sex offender.
It provides definitive proof Andrew lied in his car–crash interview with BBC’s Newsnight when he claimed he ‘never had any contact’ with the disgraced financier after the pair were pictured walking together in New York in December 2010.
Democratic Congressman Suhas Subramanyam, who has previously called for Andrew to testify before a US Congressional committee about his links to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell to ‘clear his name’, last night again urged Andrew to give evidence.
‘It’s clear that Prince Andrew has information about Epstein’s crimes and he must do more than just give up titles or hide from the public spotlight,’ he said.
Amy Wallace, co–author of Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s memoir Nobody’s Girl, told BBC Newsnight: ‘History has just been made by Virginia Roberts–Giuffre.’
In another world exclusive the Mail on Sunday also exposed a bombshell email revealing how Andrew’s ex–wife Fergie cynically lied when she publicly disowned the vile billionaire.
It was just weeks after her public statement that she wrote him a gushing private message, describing disgraced Epstein as a ‘steadfast, generous and supreme friend’ – confessing she only distanced herself from him to save her own reputation.
Now, the former Duchess of York will now be known as plain Sarah Ferguson.
Following the revelation, Sarah was dropped by seven charities after ‘humbly apologising’ to Epstein after disavowing him amid his conviction for child sexual abuse offences.
The bombshell leaked email shows Sarah wrote to the convicted sex offender to ‘humbly apologise’ in 2011 just weeks after telling the press she had cut all ties with him.
In an earlier interview that year, she described her involvement with Epstein, who had served time for soliciting prostitution from a minor, as a ‘gigantic error of judgment’.
A spokesman for Sarah previously said the email was sent to counter an aggressive threat Epstein had made to sue her for defamation.
The series of scandalous emails piled on the pressure for the Royal Family to sever ties with the ex–Yorks, with internal talks beginning after Prince William was left ‘seething’ by his uncle’s behaviour at the Duchess of Kent’s funeral last month.
Andrew was pictured sidling up to the Prince and Princess of Wales, which the heir to the throne saw as him being distracted from the ceremony.
No 10 has also reportedly been pressuring the royals to deal with the scandal, which has run on for years and saw Andrew step back from public life in 2019.
The intervention from Downing Street came after the former prince was entangled in the ongoing Chinese spying row, meeting with the ‘spymaster’ at the heart of the collapsed China spy case at least three times.
Andrew, already mired in controversy over his friendship with another alleged Beijing spy, forged links with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) mandarin Cai Qi, with the pair posing as they celebrated ‘jointly building a golden era in China–UK relations’.
Prosecutors now believe Cai was presiding over a massive intelligence–gathering operation to steal British secrets, overseeing the alleged activities of parliamentary researcher Christopher Cash and China–based English teacher Christopher Berry – against whom a case collapsed last month.
Politicians have roundly supported King Charles’ decision to strip Andrew of all of his titles and Royal Lodge residence.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said His Majesty is ‘absolutely right’ to do so, while Tory leader Kemi Badenoch remarked how the decision must have been ‘very difficult’ for the King.
‘It’s clear that Andrew’s position had become totally untenable, having disgraced his office and embarrassed the country,’ Sir Davey said.
Speaking to LBC, Ms Badenoch said: ‘The standards and expectations in society now are very high. People expect to see the very highest levels of integrity.
‘And I’m afraid the whole Jeffrey Epstein saga and everyone it has touched, from Prince Andrew to Peter Mandelson, has just shown that the public has no truck whatsoever with any kind of sexual abuse, sexual offences, especially of minors. And I think that that’s quite right.’
The leader of the Scottish National Party in Westminster, Stephen Flynn, said on BBC Newsnight last night: ‘He is no longer Prince Andrew […] He is just but one of us.’
