How Prince Andrew became the Queen’s impossible choice
Prince Andrew reportedly won't attend the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations after she stripped him of his military titles
It must have been unbearable for the Queen in the twilight of her impeccable reign, and preparing to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee, to have had to choose between being a monarch or a mother. Yet, her decision should come as no surprise.
Although it is often said that Andrew is her favourite child, the regal code of duty – country first, familial devotion second – is imprinted in her DNA. Like her grandmother, Queen Mary, who overrode her own maternal instincts to save the monarchy at the time of
Edward’s VIII’s abdication in 1936, the Queen, now 95, will do whatever necessary to preserve the institution to which she has pledged her entire life.
It is no exaggeration to say that the reputational damage of Andrew’s staggeringly ill-advised friendships with convicted paedophiles Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell looks set to shake the foundations of the monarchy with force not seen since the abdication of the Duke of Windsor in 1936.
The problem when royals become mere mortals is that they suddenly find themselves with little to give ballast to their lives.
Andrew first had a taste of exclusion from The Firm in November 2019; in the wake of public outrage at his car-crash Newsnight interview, he issued a statement saying that he was stepping down from life as a working royal due to his “ill-judged” association with Epstein.
Alas, far from a sybaritic future, it was Prince Andrew’s money problems that drew him into multi-millionaire Jeffrey Epstein’s vile orbit in the first place. Just as Edward was obsessed with never having enough money, Andrew now has huge legal bills and security costs to foot.
Unlike the Windsors, who were unable to have children, Andrew and Sarah have Beatrice, 33, and Eugenie, 31 – and now grandchildren, too. The princesses have said nothing in public.
In private, insiders say, they are mortified. Beatrice, in particular, is said to be “absolutely devastated” that her 18th birthday ball was besmirched when a photograph came to light of Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell standing in the Windsor grounds.
