LONDON, ENGLAND -- It was the document dump that Prince Andrew was dreading. Just before Christmas, New York district judge Loretta Preska ruled court papers naming associates of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein could be unsealed by a U.S. court and should no longer remain secret, as many of the individuals mentioned have already given media interviews.
At the time of this writing, thousands of pages of documents have been released, naming around 170 individuals and in which Prince Andrew's name is mentioned – a lot.
Prince Andrew has repeatedly denied his links to Jeffrey Epstein after the financier was arrested and charged with one count of sex trafficking a minor and one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, to which he plead not guilty and was denied bail. He was later found dead in his jail cell in New York.
In an infamous interview with BBC journalist Emily Maitlis, the Duke of York talked about his relationship with Epstein, who he stayed with in 2010 after Epstein was released from prison in Florida after serving an 18-month sentence for soliciting prostitution and soliciting prostitution from someone under the age of 18. Prince Andrew conceded this was a lack of judgment on his part, but did not express any sympathy for Epstein’s victims or apologize for his behaviour.
There were also questions about his relationship with Virginia Giuffre, who claims she was forced to have sexual encounters with Prince Andrew. He denied any wrongdoing and settled with Giuffre out of court for an undisclosed amount, thought to be around £12 million in February 2022. He stepped back from public duties and the Queen stripped him of his HRH title, military titles and royal patronages.
The recent unsealing of the fifth and final batch of documents means that once again the focus is on Prince Andrew, his dealings with Epstein and allegations of sexual abuse.
We saw Prince Andrew over Christmas, attending the Christmas Day service at St. Mary Magdalene Church near Sandringham with the rest of the Royal Family.
He seemed relaxed while front and centre with ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, who was spending Christmas with the Royals for the first time in 32 years.
But now it looks like there is no going back for Prince Andrew, now that the latest unsealed documents put the spotlight back on his association with Epstein, and include an allegation that the prince groped a woman at Epstein's New York City home in 2021.
King Charles III is coming under increasing pressure to do something about his now disgraced brother. There are reports that he could force Prince Andrew to pay for his own security which could run into millions of pounds. Unlike Prince Harry, who also pays for his own security but had a lucrative income, Andrew has no real income to speak of apart from help from the Royal purse. How he could pay for his own security remains to be seen.
There were also reports that Prince Andrew could be evicted from Royal Lodge, the 30-bedroom Royal residence where he now resides along with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, into the smaller Frogmore Cottage, once occupied by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Although the Daily Mail now quotes a source saying that such an eviction won't happen.
CAN THE KING STRIP ANDREW OF HIS TITLE?
There are also questions about Prince Andrew remaining a prince at all. Does the King have the power to strip him of his titles and should he even wield that power? When Prince Andrew stepped back from public life, the Queen took away his HRH title, his military titles and his Royal patronages. But he kept his title of the Duke of York and his place in the line of succession, which is 8th, as well as his role as a Counsellor of State (royals who can stand in for the monarch on official duties if he is abroad or unwell).
The truth is, King Charles III cannot take the title of Prince away from his brother – not yet anyway. According to Gert's Royals -- a blog about royal families -- the King doesn't have the power to remove the royal titles.
“Parliament can remove titles. But they will find it difficult in this case. The legislative branch (Parliament) or executive branch (Honors Forfeiture Committee) don’t have the powers to decide if someone is guilty of a crime,” the Gert's Royals posted on X. “It is the judicial branch (Courts)’s job to determine if someone is guilty. And then other branches can act on that decision. And since there have never been any charges or conviction against Prince Andrew, in the eyes of the U.K. government, he is innocent.”
There is a bill that is currently going through Parliament to allow the King to have these powers, but it’s in the very first stage, meaning there is a long way to go before this could ever become law. There is no indication that Parliament wants to do this at this moment. So Prince Andrew remains a Counsellor of State, along with Queen Camilla and the first four people in the line of succession to the throne who are over the age of 21, namely Queen Camilla, Prince William, Prince Harry, Prince Andrew and Andrew's eldest daughter, Princess Beatrice.
In 2022, Princess Anne and Prince Edward were made additional Counsellors of State so we could avoid the rather embarrassing situation where Prince Andrew has to step into the King’s shoes in his absence.
There is no doubt that this ever-swirling scandal is not helping the popularity of the Royal Family. Prince Andrew was already the least favourite member of the Firm with the latest polls showing only 7% of those asked having a positive opinion of him.
In a separate poll, 73% of those questioned thought that he should be investigated by the Metropolitan Police over allegations of sexual abuse.
The court of public opinion on social media have already made up their minds when it comes to Prince Andrew – where there’s smoke, or in this case, your name appearing in unsealed files relating to a sex offender hundreds of times, there’s fire.
With Prince Andrew reportedly locking himself up in a room after the release of the new court documents, unable to face this new wave of allegations, it seems King Charles III will have an ‘Andrew problem’ on his hands well into 2024.
