the times | Wednesday February 16 2022 7fashiontimes2
U
ntil yesterday we
could have been
forgiven for thinking
that we had heard
the last of Prince
Andrew for some
time. It is, after all,
more than two years
since he stepped back from public
duties “for the foreseeable future” in
the wake of his disastrous Newsnight
interview, and only a few weeks since
the last shreds of his royal dignity
were forcibly and publicly removed.
“With the Queen’s approval and
agreement, the Duke of York’s military
affiliations and royal patronages have
been returned to the Queen,” said a
statement issued by Buckingham
Palace on January 13. “The Duke of
York will continue not to undertake
any public duties and is defending this
case as a private citizen.”
In future he would no longer use
his HRH title in any official capacity.
He was pictured being driven away
from his meeting with her at Windsor
Castle looking suspiciously damp-
eyed. Only last week there were
reports in The Sun that Prince
Charles told his brother to stay
firmly out of sight at Royal Lodge,his home in Windsor Great Park.
A trial was expected in New York
in the autumn, for which Andrew was
expected to provide evidence given
under oath. Instead, he has settled
the civil case brought against him by
Virginia Giuffre, who alleged that
he sexually assaulted her on three
occasions when she was a minor.
Yesterday it was reported that the
prince and Giuffre have reached a
“settlement in principle”. He agreed
to make a “substantial donation” to
Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’
rights. “He accepts that she has
suffered both as an established victim
of abuse and as a result of unfair
public attacks,” the statement said.
The prince said in October that
Giuffre was a “liar” who was seeking
“another payday at his expense”
and had spent more than a decade
“profiting from her allegations against
Epstein and others”. Her lawsuit
against him was “frivolous”, the
statement filed by his lawyers added,
and “should not be tolerated as it
continues to harm innocent people”.
He refused to “admit or deny” whether
the infamous photograph of him
with his arm round Giuffre’s waist
was real, and Giuffre admitted this
week that she had lost the picture.
Yesterday the prince said that he
had “never intended” to malign her
character and in fact “commends the
bravery of Ms Giuffre and other
survivors in standing up for
themselves and others”.
Courtiers have long feared that the
spectre of the Queen’s second son
being sued for sexual assault would
cast a deathly pall over the Queen’s
Platinum Jubilee, second only to the“He is meeting all the costs himself,
so he needs to raise cash fast to pay
the bills,” a source told The Mirror in
January. “If there was the potential
to settle, well, that is an option, but...
the Queen would not assist him in
doing so.”
What Prince Andrew’s future
looks like is now unclear. The man
whose birth was greeted by an RAF
flypast and cheering crowds at
Buckingham Palace may be hoping
for a return to royal life and the
popularity that greeted his return
from the Falklands conflict and his
marriage to Fergie. Shortly after the
Duke of Edinburgh’s death last year
he was eager to speak to the waiting
TV cameras about his father, allegedly
to the chagrin of the Prince of Wales.
Andrew’s reputation will always be
tainted by his friendship with a
convicted paedophile, and his
prolonged, doomed and ultimately
desperate attempts to make Giuffre’s
case go away.
Courtiers will be hoping that that
promise in November 2019 to step
back “for the foreseeable future” might
instead be interpreted as “for ever”.
They might pray that his status in
fighting the Giuffre case “as a private
citizen” will turn out to be permanent.
The organisations, charities and
military affiliations that he once
said he was proud to have given his
support to have made it painfully
clear how little they value it. And
wise heads in the Firm will no doubt
be arguing that a period of silence
from the man rumoured to be the
Queen’s favourite son would now be
welcome. Whether he heeds them
remains to be seen.release of Prince Harry’s ghostwritten
autobiography later this year written,
he has promised, “not as the prince I
was born but the man I have become”.
There were rumours that Prince
Charles, a long-time advocate of a
slimmed-down monarchy, would
have a clear-out of the Z-list royals
from their grace-and-favour homes,
which in Andrew’s case is Royal
Lodge, the 30-room mansion that
he shares with his ex-wife Sarah,
Duchess of York.
Another nightmare now raises its
head: will Andrew, who has been
accused of many things but never of
good judgment, think it may be good
PR to remarry Fergie, who has been
staunch in his defence? Will he
instruct one of his valets to dust off
his uniform this summer, and elbow
his way on to the jubilee balcony at
Buckingham Palace? And where has
all the money for the unspecified
settlement come from? His main
known sources of income are
handouts from the Queen from her
Duchy of Lancaster estate and his
naval pension of £20,000 a year.
Early in January, he sold his chalet
in Verbier for more than £17 million,
although it was rumoured to be
encumbered by debt, and only after
the duchess and his two daughters
spent one final holiday there. The sale
came amid reports that the Queen
had no intention of funding his legal
woes, with Prince Charles and Prince
William said to be “absolutely furious”
at the very idea. Andrew’s legal bills
alone are estimated to run to
£5 million or £6 million, with money
for the undisclosed settlement with
Giuffre on top.The prince
said in
October
that
Giuffre
was a ‘liar’,
seeking
‘another
payday
at his
expense’
Prince Andrew has settled —
but his future is far from secure
The legal battle is
over. Can the duke
resist the lure of
the royal spotlight,
asks Hilary Rose
ANDREW MILLIGAN/PA; ALAN DAVIDSONLeft: Prince Andrew
with his daughters,
Princess Eugenie and
Princess Beatrice, at
the Duke and Duchess
of Cambridge’s wedding
in 2011. Above: at a
Chinese new year party
at the Reform Club
in London in 2002