The King has told Prince Andrew that after the Epstein controversy there are to be no more royal duties and no more living at his vast house in Windsor Great Park. But in an increasingly bitter stand-off, his brother refuses to budge. When the King, then Prince of Wales, met his brother, the Duke of York, at Birkhall in the weeks before their mother died in 2022, lunch was not on offer.
The brothers’ conversation was perfunctory, with neither wishing to prolong the agonising encounter. Charles had the unpleasant task of breaking the news to Andrew that there was no way back for him in terms of royal duties . The controversy over his friendship with a convicted sex offender, the American financier Jeffrey Epstein, was not going away and the Palace was preparing for its greatest transition in 70 years.
Andrew became tearful during the exchange. For the duke, 64, there would be no more official duties, no horse riding at Trooping the Colour, no balcony appearances and no convivial Christmas dinners with the Grenadier Guards, the regiment of which he had been colonel. Despite serving in the Royal Navy during the Falklands conflict, he would later learn that he would be allowed to wear his uniform at his mother’s vigil but not at her funeral .
He remains a Knight of the Garter but is not permitted to take part in the annual public procession. His royal life, as he knew it, was over. However, if Charles thought that this might be an end to the sorry episode, then he was mistake.
