King Charles was reportedly the one who told younger brother Prince Andrew that he could never return to his life as a working royal, just days before their mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, passed away in September, which reportedly left him “blindsided” and “bereft.”
Prince Andrew Apparently Cried When Older Brother King Charles Told Him He’d Never Return to Life as a Working Royal https://t.co/zInns8SfNp pic.twitter.com/YhJ8zWCqPX
— (@GeneraltomS) November 7, 2022
Tense Meeting Between King Charles And Prince Andrew
King Charles, 73, delivered the news about his 62-year-old brother’s future during what has been described as a tense face-to-face meeting at the then Prince of Wales’ Birkhall estate in Scotland, which reportedly “blindsided” Prince Andrew and caused him to break down in tears. He was also reportedly reduced to tears a few weeks later when he – along with 38-year-old nephew Prince Harry who is also not regarded as a working royal since he and Meghan Markle, 41, stepped down in 2020 – was banned from wearing his military uniform to the Queen’s funeral.
READ MORE: People Are So Mad At Meghan Markle For These Alleged ‘Yacht Pictures With Prince Andrew’
According to The Mail on Sunday, a Buckingham Palace insider said that the discussions between the two brothers were “emotional and fraught,” as the King told his brother he could never return to working royal life, with onlookers saying that the Duke of York “came out of the meeting shaken. He is still in shock. He is completely lost and very depressed.” The palace source added: “Until the face-to-face meeting with his brother, Andrew believed that there was a way back – that somehow he could be rehabilitated and play a role in The Firm going forward.”
Prince Andrew's Reaction To The News
Understandably, Prince Andrew did not take the news well, as the source claimed that even though he was fired from working royal duties three years ago due to the Virginia Giuffre sexual abuse scandal and his controversial friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, he always believed that he *could* eventually return to life as a working royal.
Prince Andrew "is utterly bereft," the source said. "He always believed there was a way back. Andrew was extremely close to the Queen and tried to raise the issue of his return to public life many times with her. On some occasions she would say mildly conciliatory things, but most of the time she would change the subject immediately. Naïve as it may sound, he always had hopes of regaining his position as a senior royal."
Prince Andrew's Future
King Charles reportedly ended the meeting by telling his brother "that he can go off and have a good life, a nice life, but that his public life as a royal is at an end. He was told 'You have to accept this.'"
The source went on to say that Prince Andrew is "completely lost and very depressed," and has become a "virtual recluse" at his home in Windsor. "He has no idea what the future holds and has no real plans," the insider said, adding that he is "in bad shape." They concluded: "He is struggling to accept this is the end of the road for him as a royal. It is all he has ever known."
Britain’s Prince Andrew has been stripped of his military titles and forced to relinquish all ties with his royal charities, after his lawyers failed to persuade a U.S. judge to dismiss a civil lawsuit against him which accuses the royal of sexual abuse https://t.co/3puSnuX3hd pic.twitter.com/mkQy1gY5r4
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 14, 2022
Prince Andrew's Controversial Past
Prince Andrew has been embroiled in a sexual assault scandal since 2015, when the allegations that he had sex with Virginia Giuffre when she was 17 first came out in a Florida court. In November 2019, he stepped back as a working royal "for the foreseeable future" following the now infamous BBC interview whereby he claimed he did not force Giuffre to have sex with him because he was at a Pizza Express in Woking. He also infamously said that he had "no recollection of ever meeting this lady."
In January 2022, the Queen stripped her son of his military affiliations and royal patronages after backlash from veterans, and he was banned from using the title 'His Royal Highness.' On February 15th 2022, less than one month before Prince Andrew was due to give evidence under oath, he and Giuffre reached a settlement in the civil lawsuit, while he also agreed to make a "substantial donation" to a charity "in support of victims' rights" and said that he accepted that Giuffre "suffered as an established victim of abuse." He also said that he regrets ever being associated with convicted child sex offender Epstein.
