Prince Andrew doesn’t seem to be letting all the negative press he received for walking his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, to her seat during his late father’s memorial on Tuesday, March 29th affect his plans for the future, as it’s being reported that he very much intends to return to public life and attend more future events with the 95-year-old monarch moving forward.
According to reports, the disgraced Duke of York intends to chaperone Her Majesty to the Epsom Derby on Platinum Jubilee weekend, with one source claiming that he “doesn’t understand” the “public outcry” that followed after his attendance and behavior at Prince Philip’s memorial. The memorial was the first time he was seen in public since his out-of-court settlement with Virginia Giuffre, who accused him of sexually abusing her when she was 17 years old after being trafficked by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which he has always denied.
Vanity Fair's Royal Editor Katie Nicholl claims that The Queen's decision to allow Prince Andrew – who has always been regarded as her favorite son – to accompany her to her seat at the memorial could be her way of telling the world that she "believes he's innocent. She made the point very, very clearly."
As far as Prince Andrew's plans for future events go, a source told The Express that he "was meant to stay invisible during the Platinum Jubilee so there is no way he will be at events like Trooping the Color. But The Queen needs a chaperone on all occasions at the moment due to her mobility issues and Andrew has earmarked the Derby as the one he will accompany her at. He just doesn’t seem to understand the public outcry."
However, not everyone believes that Prince Andrew will be making public appearances quite so soon, as Eric Schiffer, Chairman of Reputation Management Consultants, told The Express: "The odds of seeing Prince Andrew at the Jubilee are the same as Martians landing on the Mall to honor Her Majesty."
Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams also agrees with Schiffer's opinion, hinting that neither Prince Charles nor Prince William will allow Prince Andrew to play a prominent part in The Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations. "In terms of royal events, I don't expect we will see Prince Andrew appear in the near future – if ever again," Fitzwilliams told The Mirror. "He won't play any kind of a role in the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, of that I think we can be quite sure. Prince Charles and William will be totally opposed to it, it's a non-starter." He went on to speculate that Prince Andrew's role in his late father's memorial may have been a one off, saying, "I do believe what we saw at Westminster Abbey was The Queen allowing him to physically support her after she supported him."
