How Prince Andrew went from royal pin-up to disowned disgrace
As A Very Royal Scandal detailing Prince Andrew’s car crash interview with Emily Maitlis airs on Amazon this week, we look back at the highs and lows of the second born royal son
1. Returning war hero
His finest hour came in 1982 when he returned, coated in glory, from Falklands War duty with a rose between his teeth. Andymania was rife and teenagers were reported to swoon in his presence. But alas from then on it was all downhill – his service record was sufficient to promise a successful career as a naval officer, but while on secondment to the Ministry of Defence he allegedly fell foul of the admirals, towering figures who weren’t prepared to put up with his high-handed manner.
To them he was a sailor, not a prince – and if he couldn’t conform to accepted standards of behaviour there was no place for him in the service.
He quit or was fired, nobody knows which, and in a colossal tactical error, in 2001, Buckingham Palace apparently asked the Duke of Kent to step aside as the UK’s trade envoy – a job he’d done handsomely for many years – so that Andrew could be said to have a job to go to.
2. The Special One
Legend has it that he was the late Queen’s favourite son but if there’s little evidence to substantiate that, by his words and deeds Andrew certainly believed it. Born 10 years after Princess Anne in 1960, his arrival heralded a thaw in relations between the sovereign and her consort Prince Philip, who was mighty miffed that his children didn’t bear his Mountbatten surname (ironic, since he’d only recently ditched his real name of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg). What with this, and his brushes with petty officialdom back at the palace, Philip took himself off on a world cruise lasting five months which only ended after questions were asked in parliament.
On his return, the Queen patched up their differences by promoting him to Prince of the United Kingdom and adding his Mountbatten to her name, Windsor – just 11 days before Andrew was born.
3. An officer and a film star
An American actress – and a British prince? As we’ve lately discovered, not necessarily a recipe for harmony, but the romance between Andrew and the actress and photographer Koo Stark showed decided promise. Given the nod by the Queen, it started in 1981 and lasted through his service in the Falklands War; the writer Tina Brown says Koo was the prince’s only serious love.
But it all fell apart when it was discovered that five years earlier she’d taken the lead role in The Awakening of Emily, a forlorn X-rated movie directed by Henry Herbert, the earl of Pembroke. The publicity broke up the relationship.
4. Fergie time
Though still entwined after 38 years, their relationship poses a number of questions. The erratic and – to some – downright disgraceful Sarah Ferguson was, according to Prince Philip, the worst thing ever to happen to the House of Windsor. Courtier Lord Charteris called her “vulgar, vulgar, vulgar”.
Her frankly curious marriage to Andrew broke down after she was pictured having her toes sucked by her “financial advisor” John Bryan, but to some the hallmark of her character is her venality – offering business introductions to her husband in return for £500,000 being only one example.
5. Trade secrets
The Duke has always had an interest in the rich and powerful, and none more so than Goga Ashkenazi, who briefly rose to prominence during Andrew’s benighted career as Britain’s roving trade ambassador. Goga comes from Kazakhstan, a country in which Andrew took a disproportionate interest after he became, according to reports, “besotted” with the beautiful businesswoman and socialite (he even introduced her to Mum).
It is said Goga brokered the £15m sale of Andrew’s marital home Sunninghill Park at Windsor which served to draw attention to his questionable, largely unrecorded, career promoting Britain abroad. He was fired in 2011 after the Jeffrey Epstein affair came to light – apparently to the rapture of senior civil servants given the job of nannying him for more than a decade.
6. The fall of the House of York
“Stop bullying the York family!” barked Fergie back in 2016, hitting back at newspaper articles claiming that Andrew and Charles, then still the Prince of Wales, had fallen out over the future role of his two daughters Beatrice and Eugenie.
If he’d been sidelined by his involvement with Jeffrey Epstein, could he not at least leave a lasting legacy through the princesses being granted official status as working royals? Andrew himself angrily rebutted the claims, but almost a decade on these two princesses still remain on the further shores of royalty.
7. The photo that finished him
Real or fake – is this picture of the one-time second in line to the throne with his arm around a teenage girl, and a vile procuress beaming her approval? Is it damning evidence or, as suggested by the York camp, just something spitefully engineered to put Andrew in jail?
While the girl is undoubtedly the former 17-year-old Virginia Roberts of California, who claims she was sexually assaulted by the prince, questions were raised as to whether the hand clasping her is Andrew’s, or a photoshop job – he claimed to be having a pizza in Woking at the time.
Certainly, he later paid her an undisclosed sum reputed to be £12 million to shut up and go away. Money may have changed hands but there are no winners, and once-rich Ghislaine Maxwell is still in jail, serving out a 20-year sentence.
8. Sympathy for the devil
Picture for one moment what it looks like from Andrew’s point of view. Born second in line to the throne, until as late as his 40th birthday it was conceivable he could have become Regent – in the unlikely event of the combined deaths of the Queen and Prince Charles. Until Prince William reached his 18th birthday, the Duke of York could have reigned – that’s how important he could have been. Now he has no job, little money, a dramatically reduced status and his reputation in shreds.
Meantime his big brother lords it as sovereign with untold wealth, power, privilege and a track record of public service which justifies the rewards which have come his way. Andrew would like just a small slice of pie – retaining the Royal Lodge, for starters – but it would seem King Charles wants him gone.
9. And the reason why...
He has rarely shown good judgment and finds it impossible to self-examine. The paedophile Jeffrey Epstein played to his weakness for a pretty face and his childlike belief that whatever he did, nobody would ever find out because he was Prince Andrew. Epstein was a monster but, except for a bulldozing manner with those he considers his inferiors, Andrew is not – just a slightly dim bulb cursed with being born the second son.
As for the future...
He will be 65 in the New Year, a time when many men look forward to doing the things they never had time while they worked. Conversely, with a lifetime of fun behind him, this could be the moment when takes a turn in the road and takes up a serious career. There’s still time for the Duke of York to redeem himself and leave a reasonable legacy behind, though some will say it’s all too late.
All three episodes of A Very Royal Scandal are available on Amazon Prime from September 19
