Andrew ‘tearful’ as Charles barred him from royal duty
PRINCE Andrew has been left devastated after the King told him he would never return to Royal duties.
The tearful Duke of York had a one-to-one meeting at his brother’s Birkhall estate in Scotland days before the Queen died and was said to be “blindsided” by the outcome.
Andrew had hoped that he could still be of value to the Royal Family in a working capacity but reports yesterday said this optimism was
dashed during the “emotional and fraught” meeting.
An insider said: “Andrew was totally blindsided. He is utterly bereft. 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 to avoid talking about it.
“Naive as it may sound, he always had hopes of regaining his position as a senior Royal.
“At the meeting, Charles told him 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’. Andrew believed that there was a way back – that somehow he could be rehabilitated and play a role in The Firm.
The source added: “He came out of the meeting shaken. He is still in shock. He is completely lost and very depressed.”
Earlier this year the Duke, 62, agreed to pay £12million in an outof-court settlement to Virginia Giuffre who claimed that she had been forced to have sex with him, when a 17-year-old, in 2001.
Andrew denies any wrongdoing but the long public scandal cost him his military titles, patronages and role as a working royal.
The Duke was stripped of his titles by his late mother and also lost his right to be addressed as His Royal Highness in an official capacity.
He was barred from donning his military uniform at her funeral but was allowed to wear it in a private vigil after Charles relented. Andrew is not expected to attend Sunday’s Remembrance Day service at the Cenotaph as he does not have a role.
It is claimed his siblings Princess Anne and Prince Edward may instead be added to the list of counsellors of state, who can deputise for the monarch. That would further sideline Andrew and Prince Harry who are technically closer in line.