A ‘JOKE’ THAT DEFIES BELIEF
IN HIS now-infamous Newsnight interview, Prince Andrew described himself as someone with a ‘tendency to be too honourable’.
The self-aggrandising remark may have surprised those familiar with the Duke’s reputation for rudeness and boorish behaviour.
But a message containing a repellent so-called ‘joke’ about breast cancer, sent by Andrew to a friend and business associate, is likely to shock even those used to his gauche sense of humour.
The Mail on Sunday has seen the appalling message, sent to his friend Jonathan Rowland.
It appears to be a gross distortion of a BBC news report about the benefits of breastfeeding. It is too offensive to be repeated.
The crude pastiche was circulating on the internet and Andrew, 59, forwarded it to Mr Rowland in an ill-judged attempt at humour.
The Duke sent the message in March 2011 to Mr Rowland, who described it as the ‘latest email from HRH’. Mr Rowland then forwarded it to his father, David, another of Andrew’s friends and business associates.
Mr Rowland Snr responds to his son, asking if the message had been sent by the Duke. Jonathan Rowland replies: ‘Yes he’s nuts.’
The revelation is likely to infuriate the Palace as there are 13 cancer charities with links to members of the Royal Family, including the Queen, the Prince of
Wales and Prince William. It is not the first time that the Duke has been accused of highly offensive and inappropriate behaviour. Last November, former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith claimed he made racist remarks about Arabs during a state banquet for members of the Saudi royal family in 2007. Separately, a former Downing Street adviser claimed that
Andrew used the N-word during a meeting at Buckingham Palace. The Palace denied the Duke used racist language.
Andrew sent the breast cancer ‘joke’ at the height of the scandal about his links with convicted paedophile Epstein. It came less than three weeks after The Mail on Sunday published an exclusive interview with Virginia Roberts, one
of Epstein’s sex slaves, in which she revealed she was flown to the UK to be introduced to the Prince. The report included a photo of Andrew with his arm around Miss Roberts at the London home of Epstein’s ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.
Andrew was Britain’s trade envoy from 2001 to July 2011 and earned a reputation for boorish behaviour. In 2010, Simon Wilson, a former deputy head of mission in Bahrain who hosted the Prince, revealed how he was known throughout the Gulf as HBH – His Buffoon Highness – ‘because of his childish obsession with doing exactly the opposite of what had been agreed’.
The Duke of York declined to comment last night.