QUEEN DRAGGED INTO COURT BATTLE
Her Majesty may be asked to take the stand to defend Andrew
Ever since Prince Andrew was embroiled in the horrendous scandal involving the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, he has hidden behind his mother’s skirts, money and power.
The Queen’s third child, 61, has barely left his mother’s estates in both Windsor and Balmoral since the case erupted, refusing to accept papers served to him by representatives of Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who accuses him in New York Civil Court of emotional distress and battery.
She claims Jeffrey, who died by suicide in his New York jail cell in 2019, trafficked her to have sex with Andrew on three separate occasions in 2001 in New York and London.
Last week, Andrew was preparing for a pre-trial hearing using a Hollywood heavyweight defence team which is rumoured to be paid for by his 95-year-old mother.
WAIVING IMMUNITY
And sources tell Woman’s Day that’s not all he’s expecting of Her Majesty. “There is no end to what Andrew is asking of her,” says a source. “He’s even mentioned it might help him if she waives her sovereign immunity and takes the stand in his defence, if the case proceeds to trial.
“That would be a huge ask – not that Andrew feels that way. He is arrogant enough to believe he could ask his mother to take the stand.”
This comes after she was dragged into Andrew’s friend – and Epstein’s girlfriend – 60-year-old Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking case, when a picture of the pair posing at her Balmoral estate was shown in court.
Sources tell us courtiers are “tearing their hair out” over Andrew and his murky social circle, one insider revealing, “The royal family might never come back from this. Whether he is forced to face a civil court or not, the damage to his reputation simply by association with Maxwell and Epstein has been done”.
Our source says the Queen is now torn between being a monarch and a mother. “She has accepted there is no coming back from this for Andrew from a royal sense, and discussions are being held over what his future within the family looks like, regardless of the court outcome.
“Nothing is off the table, including stripping him of his dukedom and his military affiliations.
“This is heartbreaking for her, since she gave him the Duke of York title as a nod to her own darling papa, who was Duke of York before he was forced onto the throne when his brother abdicated.
“She’s furious he has besmirched the York title. She is incredibly disappointed he could have been so stupid as to associate with people like Maxwell and Epstein.”
‘This situation with her son is heartbreaking for the Queen’
However, the source concedes, “As a mother, she feels she should stand by him on a personal level.
“Andrew has always held a certain power over the Queen – he’s her favourite child, that’s no secret – and she is, to a point, blinded by that love and would do anything for him, possibly including standing up for him in court, if he asked her – even if her entire royal advisory team begged her not to.”
Andrew was last week said to be “extremely stressed” about his future, especially after Maxwell was found guilty.
“There are a lot of people worried that Maxwell will name and shame other people who were involved in her murky world in a bid to cut her own sentence,” says a source. “Andrew may be one of those people.”