WELBY: DON’T EXPECT ROYALS TO BE SAINTS
After Andrew scandal, archbishop makes extraordinary intervention
IT IS wrong to expect the royals to behave like ‘superhuman saints’, the Archbishop of Canterbury said yesterday.
Justin Welby spoke out after the Prince Andrew scandal and appeared to defend him by insisting ‘everybody is human’.
His remarks come amid the continuing backlash over Andrew’s previous links to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. When asked about the Duke of York and whether the Royal Family must adhere to a higher moral code, the archbishop said: ‘I think generally speaking they do serve in a way that is extraordinary in what is literally, for them, a life sentence. I think to ask that they be superhuman saints is not what we
should do because nobody is like that.’ He added: ‘Everybody makes mistakes, everybody is human. I am not commenting on any member of the Royal Family except to say that I am astonished at what a gift they are to this country.’
The archbishop has close links to the Royal Family, particularly to Harry and Meghan, to whom he has acted as a confidant since officiating at their wedding and baptising their son, Archie.
Mr Welby, who was interviewed for the Christmas edition of The Big Issue, published yesterday, would have seen the Duke of York regularly at all major royal occasions in St Paul’s or Westminster Abbey.
The duke, 59, has struggled to move past the scandal surrounding his friendship with Epstein, despite stepping down from all public service during the fallout from his disastrous BBC interview on the subject.
And further criticism has mounted in recent weeks after the duke faced claims he had slept with two of Epstein’s victims.
Virginia Roberts, who has said she had sex with the prince, yesterday claimed that he knew she been trafficked to the UK when they allegedly met. She tweeted: ‘I believe human trafficking is against the law in the UK. Did Andrew know that I was being trafficked? Hmmmm. When they started playing the guess how old I am game and considering how cozy they all were with each other – I would say a big YES.’
Earlier this month, Miss Roberts told, in excruciating detail, of the night she alleged that they had sex – when she was just 17 years old. She claimed Andrew bought her alcohol in London’s Tramp nightclub before they had sex at the home of Epstein’s former girlfriend and close associate, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Miss Roberts – who now uses her married name Giuffre – said she felt sick when she realised she was expected to have sex with him. Describing the alleged events of the evening to the BBC’s Panorama, she said: ‘There was a bath and it started there and it led into the bedroom. It didn’t last very long, the whole entire procedure. It was disgusting.’ She said it made her feel ‘dirty’ and added: ‘He wasn’t mean or anything. But he got up and said thanks and walked out.’
Andrew has repeatedly denied her claims and said he does not remember meeting her, despite the existence of a photograph showing him with his arm around her bare waist. The prince has strenuously denied having sex with Miss Roberts, and has apologised for his association with Epstein.
Mother- of-three Miss Roberts is one of more than 80 women who claim they were abused by Epstein. She has joined a number of victims who have urged the duke to speak to the FBI about Epstein. Andrew has so far resisted pleas to speak to US investigators, despite saying he is ‘willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations if required’.
Earlier this week, it emerged that one of Epstein’s victims wrote to the prince to say he had been used as ‘bait’ to attract victims by his wealthy friend. And lawyers in the US last week said a second alleged victim of Epstein had come forward to say she had sex with Andrew. It is understood she has not made any allegation of wrongdoing, but said she and the duke had consensual sex.