Even now I hope Andrew weathers the storm and finds a safe haven
I ALWAYS liked Prince Andrew. That is not a fashionable view right now, with the Queen’s second son cast into outer darkness with no realistic chance of a future royal role.
But memories are short. People forget the Happy
Prince, smiling with a red rose clamped between his ample teeth, on the dockside in Portsmouth, just returned from victory in the Falklandswar in 1981, his mother there to welcome him.
As a helicopter pilot on HMS Invincible, Andrew flew decoy missions to divert Argentine Exocet missiles from thetask Force. He might easily have come home in a body bag.
The Government had considered selling the aircraft carrier to Australia shortly before the Argentine invasion. I had filmed Andrew bounding down the gangplank at Rosyth, shouting that his ship was “a great ship, a wonderful ship”, one that should not be sold, before racing off to spend a weekend at a Scottish castle.
At Floors Castle, in the Borders, he asked Sarah Ferguson to marry him. She thought he was joking – older than him, with a romantic past, she was not like Diana.
But they were in love. On the Palace balcony after the wedding in 1986, they did not need the crowd’s urging for them to kiss.
On their first royal tour, to Canada, they made the best possible impression.
How did it all go wrong, after the birth of two daughters?
The Prince’s absences on Navy duty have been blamed but his wife’s betrayals, with American businessmen Johnny Bryan and Stevewyatt, were the death blows.
Before it all went irretrievably wrong, successive private secretaries to the couple as well as Sarah’s parents, Major Ronald
Ferguson and Mrs Susan Barrantes, all approached me. I was now in PR and they all had the same question: how can Sarah save her marriage?
I replied: firstly, shut up; secondly, do a worthwhile project and let someone else announce its success; and thirdly, love her husband.
If the Duke and Duchess of York had a happy royal marriage, I said, Sarah would be as popular in the 21st century as the Queen Mother had been in the 20th.
The advice was ignored.they divorced after 10 years leading on to last week’s expensive legal settlement withvirginia Giuffre over sexual assault allegations when she was 17.
He denied the allegations and settled the claim with no admission of liability.
It was a black day for Andrew when he met
Ghislaine Maxwell who introduced him to Jeffrey Epstein with his harem of under-age girls.
I am sorry to see Andrew brought so low. I always found him more approachable than his siblings.
In recent years, he has always been affable and willing to help. His “Pitch at the Palace” gave many budding business talents a helping hand.
I didn’t see the arrogant bully, as portrayed now by critics eager to kick a man when he is down. It’s hard to reconcile that with the happy bridegroom with the world at his feet and happiness ahead.
Such a fall from grace can only be termed tragic but, even now, I hope he weathers the storm and finds a safe haven because no one’s life should effectively end at the age of 61.