Duty: the real reason the Queen cut beloved son loose

My first thought when I saw the news that the Queen had cut Prince Andrew loose and effectively cancelled her second son was, ‘What do the Royal Family know that we don’t?’

I simply couldn’t understand why, having stuck by him this far, and especially in the wake of that disastrous Newsnight interview in 2019, she would withdraw her support like this. After all, no one really thought his lawyers’ attempts to have the case thrown out would work. It was only ever going to be a legal long-shot, and Judge Kaplan’s ruling last week, while typically bombastic and headline-grabbing, was entirely expected.

Perhaps it had something to do with the Ghislaine Maxwell verdict. She has now given the green light for the identities of the eight ‘John Does’ cited in an earlier civil case brought against her by Virginia Giuffre in 2015 to be revealed. There has been widespread speculation about the identity of these men, ranging from Bill Clinton to Donald Trump to a ‘well-known Prime Minister’. Given Prince Andrew’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, it is not inconceivable that his name could also be in the mix.

Then again, none of the men is accused of any wrongdoing, while Prince Andrew emphatically is.

So how could it make much of a difference? Was there, I wondered, some terrible photograph? Andrew has argued that the famous one of

FRIENDS of Prince Andrew say he hopes for a ‘Profumo-style comeback’. I met Profumo once in a garden in Mayfair. He was very old, but wise and humble, having devoted his life post-Christine Keeler to charity. If Andrew does follow his lead then perhaps, in the long run, this reckoning will be the making of him.

him and Giuffre, supposedly in Maxwell’s flat, isn’t real. I’ve always thought her arm looks squiffy and never put much stock in it because, even if it is genuine, what does it actually prove?

Just because two people are photographed together doesn’t mean there’s any intimacy between them, consensual or otherwise. I wondered if the Royal Family had had sight of something more obviously damning. My imagination ran wild with unsavoury visions, including that of the poor Queen having to confront the unimaginable. In reality, though, the truth is far less conspiratorial and complex.

There are two reasons why she has done what she has done, and both speak to her loyalty and duty to the crown she wears.

Firstly, the Armed Forces. Anger has been steadily growing among the ranks at the lack of judgment displayed by the Prince and the embarrassment he has caused. Word has been fed up the chain of command, in particular to Prince Charles and Prince William, and the displeasure has been made abundantly clear. In particular, the Grenadier

I AM actually rather encouraged that China’s Whitehall spy, Christine Lee, paid £600,000 to Labour’s Barry Gardiner. If Beijing really were convinced he was a direct line to the top, their intelligence operations can’t be half as good as I’d feared.

Guards were very unhappy about Andrew’s situation, which they largely saw as entirely selfinflicted, with officers saying they were ‘uncomfortable having to drink to the health of Prince Andrew at the end of regimental dinners’.

One senior veteran, former lance sergeant Julian Perreira, publicly called for him to step down from his ceremonial role in the regiment.

Most people perhaps don’t grasp how much of a Forces family the Royals really are, but the truth is, few things matter more to them than the men and women who lay down their lives in defence of the Crown.

The second factor is the Jubilee. The Queen sees this not so much as her celebration but as the entire nation’s celebration. One that, after all we’ve been through in the past few years, we all deserve to share in. Nothing can be allowed to overshadow it. And now nothing will.

And so the Queen has done what the Queen always does – that is to say, the hardest thing of all. She has, not for the first time in her long reign, put monarchy before motherhood and moved to protect not her own private feelings towards her son but the institution which she has guarded with such clear-sighted vision and grace all these years.

However much she knows this, I imagine it must still break her heart. A heart that, let’s face it, has already been pretty bruised and broken in recent months by the loss of Prince Philip.

But that is what makes her such a Queen for our times, such a beacon in this uncertain world.

They say that as a mother you are only ever as happy as your unhappiest child.

It is not right and not fair that she should have to suffer this.

Of all people, she really does not deserve it. But she will, as she always does, bear it with dignity and fortitude.