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Andrew faces new Epstein scandal
A new image which appears in the Mail on Sunday today threatens to drive a coach and horses through the palace’s carefully constructed narrative of denial when it comes to the friendship between Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein.
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One of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, has alleged that she was loaned out to Epstein’s powerful friends, including Andrew, for sexual purposes.
Andrew’s team have responded by denying that Andrew had sexual relations with any ‘minors.’ Roberts was 17 at the time a photograph of her was taken with Prince Andrew’s arm around her bare midriff. The age of consent in the UK is 16.
The new image is a video still which shows a shifty-looking Prince Andrew, peering out from behind the front door of Epstein’s nine-story, 21,000 square foot, Upper East Side mansion, as a procession of young women come and go. It was shot on December 6, 2010—after the infamous photograph of Epstein and Andrew strolling through Central Park was snapped.
Just over a month ago, the palace issued a statement to The Daily Beast saying that Andrew had “not visited any home of Mr Epstein or met with him since November 2010 when the photo in Central Park was taken.”
The Central Park photograph has been given various dates, including December 2, 2010, and the Mail today suggests that the walk in Central Park happened on December 5. The palace’s claim that Andrew had not visited any home of Epstein’s since November 2010 now appears in question.
Contacted by The Daily Beast on Sunday, the Palace said the date of November had previously been offered in error and that they would be making no further comment on the new images.
A longer version of the video is carried today on the Mail’s website.
“The Prince looked entirely at ease in Epstein’s house,” a source told The Mail on Sunday. “There were girls coming and going. One, who came out of the house with Epstein about an hour before Prince Andrew said goodbye to the brunette, was tiny and shivering.”
“It was a particularly cold New York December day. What I remember most is the constant procession of girls and women going to and from the house.
“It was chilling to see. Everyone knew by that point that Epstein was a convicted pedophile, yet he was flaunting his lifestyle in plain sight.”
There for each other
Their bizarre approach to crisis management, going on holiday together to a luxury golf resort in Spain days after Jeffrey Epstein’s death, has triggered renewed speculation that Andrew and Fergie could one day remarry.
However, The Royalist would suggest not paying too much attention to wild claims, like that made by The Sun this weekend, that they are back together as an item. A friend of Andrew’s tells The Royalist they just don’t see it happening. “Andrew just wouldn’t be physically interested in her anymore, that’s the honest truth,” they said. “He’s into gorgeous models. That’s what he has had on tap for the past twenty years and there’s no going back. There is nothing sexual going on between Andrew and Fergie, and hasn’t been for a long time.”
The marriage also wouldn’t even be particularly convenient; if Fergie did remarry Andrew, she would once again be bound by all the conventions that apply to those bearing the HRH title, principally, the injunction on doing any form of business which may subject the family to accusations of cashing in.
Out would go opportunities like her latest business venture, a tasty $250,000 consulting gig with Hong Kong billionaire Johnny Hon, uncovered by the Daily Mail this week. The deal has been greeted with howls of outrage by the media this week, but the truth is, Fergie deliberately dropped her HRH title specifically to allow her to market herself in this way.
Right now, there’s nothing to stop her carrying on, but remarriage to Andrew would bring an abrupt end to such cute money-making schemes.
Harry and Meghan’s Eco-Hypocrisy
Harry and Meghan look like climate change hypocrites thanks to their addiction to private jets. Pictures in The Sun this weekend show the couple disembarking from a PJ at Nice airport on Wednesday, with a swaddled baby Archie carried by his hat-wearing Mama, just days after a similar jaunt on board a private jet to Ibiza. The Mail today reveals that the couple stayed in a fabulously expensive, $140,000 per week villa in a gated complex on the island.
No-one is suggesting the royals can’t go on holiday, even stupendously luxurious ones, but it is hard to think of anything less environmentally-friendly than taking a private jet from Ibiza to London on Monday, then another from London to Nice on Wednesday (especially when there are more than 20 scheduled departures on the latter route every weekday).
Who’s the most popular of them all?
Last year Harry beat the queen in the annual British poll of most popular royals. This time, order in the heavens is restored as granny beat grandson, with 72% of the public saying they like her best, and giving her the number one spot. Harry came in second (71%), and then William third (69%).
Kate Middleton came in a respectable fourth in the YouGov poll, then the Duke of Edinburgh, with Meghan nabbing sixth place, with—gasp—a 6% drop in popularity from last year, from 55% to 49%. Expect the war of the young royals for hearts and minds to continue on Instagram.
Kate Middleton and the queen pictured in 2012.
Samir Hussein/GettyFunny ‘Suits’ joke
There is a great Meghan joke in the latest (and allegedly final) series of Suits.
Rachel Zane, the character played by Meghan, was written out by having her move to Seattle with her husband Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams), so that they could start their own law firm. When Mike returns to the show at the beginning of season nine, he is asked how Rachel was getting on. Mike replies: “If I told you how good, you probably wouldn’t believe me.”
This week in royal history
Princess Margaret was born on August 21, 1930, and was the original royal wild child. The queen’s younger sister, she strained against royal convention, while also respecting it and suffering for it—most dramatically symbolized in her ill-fated romance with Group Captain Peter Townsend. Margaret died at 71 in 2002.
Royal fashion watch
Just say it was the morning after the suicide of a scandal-bringing man, who your son was somehow involved with. Do you hide? You do not, not if you’re the queen, and we are talking about Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein. She, or someone, said to Andrew: Buck up, we’re going to take the limo to church and be photographed by the press, beaming. Smile please!
And the queen rounded off this audacious show of support—last weekend at Balmoral—wearing a wonderful, crisp suit along with that bright smile.
Unanswered questions
Was Frogmore Cottage a second choice for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle? The Sunday Times says that the young royals asked the queen if they could move into Windsor Castle but HM vetoed the plan, suggesting Frogmore Cottage instead.
Hugo Vickers, a royal author and a deputy lord lieutenant of Berkshire, told The Sunday Times: “There are empty bedrooms and suites in the private apartments which the Sussexes may have had their eye on, or perhaps some former living quarters in the castle grounds converted into other things. But I can see how it might not be entirely appropriate to have a young family living there.”
