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No sweat
A crucial week for Prince Andrew lies ahead. Monday will see Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s 2009 settlement with Jeffrey Epstein unveiled, and Tuesday will see Andrew use it as part of his attempts to get her civil case against him dropped. Giuffre is suing Andrew for an unspecified amount, alleging he raped her and participated in the sex trafficking of her.
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Andrew vehemently denies her claims, and is hoping to get the case thrown out at a hearing in New York on Tuesday. If Andrew fails, the next stage of the legal process will see depositions being taken.
But the conviction of Maxwell was undoubtedly bad news for Prince Andrew, despite the fact that sources insisted to The Daily Beast that “nothing had changed”.
The sense of impending doom has not been helped by Andrew’s failure to provide paperwork to back his extraordinary claim, made in his Newsnight interview, that he had a post-traumatic condition from his time in the navy which made him unable to sweat.
Andrew made the bizarre assertion in a bid to refute allegations by Giuffre, who said in a 2019 interview that the prince was “sweating all over me” at a London nightclub.
Paperwork filed by Virginia Giuffre’s lawyers this week said: “Based on his discovery responses, Prince Andrew has apparently already determined that he has no documents that would be responsive to the majority of Plaintiff’s requests.
“If Prince Andrew truly has no documents concerning his communications with Maxwell or Epstein, his travel to Florida, New York, or various locations in London, his alleged medical inability to sweat, or anything that would support the alibis he gave during his BBC interview, then continuing with discovery will not be burdensome to him at all.”
Perjury case?
The next question is: will Ghislaine Maxwell be pursued for two counts of perjury (the charges relate to allegedly false claims she made while being deposed in a libel suit brought against her by Virginia Roberts Giuffre). Giuffre, the Telegraph reports, would have been a major figure in any trial, with great potential for embarrassing Andrew by airing her claims against him.
In a similar vein, there is now said to be some anxiety in Andrew’s camp around the possibility that Giuffre could make a victim impact statement in the recently concluded Maxwell trial, despite not participating in it. Johanna Sjoberg, who also says she was sexually assaulted by Andrew who used a puppet to touch her breast, may also get to give a victim impact statement, the Mirror reports.
Bradley Simon, a former federal prosecutor in New York, told the Telegraph: “They may not proceed with the perjury. Conserving judicial resources is always a big consideration.”
Andrew operated “with impunity” within royal family
The royals don’t seem massively optimistic about Prince Andrew’s chances of emerging the victor from Giuffre’s lawsuit. To that end, senior courtiers are drawing up plans to strip him of his “Duke of York” title, and force him into “internal exile” within the royal family, according to the Sunday Times, as The Daily Beast reported yesterday.
“If he loses the case, the question is: what do you do with him?” a source said. “You can’t make him resign like you would a normal person but he would be asked to put his dukedom into abeyance.”
His allies within palace walls seem non-existent. The prince allegedly operated “with impunity” because palace staff were too scared to challenge him, the Mail reports. Andrew wouldn’t listen to any guidance from palace staff. “Anyone who even dared to offer their professional advice that maybe his way wasn't the right one was met with a decisive 'f*** off out of my office,’” the source said. Andrew acted as if he “didn't have to answer to anyone,” and was allowed to “go rogue.”
A former palace staff member said, “The duke made clear that the only person he answered to was the queen. He wouldn't take advice from anyone. [He] acted with total impunity and staff were just too scared to stand up to him as a member of the Royal Family. Her Majesty almost always backed him and he fully exploited that. There’s an element of Buckingham Palace sleepwalking into his whole crisis. Andrew would tell his family that it was all untrue and it would all go away.”
His one dedicated supporter
Sarah Ferguson has been vocal about her support for her ex-husband, telling Italian TV that she stands by him in a recent round of promotional interviews, but even she seems to understand that inviting Andrew on vacay wouldn’t be too smart.
Thus it was that the York family was without Andrew as Fergie, 62, was pictured walking with her daughters Princesses Beatrice, 33, and Eugenie, 31, and their respective husbands Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi and Jack Brooksbank at the ski resort of Verbier this weekend.
The gang walked arm-in-arm throughout the Swiss village, where they are apparently staying at their £17.5million chalet. Yes, the one they never finished paying for and have repeatedly said they will sell to repay the owner the outstanding installments.
This week in royal history
Let’s take a long journey back in time this week to Henry VIII’s wedding to Anne of Cleves, his fourth wife, on January 6, 1540. Anne remained friends with Henry after their marriage was annulled, and she outlived all the other queens.
Unanswered questions
Will Andrew continue to participate in the civil suit being brought against him by Virginia Roberts Giuffre if he loses his motion to dismiss Tuesday? Not being a resident of the United States, Andrew might have little left to lose by ceasing to participate; the end result of this would likely be the entering of a default judgement against him for millions of dollars.
