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Prince Andrew is a “recluse” who spends his days watching TV in his 30-room home, and rarely goes out except to ride a horse or walk the dogs, a new profile of the fallen prince reveals.
Andrew, who was kicked out of the royal family after his disastrous Newsnight interview in November 2019, has, however, indulged in “intense self-reflection” and having spent three years in “his own form of lockdown,” is “more thoughtful and more mindful than he has ever been,” friends say.
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The Daily Telegraph’s royal reporter Camilla Tominey says that his daughter Princess Beatrice, now 34, “warned” Andrew that the interview was “all a very bad idea, but unfortunately no one listened to her,” according to what is described as a “well-placed source.”
One friend says Andrew has been painted as “the archetypal pantomime villain,” but adds: “He acknowledges privately that Newsnight was by no means his finest hour…What he’s also come to realize are the pitfalls of living in an Edwardian court where there’s very little pushback, it’s all, ‘Yes sir, no sir, three bags full, sir.’”
The friend says that Andrew hopes to now play a “backseat” role in the monarchy, saying: “All he wants to do is make things as smooth as possible in stark contrast to days gone by. Acting as that supportive brother figure, absolutely in the background but for the benefit of the monarchy as a whole, is a future template for how he feels he can make some sort of contribution. Rather than being a distraction, he wants to become a stabilizing influence and sounding board within the family on a very private basis.
“Before all this happened there was a pretty widespread view that he was a difficult man to love. One of the main criticisms was that he ignored advice. But since Newsnight, he’s listened to the people who have been telling him to keep his head down and that’s what he’s done.”
Intriguingly, Tominey writes that “a proposal has been put to the duke that would see him live out the rest of his years doing something that would give him personal fulfilment, as well as being impactful and resonant,” but does not say what that is.
Tominey also suggests that Andrew, who paid a multi-million dollar settlement to Virgina Giuffre, the woman who accused him of sexually abusing her, may have been left a significant sum of money by his mother in her will.
Tominey paints Andrew as living a constrained life, saying that he “has effectively been grounded” and quotes one source as saying he has been in “his own form of lockdown for the past three years.”
The report says he is “a virtual recluse” with a source saying: “These days, he barely goes out at all. He rarely goes out socially in the evening—where would he go? The only times he used to go out were to visit the queen at the castle and now he can’t even do that.”
As to how Andrew continues to pay for his still-expensive existence, including a chef and staff, a source says: “[The queen] remained convinced of Andrew’s innocence to the very end so she would have looked after him. Keeping them financially secure actually protects the institution—it means they don’t need to go looking for funding elsewhere which has landed them in trouble in the past.”
A source dismisses rumors Andrew and Sarah will remarry, saying: “Sarah would not want to be dragged into the politics of the Royal household,” and another source added, “They have separate bedrooms, nothing has changed on that score, but, as the duchess always puts it, they remain the happiest divorced couple in the world.”
