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Andrew “has made it clear he will hang on for dear life”
Prince Charles has told his shamed—and, some might say, shameless—brother Prince Andrew to stay “out of the line of sight,” and also wants to banish him from Windsor Castle, according to the U.K.’s Sun. Charles may even ask Andrew and wife Sarah Ferguson to leave their Windsor home Royal Lodge, the paper adds.
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The prospect of Andrew standing trial for the alleged rape of Virginia Roberts Giuffre when she was 17 is behind Charles’ reported desire to isolate and evict his brother, the Sun says—as well as Andrew “misleading” the royal family three years ago when he claimed the scandal around Giuffre and Jeffrey Epstein would go away.
“Charles wants Andrew out of the line of sight and out of the picture,” a royal source told the Sun. “He has been warned to keep his head down. Charles doesn’t want Andrew to be photographed every other day looking happy and waving as he is driven to the castle. Eventually Andrew will be made to leave Windsor and could get several million pounds from the royal family. But he has made it clear that he will hang on for dear life.”
Camilla and Charles to be crowned side by side
Prince Charles and Queen Consort Camilla will be crowned side by side at his royal coronation when he assumes the throne, the Mail on Sunday reports. The Coronation will be “markedly shorter and cheaper” than in the past, under plans being drawn up under the pretty fabulous name Operation Golden Orb. The last time a king and queen consort were crowned together was at the coronation of King George VI in 1937, alongside his wife Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth II’s parents.
A source said Charles’ coronation would be “shorter, sooner, smaller, less expensive and more representative of different community groups and faiths.”
Charles wants to use the simpler Tudor Crown to replace the current St. Edward’s design as a royal insignia. It was also rumored that Charles wanted to be known as “Defender of Faith” to acknowledge Britain’s many faiths, but apparently he will still be known as “Defender of the Faith.”
“Charles was considered progressive 50 years ago when he spoke about inter-faith dialogue and that will certainly be part of the ceremony,” a source said. “He thinks of the U.K. as a community comprising different communities and you should expect all those communities represented.”
The source also said Charles’ vision for a slimmed-down monarchy would be reflected by the number of royals on Buckingham Palace’s balcony after the ceremony. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see just Charles and Camilla, Kate and William and their children on the Buckingham Palace balcony afterwards.”
Friend: Harry’s book will “shake monarchy to the core”
One of Prince Harry’s pals tells the Mirror that his forthcoming memoir “will shake the monarchy to the core,” adding, “He has got lots to say about it. People think he’s keeping a low profile to respect the family but it’s not that. He’s writing a book. He’s got a multi-million-pound book deal and he’s keeping a lot of his opinions for that.
“The memoir deal states that it should include personal details of personal and family arrangements. And it will be a really intimate take on his feelings about his family and what has gone in the breakdown of the relationship. If they think that he’s gone soft, then they are mistaken. Just wait for the book to come out because that will shake the monarchy to the core.”
The friend also said that Harry’s silence around Camilla being Queen Consort is hardly accidental in the same week that he spoke glowingly of his mother’s activism and awareness-raising around AIDS.
The friend said: “Although tensions have eased between the two of them over the years, it was more for a show of unity than a close relationship.” Harry spoke of Camilla warmly when he turned 21 in 2005, acknowledging she had made Charles happy. The friend told the Mirror, “There were big problems at the start but as Harry and his brother William aged and matured, things got better and they can now co-exist as adults. They were never close with her and they still aren’t.”
Queen plans return to work
The mystery over whether Prince Charles gave his mother Queen Elizabeth COVID has not been answered, but the revelation that the queen plans to return to work this coming week, if true, suggests he did not.
The Sun reports that the 95-year-old queen, who has been double-jabbed and received a booster shot, is being “closely monitored” this weekend, with a view to carrying out engagements from Windsor Castle this coming week, which are “believed to be video calls with ambassadors and dignitaries from her desk.” She has three engagements planned for March, the paper added.
Ghislaine described as Andrew’s “ex-girlfriend” on palace tour
The Telegraph has published pictures of Prince Andrew at Buckingham Palace, alongside Ghislaine Maxwell and Bill Clinton. They were reportedly taken in 2002, with Maxwell’s presence at the time explained to staff as being because she was Andrew’s “ex-girlfriend.” She was recently convicted of multiple sex offenses in relation to Epstein’s trafficking of underage girls.
A source who was part of the party told the Telegraph: “Ghislaine Maxwell was the one who led us into Buckingham Palace—she knew her way around this area of the palace. She was described to me [as] an ex-girlfriend of Prince Andrew’s.”
A member of the 2002 tour party told The Sun on Sunday: “Ghislaine was described to me as an ex-girlfriend of Andrew. The impression we all had was that there was some relationship there. They clearly knew each other very well. She was very friendly and cheery.”
Kevin Spacey was also on the tour, and he and Maxwell sat on the Chairs of Estate used during the Queen’s 1953 coronation by the queen and Prince Philip. The photos were allegedly taken on Sept. 30, 2002, 18 months after Andrew is alleged to have raped Giuffre. Andrew denies Giuffre’s claims.
Andrew was “constant sex pest,” massage therapist claims
Prince Andrew told his former massage therapist Emma Gruenbaum that she had a “nice a***,” and asked if she enjoyed anal sex, Gruenbaum told the Sun. Gruenbaum said Andrew said to her, “Hey nice a****. Do you take it up the a***?”
Gruenbaum said she replied, “It’s none of your f***ing business.”
Gruenbaum said she was speaking out publicly after learning that Andrew’s legal team were preparing to claim that Virginia Roberts Giuffre was suffering from “false memories” regarding their alleged encounter.
“I don’t want to sit by and not speak out about the way he was towards me as he calls Virginia delusional,” Gruenbaum said.
Gruenbaum had originally treated Andrew’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, and visited Andrew six times during 2005.
She told the Sun: “I had a lot of high-profile clients and often visited their homes. But Andrew was very different. He was a constant sex pest right from the start.”
She told a member of his staff that she wasn’t comfortable doing her job in his bedroom, but was told that wasn’t an option.
On her first meeting with the prince, Gruenbaum recalled, “I heard a voice, ‘Hey nice a****. Do you take it up the a***?’ I stood up quickly and turned around. I was up against the massage table and he was up against me, eyeball to eyeball. Almost touching, he was really close. And I went, ‘None of your f***ing business.’ And he just looked at me in sort of a dead stare and said, ‘You can’t talk to me like that.’ I said, ‘Well you can’t speak to me like that.’’’
Next, Gruenbaum said, Andrew disrobed. “I always looked away as he got on the table and made sure there was a towel covering his modesty, but he was always naked under the towel. We started the massage. But all the way through he was talking about sex and making sex jokes. He asked when I had last had sex. It went on and on. I kept telling him to shut up but quickly realized he was OK with being talked at like he was a naughty schoolboy kind of thing.”
Requests for Gruenbaum’s services ceased. “I was a 34-year-old woman and I can handle myself and I felt I could handle him,” she said. “But now I see the way he has treated younger women. It is scary to think how I might have felt if I was ten years younger and less experienced.”
Gruenbaum also told the Sun Andrew couldn’t even make a cup of tea: the ultimate British transgression.
“He tried to make me a cup of tea. We sort of went down and found a massive kitchen–quite a commercial kitchen–and he sort of looked around and said actually I have no idea how to make a cup of tea and then he showed me out.”
Harry and William’s joint company winds down
In 2012, Prince Harry and Prince William set up a company, Tyrolese (743) Limited, to donate profits from royalties to charity. Four years ago, its assets were £410,000 (approx. $556,000 in today’s terms); now they total £4,469 (approx. $6,061) according to the Mirror. The last known business ties between warring princes William and Harry are on the brink of being cut.
A statement in latest published accounts said: “The directors anticipate activities of the entity will reduce in the next 12 months to the point where the entity is essentially dormant. For as long as the company continues to derive income, the directors will donate available profits to relevant charities. When the income ceases, the directors will consider making the company dormant.”
King Charles will move into Buckingham Palace
When he assumes the throne, Prince Charles will move into Buckingham Palace, and Prince William and Kate Middleton may move to Windsor Castle, according to the Daily Mail.
Gone is the idea, the paper reports, that the palace would become a tourist attraction and ‘working hub.” A source told the paper that Charles “firmly of the view that it’s the visible symbol of the monarchy in the nation’s capital and therefore must be his home. There is no question about it. HRH’s view is that you need a monarch at monarchy HQ. This has never been in doubt.”
The source added, “The Prince of Wales will not move into Buckingham Palace before he is king. But when he is, he absolutely will. Just like the Queen, it will effectively be in the ‘flat above the shop.’ He feels it is right, just as the Queen does, to work out of Buckingham Palace. The Palace will still be a working and entertaining hub and will also still be open to visitors. It is a hugely important tourist attraction. But the prince can still live there at the same time, much like he does at Highgrove (his longtime Gloucestershire home), which is also open to the public.”
This week in royal history
Prince Andrew, born on Feb. 19, 1960, turns 62 on Saturday. Quite how he will celebrate that birthday, accused of rape and currently formulating his legal defense, remains to be seen.
The Mirror reports that a plan to flags to be flown on government buildings to mark Andrew’s birthday has been scrapped. Andrew has been stripped of his titles and patronages, and is effectively a royal non-person. He is set to testify under oath on March 10 in a meeting with Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s lawyers. On March 29, Andrew is set to appear alongside the queen at a remembrance service for Prince Philip at Westminster Abbey.
Unanswered questions
Did Charles give the queen COVID? It is still unknown. As Charles plans a slimmed-down monarchy when he assumes the throne, who will be in and who will be out?
