The queen’s ongoing apparent support for Prince Andrew is one of the more baffling features of royal life in 2022.
Despite the fact that he paid out a reported $14 million to settle a sex abuse case brought by Virginia Giuffre, a victim of Jeffrey Epstein, the queen has sought to include Andrew in high-profile royal events, even though he has been stripped of his HRH honorific and been obliged to renounce his charitable patronages and status as a “working royal.”
In March the queen was widely criticized when she let her disgraced son walk her to her seat at a church service in memory of her late husband, and she was all set to allow him to attend a high-profile event at the platinum jubilee celebrations in early June until fate, in the form of a COVID-19 infection, intervened.
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Now, the royal author Andrew Morton, who famously collaborated in secret with Princess Diana to produce perhaps the most shattering royal book of all time, Diana: Her True Story, has come up with a possible answer for her ongoing affection for the duke of disgrace.
Morton told British newspaper the Mirror’s royal podcast, Pod Save the Queen, that Andrew, who is understood to still visit his mother daily, has been kept in the inner circle because he is “intensely loyal” to her.
Morton told the show: “Prince Andrew has always been absolutely loyal to his mother. He will never hear a word said against her, he has always been intensely loyal.
“And she has admired the fact that during the Falklands War in 1982, he was an Exocet decoy, which means his job was to protect HMS Invincible [the aircraft carrier], as the Argentines wanted to sink that.
“He was essentially a sitting duck and there as a sacrifice—but as a helicopter pilot, he played a huge role in making sure missiles exploded harmlessly by following a plan.
“That took a lot of guts to do and she very much appreciated that because that conflict cost a lot in blood and treasure for Great Britain. The Argentines had it in their sights that Andrew was their main target, so he showed a lot of courage during that period.”
Morton also spoke of Andrew’s role in coordinating a human chain of workers and volunteers who emptied Windsor Castle of its celebrated art collection within minutes of the outbreak of a devastating 1992 fire, without which the art would otherwise possibly have been destroyed.
Morton said of the incident: “She liked the fact, as well, that he organized the retrieval of works of art during the famous fire at Windsor Castle in 1992.
“That was him showing initiative but also loyalty to the queen. She doesn’t forget those things, and he has been a very loyal son to her.
“The memorial service was a family occasion and not a state occasion, so it really was up to her who she had leading her to her seat. So that is a long-winded way of saying she is a mum—and in her eyes, her children can do no wrong.”
