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In his memoir, Spare, there is a key passage where Prince Harry seeks to reassure his wife that their decision to leave the royal family will not result in the withdrawal of their taxpayer-funded security.
Meghan Markle had expressed fears they will be left unprotected, but, Harry writes, that wouldn’t happen: “Never. Not in this climate of hate. Not after what happened to my mother. Also, not in the wake of my Uncle Andrew.” He goes on to add that his uncle is “embroiled in a shameful scandal, accused of the sexual assault of a young woman and no one had so much suggested that he lose his security. Whatever grievances people had against us, sex crimes weren’t on the list.”
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Of course, things didn’t turn out that way: both Harry and Andrew surrendered their roles as members of the working royal family but while Harry and Meghan did lose their royal security detail, Prince Andrew kept his (albeit in somewhat reduced form).
The differing treatment meted out to Andrew and Harry in respect of their security arrangements seems, with the benefit of hindsight, a foreshadowing of what has since become a routine habit of the new king; namely giving Andrew notably better treatment than Harry, despite his brother’s out-of-court settlement for a reputed $14 million with Virginia Giuffre over underage sex abuse allegations.
Harry lost his house, Frogmore Cottage, while Andrew has kept his far grander establishment, Royal Lodge. Andrew got to wear a silly uniform to the coronation (his Order of the Garter outfit) while Harry was obliged to show up in civvies. Andrew and Harry were both seated in the third row at that event, but Harry was—oops—stuck behind a massive feather in Princess Anne’s hat.
Andrew got driven to church at Balmoral by William, apparently on King Charles’ orders, while Harry had to stay in a hotel when last visiting the U.K. Andrew still has permission to host a lavish (although he might say “straightforward”) shooting weekend at Windsor, Harry seems like he would struggle to get a free cup of tea in the gift shop.
Most recently, according to a report in the Daily Mail’s pseudonymous Ephraim Hardcastle column, the king has reorganized members of the family into new categories: “Senior Royals, Working Royals, Non-Working Royals and Others.”
Andrew, Harry and Meghan are all in the “Others” category, the Mail said, but Andrew still gets “preferential treatment” over the Sussexes, the article citing a church service in Windsor to mark the one-year anniversary of the death of Queen Elizabeth: “[Andrew] was allowed to join Edward at the service… while Harry, on the same day, struggled to get permission to pay his respects at her tomb there.”
Of course, there are complicating factors; principally that Harry lives in California not Windsor, and that Harry seems in no rush to bend the knee to his father.
But the inconvenient fact remains that it rather looks like the king would prefer you pay off a sex accuser than give an interview to Oprah Winfrey.
A friend of Andrew’s confirmed to The Daily Beast that Andrew believes he is in the king’s good books compared to Harry: “If you were Charles, would you rather have a problem that looks like Harry and Meghan or a problem that looks like Andrew? Andrew has taken his punishment, withdrawn from public life and done whatever has been asked of him. He knows he has damaged the monarchy. So have Harry and Meghan. The difference is [Andrew] deeply regrets it and it was not intentional, whereas Harry and Meghan deliberately set out to cause as much damage to Charles and Camilla as they could to sell books and TV shows. That’s an entirely different matter. Disloyalty is far and away the No. 1 crime in that family.”
A family friend of the king’s told The Daily Beast that it was clear there had been a willingness to bring Andrew in from the cold, and, intriguingly, hinted that it could be a template for future reconciliation with his son.
“The extent to which the king has publicly made it clear Andrew is still part of the family has caught some people by surprise. But ultimately, he has the interests of the monarchy at heart, and that means a united family, whatever its problems. Hopefully that message is getting through to Harry and Meghan.”
A former Buckingham Palace staffer put the king’s strategic case for including Andrew in family set pieces more bluntly, saying: “It’s the oldest question in politics: would you rather have the troublemakers inside the tent pissing out or outside the tent pissing in? Harry is very much outside the tent pissing in and it’s a problem. Andrew is inside the tent pissing out, and that suits Charles better.”
The royal historian Andrew Lownie, who is publishing a biography of Prince Andrew next year, told The Daily Beast: “Harry is a loose cannon and Meghan even more so. They both have more books coming. The strategy, I believe, is to keep in with him and to marginalize her, which is exactly what they did with Wallis and the Duke of Windsor.
“Andrew has been loyal to a certain extent. He’s made some implicit threats, and things have been floated about books and TV interviews, but ultimately he is a loyalist. Andrew is less of a problem than Harry. He may become more of a problem, especially when my book comes out, because I think there will be things in there that will rock the boat. But he’s not been rude about Camilla. He’s not set out to destabilize the monarchy. He hasn’t spilled secrets.”
Why the apparent rehabilitation of Andrew, via his inclusion in family events, such as vacations in Balmoral, and that one-year memorial service for the queen?
Lownie said: “I think some of them feel sorry for him. He says the accusations against him are false, and there are suggestions that some of the family believe him.”
Lownie also hints that Camilla may have had a significant role in urging Charles to reconcile with his brother—who he didn’t get on with particularly well before he was accused of sex crimes.
The king’s office declined to respond to requests for comment to The Daily Beast, as did Andrew’s representatives.
