Buckingham Palace “has failed to grasp the magnitude” of Prince Andrew’s problem and is simply papering over the cracks for good public relations, the Yorks’ biographer said.
Andrew Lownie, who earlier this year published a book criticizing Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, his ex-wife, said the king should have been firmer and acted much sooner.
He claimed Buckingham Palace had been pressured to act by the Government, which had finally had enough after years of inaction.
“I think this is just a facade,” Lownie told the Telegraph. “I think it’s a bummer, it’s all symbolic and it doesn’t really change much.”
He said the King should have removed his brother’s titles entirely, rather than simply allowing him to put them on hold. He said he should have found a way to remove him from Royal Lodge, his vast home in Windsor, and force the Prince to cooperate with authorities so that the full extent of his dealings with Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex trafficker and pedophile, would finally be discovered.
The royal historian also claimed that the king should have made the announcement himself, showing that he had taken the initiative rather than allowing the prince to suggest that he had made the decision himself for the good of the country.
“The fact is that he continues to deny the allegations,” Lownie said of Prince Andrew.
“The statement should have come from Charles. He should have said, ‘Look, I talked to him, we resolved the problem, we are shocked by what happened and we are distancing ourselves.’
“Instead, Andrew has been allowed to say ‘I’ve decided this and that’ when, of course, he hasn’t decided anything.”
He said Prince Andrew’s claim that he had stepped aside was “ridiculous” as he had basically been forced to resign more than five years ago. “It’s bad mouth stuff, I think the palace must be in another world,” Lownie added.
His book, titled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, charts Andrew’s fall from Falklands war hero to national disgrace, detailing his lucrative business connections with a series of dubious characters in excruciating detail.
Lownie’s book shows Andrew’s fall from Falklands War hero to national disgrace – Jeff Gilbert
The royal is depicted as an arrogant, sex-obsessed womanizer who long courted his position for personal gain.
Lownie insists there is more to come.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “I think the palace is worried about the new accusations that will emerge in the United States, they know there are more damaging things to come.”
In 2023, it emerged that the York family had received a series of payments totaling around £1.4 million from Selman Turk, a former Goldman Sachs banker accused of stealing around £40 million from a Turkish millionaire, Nebahat Evyap Isbilen. The duke subsequently reached a confidential settlement with Ms Isbilen, while Turk, who was jailed for 12 months for contempt of court last year for failing to produce evidence, denies fraud.
Meanwhile, among the many opaque dealings involving the Yorks were “unexplained” loans of more than £500,000 paid to Sarah Ferguson by Gate Ventures, a troubled theater and film investment company whose investors were largely Chinese, when she was a director between 2017 and 2019.
Lownie added: “Neither Sarah nor Andrew have ever explained any of their dealings with Epstein. They have not explained what this money Selman Turk was giving them was, why Gate Ventures was paying Sarah… The real story has not yet come to light.”
On the announcement that Prince Andrew had agreed not to use his titles, he said: “I think people will feel that he hasn’t really paid any penalty for what he’s done.
“No one has apologized to the victims, just attempts to distance themselves. It’s just a way of trying to fix things, to satisfy public opinion. And I’m told this was due to pressure from the government, not from Charles.
“In the meantime, Andrew can live like he always has. Nothing changes for him. He’ll still have his Justice Department dog tags, he’ll still have his filming weekends, he’ll still make money, quietly, just like she does.”
‘Opportunity to open the boil’
He added of the palace: “This was a real opportunity to poke the boil, but all they did was poke a little corner. They could have said, ‘Okay, look, you’re on your own now and we’ll let the National Crime Agency investigate you.’
“There is a lot more that could be done if they really wanted to address it, but they are just trying to put an end to the current headlines – a bit of plaster on a huge problem.
“Everyone says it’s wonderful, and the monarchy is very open, responsible and responsive, but this is just a botch.”
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