Prince Andrew is starting to see the Royal Family turn on him, following the latest bombshells about his past, a royal author has claimed. The royal, who is no longer using the title Duke of York, saw various explosive claims about his links to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein come into the spotlight in recent weeks.
Andrew’s latest revelations sparked calls from the public for the Royal Family to ostracise him and axe his titles. However, despite the King not being able to simply remove Andrew’s titles on his own initiative – as that requires an Act of Parliament – a change came last week when the Duke released a statement, announcing his decision to relinquish the use of his titles and honours. Andrew still retains his HRH style and titles, but he has agreed not to use them.
Now, a royal author has claimed that some members of the Royal Family, including Andrew’s own family, have showed signals, four in total, that they are turning on him.
Writing for the Daily Mail, historian Andrew Lownie said the disgraced prince received the ultimate slap in the face last week when the King put his titles “into abeyance.”
While Andrew’s statement noted it was his own decision to “put my duty to my family and country first” and to “no longer use” his titles or his honours, he did specify it was taken “in discussion with the King” and “With His Majesty’s agreement” to move a step forward.
Mr Lownie went on to say that, despite Fergie showing a “remarkable capacity for loyalty” to her former husband over the years, she could turn on him in the future if he moves out of Royal Lodge.
Andrew still resides at Royal Lodge in Windsor and has no plans to move.
He has lived in the 19th-century Grade-II listed building alongside Fergie since 2003, when the Crown Estate, which owns it, granted him a 75-year lease agreement.
It is understood that Andrew’s private tenancy agreement with the Crown Estate is unaffected by the latest bombshells.
But the royal author said that if Andrew ends up moving out of Royal Lodge and find home somewhere else, less glamorous, Ms Ferguson will unlikely be “quite so keen to co-habit”.
Another sign that Andrew’s family could be turning on him, according to the author, came last Christmas, when the prince and his ex-wife did not join the rest of the royals at Sandringham for the traditional Christmas Day service but Princess Beatrice, who was heavily pregnant at the time, did.
He wrote: “Instead of making a show of solidarity by sitting down to turkey with her parents in Windsor, Beatrice travelled to Norfolk to join Charles, William et al at Sandringham.”
The author said that another sign that there “might be trouble in familial paradise” also came from Eugenie, who did not wish her mother a Happy Birthday publicly, on October 15, for the first time ever.
Mr Lonwie said: “A key test of where their loyalties lie will come this Christmas when we will see whether they choose the hospitality of the wider Royal Family over their parents’.
“If Beatrice and Eugenie both choose the wider Royal Family, it will show that Andrew and Fergie have been disowned by the only two people they could once rely on for unconditional support. And that will be a black day for them both.”