It was a 109-word statement from Buckingham Palace that finally ripped away what was left of Andrew’s royal life. And the evisceration couldn’t have been more brutal. Now, everything that could have been taken from him, has been. This flawed, arrogant, selfish man who was born a Prince, became a Duke and gathered a dazzling array of other titles and honours along the way, will end his life with none of them. He’ll be just Andrew Mountbatten Windsor – an outcast, an embarrassment stripped of everything that mattered to him.
And those titles really did matter to Andrew. As did living in the palatial Royal Lodge. Because having achieved little in what has essentially been a wasted life, the titles, the trappings, the status, the privilege, the gold-braided uniforms are what set Andrew apart from us mere mortals. They fed his arrogance, his sense of entitlement, and they allowed him to lord it over human beings who were worth a damn sight more than he was. He needed the trappings of royalty to prove to the world – and himself – that he was still a Somebody.
Now, whatever’s left of his life will be spent in purdah, hidden away from public view – banished, humiliated, degraded in a way no other royal ever has been.
Even his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, who has been at his side for 30 years, won’t be allowed to live with him in whatever home Charles gives him on the Sandringham estate. He’ll be utterly alone save for a few servants and whatever hanger-on friends he has left. Even his daughters can’t ever again be seen in public with their father.
But then the King had been left with little choice. He understood there was something much more important at stake than his brother’s vanity, his hurt feelings, his titles, his indignation at being punished for something he insists he didn’t do.
As custodian of the monarchy the King knew that, thanks to Andrew, its very future was at stake. He knew public anger was at boiling point and was terrified there might be more bombshell information about his brother to come.
So, he did what he was born to do – he protected our monarchy. Because the monarchy IS ours, it belongs to us all and we love and respect it thanks largely to our dear departed Queen Elizabeth who spent her entire life making it the very best it could be.
Charles knows it’s his responsibility to preserve not just his mother’s legacy but that of the Monarchy as a whole because there are many who feel it has no place in 21st century Britain.
He couldn’t allow it to be further sullied by the debauchery and greed of his wayward brother who had always put his personal pleasure, his lust for money, his needs above the Institution into which he was born.
The King knew the clamour to crush Andrew was getting louder, not least because he was publicly heckled about him on a walkabout about last week. It was clear to him then what had to be done – get Andrew out of Royal Lodge and erase him from the public consciousness.
Yet, still there are some who want more blood. The anti-monarchy group Republic is threatening to launch a private prosecution against Andrew over allegations of sexual assault, corruption and misconduct in public office.
That said, if the FBI haven’t found any evidence to nail Andrew, I doubt this tin-pot organisation will. Republic is motivated by a hatred of the monarchy. In fact, it was one of their lot who heckled King Charles this week – a King who is fighting cancer yet who is still out there every day doing his job. So, if you want to talk about people shaming his country let’s talk about Republic.
But as the removal vans chunder out of Royal Lodge and Andrew takes one last look around its vast empty rooms I wonder if he’ll finally accept that what’s happened is 100% down to him. Or will he live out his final years believing he’s been the victim of a gross injustice.
I suspect it’ll be the latter and so it will be self-pity that will be his greatest torment not the fate of Epstein’s victims!