Prince Andrew has pulled out of joining the Royal Family for Christmas at Sandringham, MailOnline can reveal today.
The beleaguered Duke of York has agreed not to embarrass the King further and has voluntarily decided, along with his ex-wife, Sarah, Duchess of York, to give the annual celebrations in Norfolk a miss.
It is believed the couple are likely to remain at Royal Lodge.
MailOnline understands that their children, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, had already made the decision to spend Christmas with their respective in-laws, having not had the chance to do so for several years.
The Daily Mail revealed today that His Majesty didn’t want to ban his brother from attending but hoped he might ‘do the decent thing’ and decide to stay away in light of the growing spy scandal.
It is understood that The King and Queen were hoping none other than the Duchess of York might come to their rescue and save the family’s festivities this Christmas – and it appears that she has.
Their Majesties had made clear privately that it would be a ‘blessing’ if Sarah – known to them still as ‘Fergie’ – were to persuade her ex-husband to ‘see sense’ and tactfully withdraw from public gatherings over the next week as the storm around his dealings with an alleged Chinese spy still rages.
While the Duchess has found herself at the centre of several royal scandals over the years, Charles and Camilla – like Queen Elizabeth before them – are quite ‘fond’ of her at heart.
Prince Andrew is photographed driving in his Range Rover today from Royal Lodge in Windsor
Prince Andrew and Sarah, Duchess of York attend a thanksgiving service for the life of King Constantine of the Hellenes at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle on February 27, 2024
They rather admire her loyalty to both Andrew, despite his repeated public travails, as well as the monarchy more generally.
And they believe she was possibly the one person who could talk the Duke round into ‘recusing’ himself from the family’s very public walk to church at Sandringham on Christmas Day – and possibly into downsizing himself from Royal Lodge.
Remarkably the couple still live together at the grand Windsor mansion Andrew has on a long-term lease from the Crown Estate that is at the centre of much of his most recent controversy.
In an interview at the weekend Sarah likened herself to being a ‘carer for a sad man’ and also spoke of her love for the king and his kindness towards her.
It comes as alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo, who forged links with Andrew and mixed with other British establishment figures, insisted he has ‘done nothing wrong or unlawful’.
Prince Andrew is accompanied by his ex-wife Sarah, Duchess of York at the annual royal outing to the Christmas Day church service in Sandringham, Norfolk, on December 25, 2023
Andrew with Edward at the Christmas church service in Sandringham on December 25, 2023
Mr Yang said it was ‘entirely untrue’ to claim he was involved in espionage and said he was a victim of a ‘political climate’ which had seen a rise in tensions between the UK and China.
Businessman Mr Yang became a ‘close’ confidant of the Duke and has also been pictured with senior politicians including Lord David Cameron and Baroness Theresa May.
In a statement after a High Court judge lifted an order granting him anonymity he said: ‘Due to the high level of speculation and misreporting in the media and elsewhere, I have asked my legal team to disclose my identity.
‘I have done nothing wrong or unlawful and the concerns raised by the Home Office against me are ill-founded. The widespread description of me as a ‘spy’ is entirely untrue.’
Mr Yang last week lost an appeal over a decision to bar him from entering the UK on national security grounds. He was known in the legal case only as H6 until the anonymity order was lifted today.
Alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo, who forged links with the Duke of York
He is listed as a director of Hampton Group International, a business consultancy which claims to act as a bridge between China and the rest of the world.
The 50-year-old worked as a junior civil servant in China before heading to the UK in 2002 to study and he was granted indefinite leave to remain in 2013.
Mr Yang – also known as Christopher Yang – was the founder-partner of Pitch@Palace China.
The Pitch@Palace initiative was the Duke’s scheme to support entrepreneurs.
Mr Yang was first excluded from Britain by then-home secretary Suella Braverman in 2023, when the Home Office said he was believed to have carried out ‘covert and deceptive activity’ for the Chinese Communist Party.
The businessman suggested he was a victim of increasingly hawkish views on China under the Conservative administration at the time.
‘The political climate has changed and unfortunately, I have fallen victim to this,’ Mr Yang said.
Yang Tengbo (far right) with Andrew at an event to encourage trade between China and Britain
‘When relations are good, and Chinese investment is sought, I am welcome in the UK. When relations sour, an anti-China stance is taken, and I am excluded,’ he said.
Judges at a specialist tribunal in London last week ruled Mrs Braverman had been ‘entitled to conclude’ that he ‘represented a risk to the national security’ after he launched an appeal against the decision.
The businessman had brought a case to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) after his initial exclusion in 2023 but his appeal was dismissed.
In his statement, Mr Yang hit out at the process which led to his ban from entering the UK.
‘I have been excluded from seeing most of the evidence that was used against me under a process which is widely acknowledged by SIAC practitioners as inherently unfair: decisions are made based on secret evidence and closed proceedings, which has been described as ‘taking blind shots at a hidden target’,’ Mr Yang said.
‘On their own fact finding, even the three judges in this case concluded that there was ‘not an abundance of evidence’ against me, their decision was ‘finely balanced’, and there could be an ‘innocent explanation’ for my activities. This has not been reported in the media.’
Yang Tengbo alongside former Prime Minister Lord David Cameron and his wife, Samantha
As for Andrew, while he has disappeared from public life since stepping down from official duties, he has remained at the heart of the Royal Family’s Christmas Day appearance.
Last Christmas, Andrew walked from Sandringham to church with the other royals – symbolic of his gradual rehabilitation within the monarchy.
And after the service, the duke laughed and threw up his hands as he joked with well-wishes, and was joined by Sarah – making a return to the royal fold after missing Sandringham for a number of decades.
But the latest controversy surrounding the Duke, involving Mr Yang who was said to have become his ‘close’ confidant, seems to have ended his involvement with Christmas at Sandringham.
Andrew stepped down from public life after the furore over his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein – and a few years later paid millions to settle a civil sexual assault case with Virginia Giuffre, a woman he claimed never to have met.
The major development followed a few days after his disastrous Newsnight interview in 2019 when he said he ‘did not regret’ his friendship with Epstein, who had trafficked Ms Giuffre, and was heavily criticised for failing to show sympathy with the sex offender’s victims.
Yang Tengbo met senior Tories including Theresa May, seen here with her husband, Philip
The Duke, reputedly Queen Elizabeth II favourite child, announced at the time he would be ‘stepping back from public duties for the foreseeable future’ and disappeared from a string of high-profile national events involving the monarchy.
Andrew’s status as a member of the Royal Family was left in tatters three years later when the Queen stripped him of his honorary military roles, remaining royal patronages and he gave up his HRH style in a dramatic fallout from his civil sex case.
The Royal Family’s influence on national life is as much about where and when they are seen as what they say, and the duke has been absent for more than four years from official events.
In past years, Andrew took part in the family gathering after Trooping the Colour, appearing on Buckingham Palace’s balcony with the other royals.
But he has not been seen at the national celebration for a number of years and has also not attended Remembrance Sunday commemorations at the Cenotaph, the annual Commonwealth Day service and the public elements of Garter Day at Windsor Castle.
The Garter event is one of the most colourful of the royal calendar when the royal family process through the grounds of the castle in lavish robes for the annual service celebrating the order, but Andrew takes part in events behind closed doors.
But this year Andrew, once second in line to the throne, will not make an appearance at the King’s private home of Sandringham in Norfolk for Christmas with his relatives.
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