King Charles has finally thrown Prince Andrew out of the royal fold and told him he’s ‘on his own’ in the wake of the scandal surrounding his associations with the late paedophile financier Jeffery Epstein, a source has claimed.
The Duke of York was told to no longer use Buckingham Palace as an office space, effectively severing his final tie to his old life as a working royal, according to a new report in The Sun.
‘Any presence at the Palace is officially over,’ a source was quoted as saying. ‘The King has made it clear. He isn’t a working royal. He’s on his own.’
As part of the King’s decision, Andrew, 62, will not be able to use the address for any future correspondence. The skeleton staff which had been retained since he stepped down from public duty three years ago now reportedly face being put out of work.
King Charles has finally thrown Prince Andrew out of the royal fold and told him he’s ‘on his own’, sources claim
Up until this year, he’d kept 10 military affiliations, including colonel of the Grenadier Guards, while he worked to clear his name amid the scandal of his association with US paedophile Jeffery Epstein
As part of the King’s decision, Andrew, 62, will not be able to use the address for any future correspondence
The report comes after Queen Consort Camilla was announced as the disgraced Duke’s replacement as Colonel of the Grenadier Guards in a shake-up of senior royal military positions.
The shuffle will also see the Princess of Wales promoted to her first Army role, taking over as colonel of the Irish Guards from her husband.
Prince William will become colonel of the Welsh Guards instead.
Andrew inherited the position of colonel of the Grenadier Guards from his late father, the Duke of Edinburgh, when he retired from public life in 2017.
Following his disastrous BBC Newsnight interview in 2019, he was forced by the Queen to step down from official royal duties.
Up until this year, he’d kept 10 military affiliations, including colonel of the Grenadier Guards, while he worked to clear his name amid the scandal of his association with US paedophile Jeffery Epstein.
He was finally stripped of the ceremonial title earlier this year in the aftermath of his decision to settle a civil lawsuit with one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre, who had also accused him of assault.
A settlement was agreed last year, believed to have been in the region of $12million (£9.8million). He has always strongly denied any wrongdoing.
Andrew is set to join King Charles and other high ranking royals for Christmas dinner at Sandringham tomorrow
Andrew is set to join King Charles and other high ranking royals for Christmas dinner at Sandringham tomorrow.
MailOnline has contacted the Palace for comment.
Earlier this year, the Duke of York was left ‘bereft’ and ‘tearful’ when Charles told him, in no uncertain terms, that his days as a working royal were over.
At the time, a source told the Mail on Sunday ‘Andrew was totally blindsided’ and ‘utterly bereft. He always believed there was a way back’.
Andrew has denied being close to Epstein, who killed himself in jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges.
Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, is currently serving 20 years in a Florida jail after being found guilty last December on child sex trafficking and other charges.
His mother, the late Queen, reportedly failed to explicitly tell him there would be no way back to public life.
The report comes after Queen Consort Camilla was announced as the disgraced Duke’s replacement as Colonel of the Grenadier Guards in a shake-up of senior royal military positions
As a result, he was slow to see what the remainder of his family – and the public – had recognised for months.
‘Until the face-to-face meeting with his brother, Andrew believed that there was a way back – that somehow he could be rehabilitated and play a role in The Firm going forward,’ the source said. ‘He came out of the meeting shaken. He is still in shock. He is completely lost and very depressed.’
In the meeting, Charles – who was not yet King – said: ‘Go off and have a good life, a nice life, but public life as a Royal is at an end… You have to accept this. ‘
As a working royal, Andrew was entitled to a taxpayer funded security detail made up of armed police officers who accompanied him on all visits outside of Windsor, Berkshire.
Now that there’s no way back, the Home Office has stripped Andrew of taxpayer funded security personnel, meaning any armed protection police will be replaced by private firms who are only allowed to carry tasers.
Former Home Office minister Norman Baker said yesterday: ‘Armed protection has always been a status symbol for the likes of Prince Andrew.
‘Of course he should pay it himself and not burden the taxpayer because he is a private individual and carries out no public duties.’
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