The surprise arrest of Andrew Mountbatten Windsor on his 66th birthday this week has been followed by a further blow. According to government sources, once any police investigation into the King’s brother is complete, a consultation will begin on removing him from the line of succession.
For months the ties of Andrew to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have been under scrutiny, and the recent release of three million documents by the US Department of Justice appeared to shed new light on their friendship. Some emails exchanged from an account that appears to belong to Andrew with the disgraced financier indicated that he may have shared confidential material from his time as UK Trade Envoy with Epstein.
One such email was sent on Christmas Eve 2010, and saw the account forward Epstein material relating to confidential investment opportunities regarding the reconstruction of Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Andrew was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in a public office, and searches have taken place at a property in Norfolk, and his former home in Berkshire, Royal Lodge.
He has been released pending further investigation, and once this is finished, the government will begin the process to officially take him out of the line of succession. This will require an act of parliament, and for all 14 realms of which King Charles is head of state to be in agreement.
A new report examining Andrew’s “very long fall from grace” that the public has watched come to a head in recent months when the monarch unceremoniously removed his younger brother’s royal titles and styles has been published in The Times, and provides new insight into the King’s brother as a young man, and his relationship with the late Queen.
Often dubbed the late Queen’s “favourite son” one allegation in the report includes a surprising reaction from the former monarch. The outlet claims that “as a young man his behaviour was so atrocious that a footman punched him in the face.” Despite her well reported closeness with Andrew “Queen Elizabeth refused his subsequent offer to resign on the grounds that her son had obviously deserved it.”
Queen Elizabeth and Andrew(Image: GettyImages)
The report further claims that Andrew used to get on his mother’s nerves, even though she “indulged” him. “He spent his childhood annoying almost everyone. Even she was irritated by his habit of climbing onto the roof of Buckingham Palace to tinker with the TV aerial so she couldn’t watch the racing,” the outlet claims.
The claim that a footman once gave Andrew a black eye was first made by royal expert Ingrid Seward in her book ‘My Husband and I’. The expert wrote that on one “occasion when [Andrew’s] taunting so annoyed a young footman that he took a swipe at Andrew that deposited him on the floor and left him with a black eye,” the royal staff member was left “fearing for his job.”
The footman went to the Queen herself, Seward has said, and offered to resign, but she said “her son had obviously deserved it and the footman was on no account to be punished for Andrew’s bad behaviour”.
However, one insider disputes whether or not Andrew really was the late Queen’s “favourite”. Ailsa Anderson, who was the late Queen’s Press Secretary between 2001 and 2013 told the BBC, “The media do say that he was the favourite son, but in my 12 years working for the late Queen I never saw her display any favouritism amongst any of her children, so I can’t really say that’s true.”
After Andrew was arrested early on Thursday from his temporary home of Wood Farm on the Sandringham Estate he was was taken to Aylsham police station – but most of the staff at the Aylsham Police Investigation were told not to come in that morning, it has been revealed in a new report, whilst officers only processed the former duke.
“Days before” he was arrested staff were reportedly told a “notable person” would be coming in. It’s even been alleged that there was an IT shutdown as part of the police operation to make sure the news did not get out beforehand.