There’s no doubt that 2024 was a difficult year for Prince Andrew. And the start of 2025 has brought with it yet another setback – one that was likely a major personal blow for the beleaguered royal.
Andrew has been mired in controversy in recent years, and following his disastrous Newsnight interview in November 2019, was forced to step back from public duties. He was later stripped of his military titles and patronages by the late Queen in January 2022.
More recently, King Charles cut off Prince Andrew’s allowance while encouraging him to move out of Royal Lodge into a smaller residence, and he was forced to stay away from the royal family’s Christmas at Sandringham in December over his links to an alleged Chinese spy.
Now it has been revealed that Andrew was shunned from a dinner in honour of his alma mater at Windsor Castle – even though he lives just a few miles away on the royal estate.
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Then-Prince Charles arriving for his first term at Gordonstoun on 1 May 1st 1962
His older sister, Princess Anne, held the dinner at Windsor last Thursday in her role as Warden for Gordonstoun school – which Andrew attended along with his brothers, King Charles and Prince Edward.
But he was not invited to attend the recent celebration. “I’m sure the duke would have loved to have attended the dinner if he had been invited,” a friend of Andrew’s told the Daily Mail’s Richard Eden.
Gordonstoun has some notable alumni. Two generations of British royalty were educated at Gordonstoun, including Prince Philip and his son King Charles. Musician David Bowie sent his son Duncan Jones to Gordonstoun, and Jason Connery , son of actor Sir Sean Connery, also attended.
While she is a warden for the school, Princess Anne did not attend alongside her brothers because it did not become co-educational until 1972. But she and her first husband, Captain Mark Phillips, sent their own two children, Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, to the prestigious institution, located in Moray, Scotland.
On his first day at Gordonstoun, on 1 May 1962, the then-Prince Charles was flown to RAF Lossiemouth in a plane piloted by his father Prince Philip, who was one of Gordonstoun’s first pupils. He was then driven about half a mile to the school.
Over the next five years he studied the school’s broad curriculum and took part in a range of activities away from the classroom, including sailing, being a member of HM’s Coastguard unit, taking lead roles in drama productions, singing in the school choir, and playing trumpet and cello.
His performance as the king in a school production of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, in 1965, received critical acclaim, with newspapers using a striking image of him on their front pages. The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh proudly joined other parents to watch the final performance.
He left Gordonstoun in 1967 with five O-levels in English Language, English Literature, History, Latin and French and two A-levels in History and French.
He achieved above average results which secured him a place to study archaeology and anthropology at Cambridge University.
There have been numerous reports that King Charles hated his time at Gordonstoun and that he struggled to cope in the tough environment. However, he has often played this down. During a House of Lords speech in 1975, he said: “I am always astonished by the amount of rot talked about Gordonstoun and the careless use of ancient clichés used to describe it.
“It was only tough in the sense that it demanded more of you as an individual than most other schools did – mentally or physically. I am lucky in that I believe it taught me a great deal about myself and my own abilities and disabilities. It taught me to accept challenges and take the initiative.”