An influential royal commentator has suggested that all is not well behind the scenes within the York family, more than five years after Prince Andrew’s infamous Newsnight interview.
The Duke and Duchess of York opted to stay away from the Royal Family’s Christmas at Sandringham this year amid the ongoing furore surrounding his friendship with an alleged Chinese spy. However, daugher Beatrice WAS at the Norfolk gathering.
It is just the latest scandal to befall the King’s younger brother, after years of negative headlines surrounding his ties to the convicted sex fiend financier Jeffrey Epstein and his shamed fixer, the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.
In a bid to quash the story, Andrew agreed to a BBC Newsnight interview in November 2019… but it backfired so badly that he was later forced to step down from frontline royal duties and he has barely been seen in public since.
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The most damaging claims were made by a woman named Virginia Roberts, nee Giuffre, who says she was brought to London by Maxwell in 2001 to have sex with Andrew when she was aged just 17. He has always denied the allegation and even suggested a photograph showing the trio together must’ve been doctored.
During the interview with Emily Maitlis, the Duke said he was at home with his daughters on the evening of March 10, 2001, after attending a birthday party with Princess Beatrice at a branch of Pizza Express in Woking, Surrey. At the time, Beatrice would’ve been aged 13.
The Duke of York, Virginia Giuffre, and Ghislaine Maxwell, seen together in a 2001 photo released by the US Department of Justice
(Image: PA)
Now aged 36, and heavily pregnant with her second child with husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, Beatrice opted to spend Christmas Day at Sandringham with the other royals rather than join her parents at Royal Lodge in Windsor, where Andrew, 64, still lives with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, 65.
Writing in the Daily Mail, the Ephraim Hardcastle column noted that it had been an “awkward choice” for Beatrice and asked: “Is all well with the Yorks?”
The columnist continued: “Once one of the tightest of family units, Beatrice has apparently declined to show Dad public support since the fatal Newsnight interview. Does it still rankle that Andrew used her attending an afternoon birthday party at Pizza Express as the reason why he couldn’t have had a close encounter with Virginia Giuffre?”
The Pizza Express restaurant in Woking, Surrey
(Image: PA)
In 2022, Andrew settled out of court with Giuffre after she sued him in New York. The sum has never been disclosed, but is believed to have been worth around £12million. She also received an out-of-court settlement from Maxwell in 2017 and was pursuing legal action against Epstein when he was found dead in his prison cell in August 2019.
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