When King Charles announced last week that he had stripped his younger brother of his “prince” title and will effectively evict him from his Royal Lodge home, his historic statement was accompanied by a telling message.
It said: “Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.”
It was the first time the palace had referred to survivors of abuse in connection with the former Duke of York, and it has now emerged that in earlier statements such references had been deleted after texts were sent to him before being released.
Queen Camilla is understood to have expressed concerns that Andrew’s association with Epstein was compromising her work with abuse victims.
She felt deeply uncomfortable with the idea of fronting anti-abuse campaigns – such as her Wash Bag Project providing luxury toiletries to rape crisis centres and SafeLives, which campaigns against domestic abuse – while Andrew remained within the fold.
Likewise, the Duchess of Edinburgh, Sophie, campaigns for the victims of abuse and is a supporter of the International Day to End Violence Against Women, the United Nations’ Women, Peace and Security Agenda and the government’s Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict initiative.
A royal source confirmed that when the palace previously inserted references to victims in statements, they were deleted after being sent to the former prince for approval. The development was first reported by the Sunday Times.
Now the king has lost his patience. This statement is no longer a statement by committee
A friend of the king and queen told the newspaper: “There has long been a sense from the family that the voices of the victims needed to be heard in these pronouncements, because they feature so heavily in this saga and because there is no credible way the queen and the Duchess of Edinburgh can continue to do the work they do in the areas of sexual abuse if they can’t point to that.
“Now the king has lost his patience. You can see this statement is no longer a statement by committee: it’s a statement from the king.”
Another source told the Telegraph that on this occasion, the dramatic statement was “a fait accompli, no to-ing and fro-ing on drafts”.
Today’s News in 90 Seconds – Sunday November 2
The palace has issued several statements concerning the former prince’s association with Epstein since 2015. Such announcements were made on Andrew’s behalf before he was forced to step back from public duties in November 2019.
The palace has since occasionally issued further statements as it has gradually stripped back the royal’s titles and privileges throughout the ongoing scandal.
On Saturday, John Healey, the UK defence secretary, said Andrew’s “last remaining title”, the honorary military rank of vice-admiral, would be removed by the government.
The government’s been guided by the decisions and judgments the king has made
The former naval helicopter pilot, was made a vice-admiral on his 55th birthday in 2015 and retained the rank after being forced to give up his other military affiliations in 2022.
Mr Healey told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “In general, the government’s been guided by the decisions and judgments the king has made.
“In defence, it’s exactly the same. And we’ve seen Andrew surrender the honorary positions he’s had throughout the military, and guided again by the king, we are working now to remove that last remaining title of vice admiral that he has.”
Asked whether he could also lose his military medals, Mr Healey said: “I don’t have an update for you on that, but just as with his vice-admiral rank and title, we would be guided by the decisions the king makes.”
It has also emerged Andrew arranged a private tour of Buckingham Palace for a cryptocurrency boss who had agreed to pay Sarah Ferguson £1.2m (€1.36m).
Las Vegas entrepreneur Jay Bloom and a colleague were given the tour while the late Queen Elizabeth was in residence in June 2019 after they had been picked up from their five-star hotel in Knightsbridge.
Mr Bloom’s company, Pegasus Group Holdings, employed Ms Ferguson as a “brand ambassador” for the cryptocurrency mining firm, according to an investigation by the BBC.
Ms Ferguson was working with Pegasus Group Holdings at the time of the palace visit, while she was Duchess of York, to promote plans to use thousands of solar power generators to mine Bitcoin at a remote site in the Arizona desert.
The project failed, with only 615 of the planned 16,000 generators acquired and about £25,000 worth of cryptocurrency mined.
In April 2021, some investors took legal action, claiming millions of dollars of investor funds were unaccounted for. A tribunal awarded the investors $4.1m, but Mr Bloom is seeking permission to appeal.
Andrew and Ms Ferguson did not respond to a detailed list of questions put to them by the BBC about their involvement with Mr Bloom and the crypto-mining venture.
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