The disgraced son of the late Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Andrew is arguably most famous these days for his long-standing association with Jeffrey Epstein and his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell and his involvement in their criminality. Once the favored son of the late queen, Andrew now languishes in semi-obscurity thanks to a series of his own poor decisions.
It should come as no surprise to absolutely anyone at all that Prince Andrew is not known for making good choices, given the company he keeps even after his disastrous association with Epstein. When King Charles decided to trim the fat of the monarchy, one of the ways he wanted to do that was by moving Andrew out of his plush royal pad — the Royal Lodge — and into the smaller, less expensive to maintain, Frogmore Cottage.
Andrew declined. Many times, in fact, over a long battle that saw Charles take away Andrew’s pocket money (a sum worth more than $1 million) and which Charles eventually lost because Andrew signed a perfectly legal and above-board 75-year lease on the property. A key victory for Andrew, who got to live in his house no matter what. Except according to multiple sources, Andrew doesn’t have the funds to maintain it (which was kind of the King’s point).
Excuse me while I play the world’s smallest violin. Andrew, who is said to be “embarrassed” by the condition of the home, which is in a state of “disrepair and decay,” remains isolated on the estate because he simply can’t face people outside of his immediate family. It’s worth remembering that Andrew was not embarrassed by his association with Epstein, which continued long after he was jailed, nor was he embarrassed by the photographs of himself with the notorious Ghislaine Maxwell. In fact, Andrew continued his public appearances and activities right up until he became well and truly disgraced in the most important way — when he was stripped of his official titles, of course, and not any of that other stuff.
Over the course of his life, Andrew has had many powerful friends and patrons, including his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II. It was she who paid for his legal settlement, after all. Yet even with his “isolation” and the disgrace that hangs around him like his own arm around a young girl’s waist, it’s been alleged that the U.K. government is covering up evidence from Andrew’s past. For someone like Prince Andrew, disgrace and embarrassment looks quite different from what it would for us peons.
Andrew lives in a plush — albeit in need of maintenance — historic mansion with his ex-wife and companion, Sarah Ferguson. He has fast, expensive cars and a life of luxury playing golf and doing whatever it is he desires, just without public adulation. If the allegations are to be believed, he even benefits from government assistance in the form of scrubbing the archives of evidence of his former life and actions. In his “embarrassment,” Andrew is coming up against the fact that actions have consequences. Unfortunately for the rest of us, “consequences” for people like Andrew tend to end at “embarrassment” rather than imprisonment or even just a day in court.
Published: Jan 30, 2025 1:54 PM UTC