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Prince Andrew: Forced by the Queen and Prince Charles to withdraw from public life as a royal. Fortune.com calls his decision to do an interview with the BBC "one of the biggest public relations failures of all time." (Read more here.) In a story dated yesterday and titled "Prince Andrew and the royal crisis: how the Firm lost its grip," The Guardian quotes royal biographer Robert Lacey saying that Andrew has been "de-royaled." It also says that Andrew is arrogant, aloof, slow-witted and a bit of a plonker. Yowza. (What is a plonker, you ask? According to UrbanDictionary.com, it means dope, idiot, moron. #LearningNewWords) In spite of the comparisons to King Edward VIII's abdication in 1936, Andrew has not been sent out of the country to live the rest of his life in Eurotrash exile. At least not yet:
Future historians may conclude that Prince Andrew’s defining achievement was to gift the nation a new verb.
Following a tumultuous week when his car-crash interview shook the House of Windsor so vigorously it seemed its palaces were in danger of losing their crenellations, the Duke of York now finds himself banished from duties. His fate is the 21st-century equivalent of that which befell the difficult minor royals of previous eras who were locked up in asylums, away from the public gaze.
“Prince Andrew has been de-royaled, if there is such a word,” said the historian and biographer Robert Lacey, an adviser to the acclaimed Netflix series The Crown. “At the risk of sounding melodramatic, I really would compare it to 1936 and the abdication of Edward VIII. What we are talking about is effectively the removal of a member of the royal family as a result of public opinion.”
The duke can take some comfort from the knowledge that if he had been around a few hundred years ago, things could have been worse. “One can even compare it to 1649, when Charles I was executed,” Lacey said. “This is a reminder that what was an institution of absolute power now depends ultimately on the consent and approval of the communities it seeks to represent, and Prince Andrew failed in this respect.”
Arrogant, aloof and slow-witted, according to some who have encountered him, the duke’s interview last weekend with Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis is now seen as a textbook example of how not to conduct a damage-limitation exercise.
Perhaps he should have heeded the lessons of history. Princess Diana’s bombshell Panorama confession did huge damage to the royal family. Prince Charles’s decision to admit to adultery via a television interview greatly reduced his standing in the eyes of the public.
“Andrew is a bit of a plonker, everybody knows that,” said one source close to the palace. “There’s no way he should have been allowed to do that interview. They should have just sent him off to Australia. That would have been a bloody good idea. Out of sight, out of mind.”
The duke’s former adviser Jason Stein, who resigned shortly before the broadcast after only a month in the job, was one rare voice who was opposed to the interview. But Andrew’s private secretary, Amanda Thirsk, who has now been moved from her post, disagreed with Stein, seeing the interview as a chance for the duke to put some distance between him and his late friend, the disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Ultimately, the decision came down to the duke and, confident in his abilities to swing public opinion, he agreed to be interviewed. It was to prove a catastrophic example of hubris.
“What he has managed to do is achieve the worst of both worlds,” one lawyer said. “He has done the interview, but he’s left lots of things unanswered. And he has not given a coherent explanation of what happened.”
It appears Buckingham Palace was incapable of spotting the bear traps that the interview presented – a sign, according to insiders, of institutional decay. “There’s a lack of discipline there at the moment,” the source said. “Sir Christopher Geidt [the Queen’s private secretary from 2007 to 2017] was a real steadying hand. But he’s not there now.”
... That the Prince of Wales was heavily involved in the decision to excommunicate his brother is evidence of a monarchy in flux.
“This will be seen as the moment that marks the transition from one reign to another, when Prince Charles clearly stepped in,” Lacey said. “Although Prince Andrew was allowed to say he jumped, he was in fact pushed. The royal family are absolutely ruthless when it comes to protecting the institution.”
But a monarchy in transition can be a fragile, fractious thing.
“The Prince of Wales has got his team,” a royal source said. “He has always done his own thing, but now they are looking across the park and want more of a say, and this causes friction.”
Lacey believes it is significant that the Prince of Wales was away on royal duties when the decision to use Buckingham Palace for the interview was taken.
“With Prince Philip out of the scene, Prince Andrew had effectively become the man in charge of the palace,” Lacey said. “From the inquiries one can make, it is not really certain that the Queen gave her personal approval for the use of the palace.”
The choice of location was both telling and a substantial error of judgment, according to Lacey.
“In a way, it [the ensuing post-interview furore] is nothing to do at all with whatever Prince Andrew’s relations were or were not with Jeffrey Epstein. It all starts with last Saturday night and a projection of his attitudes.
“Most people do not feel they want to be represented by someone like that. It was made worse by his decision to use Buckingham Palace as a backdrop. It invited questions and confrontation. It went along with the lack of contrition in what he said, and in his tone.”
As it became apparent just how far Andrew’s interview had backfired, the palace drafted a statement that it was hoped would paint the duke in a more empathetic light. Announcing his intention to stand down from public duties, the duke confirmed that he was willing “to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required”.
But, as with his television interview, the response raised more questions than it answered. (Read the entire article here.)
Update: See the new cover, featuring Tom Hanks, here.
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