Back in November 2019, I covered all of the stuff in and around Prince Andrew’s trainwreck Newsnight interview, where he spoke about his friendships with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, and came across like an arrogant buffoon who couldn’t be bothered to show sympathy for the girls and women abused by his friends (much less abused by Andrew). The interview landed like a bomb, but for days afterwards, Buckingham Palace did nothing but give vaguely positive off-the-record briefings about how Andrew was pleased with the interview, and how he told his mother that it was a “great success.” Then-Prince Charles was traveling overseas when the interview dropped, and he had to call his mother and tell her that this could not continue and that Andrew needed to be put out in the cold. Charles was the one driving Andrew to “step down” from royal life. Well, what if the entire thing was a huge scheme by Charles?
On the eve of Amazon Prime’s screening of Emily Maitlis’s account of her demolition of Prince Andrew, she claims Charles approved of the interview which directly led to his brother’s banishment from royal duties.
Maitlis, executive producer of A Very Royal Scandal, tells the Radio Times: ‘One month after the interview aired, I was taken aside by someone close to [then] Prince Charles and told – somewhat cryptically – that ‘HRH was not unhappy with the interview’.
‘Was I being told that the man who would ascend to the throne just three years later as our King was perhaps relieved that this exchange had taken place? That he could use the opportunity to reorder the monarchy in a way that befitted these times and the public perception of what it should be?’ Deep waters, Emily.
I mean… Charles knew that the Epstein stuff was out there, and that Andrew’s issues were just waiting to be exposed in a larger way. I think it was more of a happy accident for Charles – his brother imploded on national television, and Charles made his move and took care of “the Andrew problem” for a while. It was opportunistic from Charles, but I doubt it was a “relief,” especially since this was all happening as the Sussexes were detangling themselves from the monarchy too. But sure, Charles wasn’t “unhappy” that Andrew ruined himself.
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