MAIL ON SUNDAY EXCLUSIVE: Prince Andrew was ‘left ”tearful” after Charles told him he would NEVER return to Royal duties in emotional and fraught face-to-face private meeting’
- Prince Andrew left ‘tearful’ after a tense meeting with Charles, a source claimed
- Charles III, then Prince of Wales, told Andrew he will never return to royal duties
- The Duke of York believes he could ‘still be of value’ as working member of family
- But MoS understands hopes were dashed in meeting days before Queen’s death
- Click here to read the full story on Mail+
Prince Andrew was left ‘tearful’ after a tense face-to-face meeting with Charles, then Prince of Wales, who told his younger brother he will never return to Royal duties, a source has claimed.
The Duke of York believes he could ‘still be of value’ as a working member of the Royal Family despite his association with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and has lobbied strenuously to resume his former roles.
But The Mail on Sunday understands these hopes were dashed in a private early morning meeting at Charles’s Birkhall estate in Scotland days before the Queen’s death.
No one else was present for the discussions, described as ’emotional and fraught’.
Prince Andrew was left ‘tearful’ after a tense face-to-face meeting with Charles, then Prince of Wales, who told his younger brother he will never return to Royal duties, a source has claimed
The Duke of York (pictured today) believes he could ‘still be of value’ as a working member of the Royal Family
‘Andrew was totally blindsided,’ a source told The MoS, adding that the decision has left those around the duke concerned for him.
‘He is utterly bereft. He always believed there was a way back.’
There will be further evidence of the Duke’s isolation next Sunday, when he will be absent from the Remembrance Day service at The Cenotaph – the first in 70 years without Queen Elizabeth II.
Stripped of his official duties, he no longer has a role to play.
‘Andrew was extremely close to the Queen and tried to raise the issue of his return to public life many times with her,’ said the source.
‘Andrew was extremely close to the Queen and tried to raise the issue of his return to public life many times with her,’ a source told the Mail on Sunday
‘On some occasions she would say mildly conciliatory things but most of the time she would change the subject immediately.’
It is understood that most senior figures in the Royal Family had thought the matter settled – that there was no way back. Yet this had not been Andrew’s understanding.
‘Naive as it may sound, he always had hopes of regaining his position as a senior royal,’ continued the source.
‘At the meeting Charles told him that he can go off and have a good life, a nice life, but that his public life as a Royal is at an end.
Prince Andrew, pictured today, sets out for a ride on his horse, which had Remembrance poppies on its bridle, in Windsor
‘He was told: ”You have to accept this.”
Andrew, 62, was stripped of his military affiliations and royal patronages in January after he lost his bid to quash a civil lawsuit in America brought by Jeffrey Epstein’s former ‘sex slave’ Virginia Giuffre, who claimed she had been forced to have sex with the Duke which he strenuously denied.
The Duke settled the civil case in February for a reported pounds 12 million without accepting liability and had believed this would allow him to return.
Click here to read the full story on Mail+
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