Prince Andrew ‘tearful’ after Charles said he would NEVER return to Royal duties

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’.

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.

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Prince Andrew is accused of not carrying out charity work despite pledging to do so following settlement with Virginia Giuffre – as he is seen on his weekly horse ride

ByArthur Parashar For Mailonline

Prince Andrew has been accused of not yet carrying out any charity work despite pledging to make amends for his sex abuse scandal.

It has been reported that the disgraced Duke of York has instead been playing golf, horse riding and enjoying life at his home, the Royal Lodge.

The Duke was in fact pictured today on his weekly ride in Windsor, where his horse could be seen with a poppy pinned to its bridle.

The 62-year-old’s royal career ended in disgrace after he was forced to pay millions of pounds in an out-of-court settlement to sex abuse accuser Virginia Giuffre earlier this year.

She claimed he sexually abused her three times in 2001 when she was 17 after being trafficked by disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, though Andrew has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

The settlement was not an admission of liability, but the Queen’s supposedly favourite son was stripped of his royal patronages and honorary military titles.

Prince Andrew has been heavily criticised after claims that he has not yet carried out any charity work since pledging to make amends for his sex abuse scandal. Pictured: The Duke earlier today on a ride with his horse

The disgraced Duke of York has instead been playing golf, horse riding and enjoying life at his home, the Royal Lodge in Windsor

At the time of Andrew’s settlement, a statement said that the Duke would show his remorse by ‘supporting the fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims’. 

And a friend said that there were a ‘number of charitable proposals under active consideration’. 

However, the latest allegations from the Sun claim that many proposals to go through with charity work have ‘stalled’ after Buckingham Palace permission was sought.

Nigel Cawthorne, author of Prince Andrew: Epstein, Maxwell and the Palace, said: ‘Surely he can find a charity somewhere in the world that will have him? 

‘His reputation cannot get any worse and is a stain on the but doing charity work will take the edge off and show a little bit of contrition.’

Ghislaine Maxwell dragged Prince Andrew back into the Jeffrey Epstein scandal after referring to him as a ‘dear friend’ in an exclusive interview from behind prison walls. Pictured: The pair together at Ladies’ Day at Royal Ascot in 2000

Despite Andrew’s daughters Beatrice and Eugenie reportedly begging Charles to return to royal duties, the King ‘rebutted pleas’

Sources claim that the Prince has ‘lost focus’ after his attempts were regularly blocked.

Andrew was further dragged back into the Epstein scandal last month after the paedophile’s conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell hailed the Duke of York as a ‘dear friend’.

Her bombshell comments – in a world-exclusive prison interview with The Mail on Sunday – contradict Andrew’s denial to a US court that they had been close. 

Maxwell, who was convicted of helping Epstein abuse teenage girls, failed to deny suggestions that she and Andrew had been a couple, and declared: ‘I care about him.’ 

At one stage Prince Andrew was a patron hundreds of charities and other bodies, but he was stripped of his remaining patronages after the Palace said he would not carry out ‘any public duties’ at the start of the year.

A spokesman for the Duke of York declined to comment.