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Anyone watching Prince Andrew’s interview with Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis five years ago will understand exactly why the Duke won’t move out of Royal Lodge.
Not only is he pompous, self-regarding and woefully deficient in empathy, he clearly finds it challenging to see another’s point of view.
Fair enough that he doesn’t want to capitulate to his older brother’s wishes to evict him. ‘Spares’ are notoriously petulant when reminded where they sit in the hierarchy.
But there is a key reason why Andrew needs to move out of the Lodge – not in the future but right now: to protect his daughters.
Prince Andrew driving down the the Long Walk from his current home, Royal Lodge, October 2023
Sisters Princess Beatrice and Prince Eugenie at the Vogue World Show After Party during London Fashion Week, September 2023
Prince Andrew needs to move out of Royal Lodge to protect his daughters’ reputations, argues ANGELA MOLLARD
The 65-year-old Duke will never restore his reputation – he’s old, soiled, damaged goods and no amount of charitable work or outings at church with more upright members of the family are going to change that.
But Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie are young women with royal-adjacent lives ahead of them.
For their sake, and in honour of their hard work and discretion, their father needs to do the right thing and hightail it to Frogmore Cottage pronto.
For all their flaws and failings, one thing the Duke and Duchess of York have done commendably is raise strong, loyal and respectful children. Beatrice, 36, and Eugenie, 34, are exemplary daughters and cousins.
They appear to have navigated the horror of their father’s downfall with aplomb despite the deep pain and embarrassment he must have caused them.
Likewise, they have upheld their mother at every turn. Supporting her through cancer and managing their own fears for her health straight on the back of their father’s disgrace must have tested their grit and resilience.
What’s more, they’ve had to navigate the rift between their cousins William and Harry. Eugenie, particularly, was close to Harry and Meghan and will have been dismayed at what has unfolded.
Who knows to what extent she is still in touch with the couple? What is clear is that she has not taken sides, evidenced by Prince William asking both her and Beatrice to join him at this year’s Royal Ascot.
The longer Andrew clings to the 30-room Royal Lodge instead of moving to the more modest five-bed Frogmore Cottage, the more likely it is that his daughters will be to some extent dragged down with him.
Beatrice and Eugenie’s chances of having more significant roles in the Royal Family might be under threat.
It was understandable that the King didn’t put pressure on his brother while Sarah Ferguson battled cancer but now it’s time.
Next month the monarch will stop funding his brother’s security detail. If Andrew has any shred of sense, not to mention compassion, his legacy should be gifting his daughters a future free from the scandal and indulgent behaviour that has characterised his later years.
Prince Andrew with his daughters Beatrice and Eugenie watching the Epsom Derby in 2011
Prince Andrew’s car-crash interview with the BBC’s Emily Maitlis is about to be all over our screens in ‘A Very Royal Scandal’, which is being shown on Amazon Prime
Prince William was surrounded by his cousins at Ascot in 2024 as the Princess of Wales was undergoing cancer treatment
In 2022, three years after the Newsnight interview, the Duke paid an out-of-court settlement to his accuser, Virginia Giuffre, ending a civil case against him in the US.
He accepted no liability and continues to deny he had sex with the then 17-year-old.
Yet Andrew has already compromised his children. By inviting Beatrice to sit in a planning meeting for his Newsnight interview he risked her reputation.
When challenged by Maitlis during the subsequent interview, he invoked an alleged trip with Beatrice to a birthday party at Pizza Express in Woking as an alibi to disprove the claim he was with Giuffre.
This week, Beatrice and Eugenie will once again be thrust back into the spotlight with the release of A Very Royal Scandal, the Amazon Prime show where Michael Sheen will portray the Duke as belligerent and deluded.
If Rufus Sewell last year skewered Andrew in Netflix’s Scoop, this new dramatisation of the Duke’s spectacular fall from grace is reportedly even more excoriating.
The late Queen’s adored second son will apparently be characterised by his nastiness and predilection for telling others to ‘f*** off’.
In refusing to move out of Royal Lodge, the Duke is missing a trick.
He and the Duchess would be inheriting a stunningly renovated home; Andrew could even turn the yoga studio into a cinema – an activity more to his taste.
Beatrice, 36, and Eugenie, 34, are exemplary daughters and cousins, seen here supporting Prince William for the Sovereign’s Garden Party at Buckingham Palace this summer
The York sisters attended a joint engagement for the Coronation Big Lunch in Buckinghamshire in 2023 and proved extremely popular
As he manages his sibling’s eviction, this is not a battle the King can lose. Cancer will have concentrated his mind and should his health decline he will not wish to leave William with the ‘Andrew problem’.
Likewise, cancer – his wife’s and his father’s – has equally concentrated William’s mind.
His father might’ve advocated a slimmed-down monarchy, but the Prince of Wales has seen how deficient the Royal Family becomes when key principals are out of action.
Should the current King pass away before the Wales children reach adulthood, Beatrice and Eugenie, along with Mike and Zara Tindall, will be vital players in the new monarchy.
Together they embody the grace of the late Queen Elizabeth, the application of the Princess Royal and the growing sense of style and warmth that have earned the Princess of Wales such devotion.
If their father fails to see how his actions might impact their futures, he is more selfish and stupid than is already apparent.
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