The King and Queen have attended church at Balmoral today, following reports that Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson have been told they are not welcome at the Royal Family’s Christmas celebrations amid a fresh scandal involving Jeffrey Epstein.
Charles, who continues to be treated for an undisclosed form of cancer, and Camilla, 78, were driven in a Range Rover to the Sunday service at nearby Crathie Kirk.
The monarch, 76, dressed in a smart cream coat, appeared in the back of the vehicle, while his wife sat in the front passenger seat for their traditional outing.
Offering a gentle smile during her journey, the Queen looked elegant in a green tartan ensemble with a matching pillbox hat with a feather adornment.
The royal couple’s attendance at the service comes amid sources claiming the Duke and Duchess of York have been told to make themselves ‘invisible’ at future royal gatherings – while Prince Harry last night lambasted ‘men in grey suits’ at Buckingham Palace, accusing aides of trying to sabotage his reconciliation with the King.
It’s understood the King wants to keep Andrew and his ex-wife, both 65, who live together at Royal Lodge in Windsor despite divorcing in 1996, at arm’s length after the Mail on Sunday exposed how Fergie wrote to Epstein to apologise for publicly disowning the paedophile financier.
It comes after Charles asked the Duchess of York to help convince her ex husband to ‘do the decent thing’ and avoid the Royal Family’s Christmas gathering last year after it emerged the Duke had become close with alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo.
The Yorks spent last Christmas together at Royal Lodge instead. A source close to the King told The Sunday Times: ‘You can’t sack someone from being your brother.
The King and Queen have attended church at Balmoral today, following reports that Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson have been told they are not welcome at the Royal Family’s Christmas celebrations amid a fresh scandal involving Jeffrey Epstein
‘But this year, if the duke and duchess were both to be as honourable [as last year], it would be very much for the best and the family would not be disappointed, not least to avoid the King having to make any more difficult decisions.’
It follows several charities dropping the Duchess in the wake of the Mail’s exposé last week, which laid bare how she cynically lied when she pledged to cut ties with Epstein.
Just weeks after publicly disowning him, she then wrote him a gushing private message calling him a ‘steadfast, generous and supreme friend’ – and admitting she only distanced herself from him to save her own reputation.
The Duchess ‘humbly apologised’ to the convicted sex offender for letting him down, and said she had been told to speak out if she wanted to save her career as a children’s author.
She sent the grovelling message ‘from the truth of my heart’, less than two months after telling journalists: ‘I will never have anything to do with [Epstein] again.’
The Duchess’s friends say she was ‘devastated for any embarrassment’ caused by the latest scandal and ‘will explain herself to the wider Royal Family in due course’.
It was claimed Sarah sent the apology email to Epstein, in which she described him as a ‘supreme friend’, after he threatened to ‘destroy’ her family in a ‘chilling call’.
James Henderson, the Duchess’s spokesperson at the time, said the email was sent after a ‘really menacing and nasty’ phone call from the sex offender who had a ‘Hannibal Lecter-type voice’, the Telegraph reported.
Offering a gentle smile during her journey, the Queen looked elegant in a green tartan ensemble with a matching pillbox hat with a feather adornment
Sources close to the King have told The Sunday Times that the monarch would prefer if Andrew and Fergie keep out of sight when appearing at family events by arriving and leaving through discreet entrances where possible.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment.
Fergie had recently made a return to the royal fold after bouncing back from several embarrassments over the years – including being photographed having her toes sucked by US financial adviser Johnny Bryant as well as being caught in a sting offering access to her ex-husband for an alleged £500,000.
But she was invited to join the Royal Family’s Christmas gatherings in 2022 and 2023, her first invitations for three decades. She also joined the family’s traditional walk from Sandringham house to church alongside Andrew, Beatrice and Eugenie in 2023.
Andrew stepped down as a working royal over the scandal involving his friendship with Epstein in 2019. It followed a disastrous Newsnight interview about his relationship with Epstein and questions over his relationship with Virginia Giuffre who claimed she was sexually assaulted by the Duke three times when she was 17.
Andrew, who always denied the allegations, agreed an out-of-court settlement with Ms Giuffre, believed to be worth around £12million. Ms Giuffre, who claimed she was trafficked by Epstein, took her own life in April aged 41.
New files showing phone message logs, copies of flight logs and manifests for aircraft, as well as copies of financial ledgers belonging to Epstein were released by Congressional Democrats in the US on Friday night, naming Andrew, as well as billionaire Elon Musk, among them.
