Prince William is set to take a tougher approach with Prince Andrew by banning his disgraced uncle from all future royal events – including his Coronation when he ascends to the throne.
Although the Prince of Wales, 43, is said to have been ‘consulted’ on the decision to strip the Duke of York of his titles, he was not satisfied with the outcome and is well aware that the ‘Andrew problem’ will become his own in the future.
After years of Andrew being embroiled in humiliating scandals, William is planning to be a more ruthless monarch by banning his uncle from all aspects of royal life, including public and private events and most state occasions, the Times reports.
This will also extend to Sarah Ferguson – who had her Duchess of York title removed yesterday – who will also be banned from royal events after it was revealed last month that she had subsequently sent an email to Epstein apologising for publicly denouncing him and instead calling him her ‘supreme friend’.
This latest revelation comes as the Mail on Sunday revealed tonight that Prince Andrew embroiled the Metropolitan Police and one of Queen Elizabeth’s most senior aides in a campaign to smear his teenage sex accuser.
A bombshell email obtained by this newspaper exposes how Andrew asked his taxpayer-funded Met bodyguard to investigate Virginia Giuffre and passed him her date of birth and confidential social security number.
Astonishingly, Andrew then told Ed Perkins, Queen Elizabeth’s deputy press secretary, that he had asked one of his personal protection officers – part of the Met’s elite SO14 Royal Protection Group – to dig up information about Ms Giuffre.
He emailed Mr Perkins hours before this newspaper first published the infamous picture of the duke with 17-year-old Ms Giuffre, which would ultimately bring about his downfall.
Prince Andrew (pictured left) seen in a frosty exchange with Prince William (pictured right) as they walked out of Westminster Abbey at the Duchess of Kent’s funeral last month
Prince Andrew’s statement released by Buckingham Palace yesterday announcing his relinquishing of his titles
Virginia Giuffre photographed with Prince Andrew and Ghislaine Maxwell in London in 2001
Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson in June 2016 at Royal Ascot. Sarah Ferguson (pictured right) will also be banned from royal events when William is king
‘It would also seem she has a criminal record in the [United] States,’ he wrote. ‘I have given her DoB [date of birth] and social security number for investigation with XXX, the on duty ppo [personal protection officer].’
It is not suggested that the officer complied with the prince’s request, while Ms Giuffre’s family last night said she did not have a criminal record.
Her relatives said our revelations ‘expose the lengths to which those implicated try to discredit and defame survivors. The truth will surface and there will be no shadows in which they can hide.’
A spokesperson for the Met told the MoS late on Saturday that they were ‘actively looking into the claims made.’
Details of the shocking email come after Andrew was forced to relinquish all of his remaining titles following new damaging revelations in last week’s MoS about his friendship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
It is also reported by the Times that Prince William’s ban on Andrew attending all royal events when he is King is because William considers his uncle a ‘threat’ and reputational risk to the monarchy.
William is also apparently concerned about the message that Andrew’s attendance at royal events gives to sexual abuse victims.
In a memoir to be published this week, Ms Giuffre, who was abused by Epstein for four years, claimed that Andrew ‘believed having sex with me was his birthright’.
Andrew’s email to Mr Perkins is one of a series of explosive disclosures contained within a cache of emails currently with the US Congress that have been obtained exclusively by the MoS. The ‘Epstein files’ also reveal:
- Epstein set Andrew up on a dinner date with a woman who claims the paedophile sexually abused her for years;
- Andrew admitted to Epstein that it was possible he met Ms Giuffre and there could be a photograph – despite later declaring: ‘I don’t remember meeting her at all’;
- The Duchess of York, and her daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, were the first people to visit Epstein after his release from jail for child sex offences, according to Epstein;
- The paedophile financier claimed he bankrolled Sarah Ferguson for 15 years;
- Fergie begged Epstein to lend her up to $100,000 while he was still under house arrest and pleaded to be allowed to visit his notorious private island;
- Ex-minister Peter Mandelson warned Epstein his relationship with the Yorks would end badly.
Ms Giuffre’s family said: ‘These outrageous emails are further vindication of Virginia. It underscores her courage and her strength as a truth teller.’
Last weekend, the MoS exclusively revealed that Andrew had publicly lied when he claimed he never had contact with Epstein again following a ‘final’ meeting with him in December 2010.
It obtained emails sent 12 weeks after that meeting in which Andrew contacted the sex offender to reassure him, the day after a picture of the prince with Ms Giuffre was published, that ‘we are in this together’ and would have to ‘rise above it’.
Sickeningly, Andrew concluded: ‘Otherwise keep in close touch and we’ll play some more soon!!!’ It was signed ‘A, HRH The Duke of York, KG’, as a knight of the Order of the Garter.
It was also revealed that Andrew met, on at least three occasions, the alleged Chinese spymaster at the centre of the current Whitehall espionage case.
Sources have told the Daily Mail that things came to a head this week after a ‘constant drip, drip’ of fresh claims, of which the MoS’s email revelations proved the ‘most significant issue’.
The changes will take effect immediately and were decided upon in recognition of the fact that the prince’s personal issues continued to be an ‘unwelcome distraction’ from the work of the wider Royal Family.
However, the King has acknowledged that he cannot legally force Andrew out of his Royal Lodge home and he will continue to remain there so long as he can afford the rent.
The prince has a 100-year-plus private tenancy agreement with the Crown Estate which is said to be ‘unaffected’ by issues relating to his honours and titles.
The prince’s titles, rather than being stripped from him, are ‘in abeyance’ – they effectively remain ‘extant but inactive’.
It is understood that part of the King’s thinking was to prevent a waste of parliamentary time formally taking the titles away. Any move to do so would have required an Act of Parliament.
But His Majesty was also very keen to ‘protect’ Andrew’s daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, who remain Her Royal Highnesses as granddaughters of Queen Elizabeth.
If their father’s titles had been removed, theirs would have been affected too, and Charles was keen to avoid this as he holds them ‘in high regard and affection’.
‘He wouldn’t have wanted to sign off on anything that would impact them,’ a source said.
Andrew remains a prince because he is the son of Queen Elizabeth II, according to Letters Patent – a written expression of wishes by a monarch – issued in 1917 by George V, updated by Queen Elizabeth in 2012.
