Anyone who watched Prince Andrew’s interview with Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis five years ago can understand why the Duke refuses to vacate Royal Lodge. His pompous demeanor, self-importance, and lack of empathy make it clear he struggles to see beyond his own perspective.
While it’s understandable that he resists his older brother’s wishes to evict him—after all, “spares” often react petulantly when reminded of their place in the royal hierarchy—there’s a pressing reason for Andrew to leave the Lodge immediately: to protect his daughters.
The 65-year-old Duke won’t ever reestablish his standing – he’s old, filthy, harmed products and no measure of magnanimous work or excursions at chapel with additional upstanding individuals from the family will change that.
Yet, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie are young ladies with regal contiguous lives in front of them.
For the good of they, and out of appreciation for their persistent effort and watchfulness, their dad needs to make the best decision and take off to Frogmore House immediately.
For every one of their imperfections and downfalls, one thing the Duke and Duchess of York have done estimably is serious areas of strength for raise, and deferential youngsters. Beatrice, 36, and Eugenie, 34, are commendable girls and cousins.
They seem to have explored the ghastliness of their dad’s destruction easily notwithstanding the profound agony and humiliation he probably caused them.
Similarly, they have maintained their mom every step of the way. Supporting her through disease and dealing with their own apprehensions for her wellbeing straight on the rear of their dad’s shame probably tried their coarseness and flexibility.
In addition, they’ve needed to explore the break between their cousins William and Harry. Eugenie, especially, was near Harry and Meghan and will have been frightened at what has unfurled.
Who knows how much she is still in contact with the couple? What is clear is that she has not favored one side, confirmed by Ruler William asking both her and Beatrice to go along with him at the current year’s Regal Ascot.
The more Andrew sticks to the 30-room Illustrious Hotel as opposed to moving to the more unassuming five-bed Frogmore Bungalow, the almost certain it is that his little girls will be somewhat hauled down with him.
Beatrice and Eugenie’s possibilities playing more critical parts in the Regal Family may be under danger.
It was reasonable that the Ruler didn’t come down on his sibling while Sarah Ferguson fought disease however presently it is the ideal time.
One month from now the ruler will quit financing his sibling’s security detail. Assuming that Andrew has any sliver of sense, also empathy, his inheritance ought to gift his girls a future liberated from the outrage and liberal way of behaving that has portrayed his later years.
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.
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.