The late Queen was a lady who hardly ever made errors. Contemplative, thought-about and by no means rash, her reign was one outlined by stolid, calm management and her unwavering devotion to the ability of the broach.
Except …
Except when it got here to her son Prince Andrew, Duke of York and bane of Buckingham Palace chambermaids.
When historians get round to writing the definitive account of her time on the throne, Elizabeth II’s dealing with of the 2019 conflagration that claimed the duke’s fame and royal profession must go down as maybe her biggest blunder and grossest miscalculation.
Sadly, right this moment, I’m right here to inform you a brand new report has claimed that Her Majesty may need made one other – sure, one other – grievous error when it got here to her paunchy, toad of a son.
The Queen would possibly simply have left him a big amount of cash in her will, which means he could have the funds to aim to stage a public comeback.
The impeccably linked Richard Kay (who was one of many final folks Diana, Princess of Wales, referred to as earlier than her demise) has reported within the Daily Mail that “it is thought [Andrew] was left a substantial inheritance by the Queen.”
(How “substantial” is a “substantial” sum, you ask? Unfortunately now we have no approach of figuring out provided that royal wills, underneath a particular royal authorized provision, are stored secret for at the least 90 years and are stored in a protected, location unknown, that may solely be accessed by a particular choose. However, the late Queen actually did have some severe dosh to mess around with, with the 2022 Times Rich List placing her private wealth, that isn’t together with the Sovereign Grant and income from the Duchy of Lancaster, at about $646.5 million.)
And that is the place we get to the actually troubling bit – simply what the duke would possibly do with this injection of funds into his Coutts checking account. According to Kay, one factor the 62-year-old may use his new-found liquidity for is “to mount a legal challenge against [Virginia] Giuffre.”
Next week will mark precisely one yr because it was revealed that Andrew had reached a monetary settlement with accuser Giuffre, who had alleged in a US civil courtroom that the royal had sexually abused her on three events when she was a young person. (He has all the time vehemently denied her claims and it’s value noting that the settlement included no act of contrition.)
While estimates of precisely how a lot the duke may need paid to stop the case from going to courtroom fluctuate from $5.2 million to $21 million, it was apparent that the royal household needed this tawdry, horrible scenario tidied away earlier than the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Nothing was going to intervene with a nationwide alternative to crack out the bunting and finger sandwiches!
But right this moment, the topography of the royal household has shifted dramatically, with Andrew now not having to take his beloved mom into consideration and with him now having the monetary firepower to tug Ms Giuffre again to courtroom with out having to beg his brother for a six or seven determine IOU.
Late final yr, Ms Giuffre withdrew from a lawsuit towards lawyer Alan Dershowitz, saying she may need “made a mistake” in accusing him of getting sexually abused her.
Then, in January, The Sun reported that within the wake of the Dershowitz news, Andrew was “considering legal options” together with whether or not he may have the settlement overturned.
Poor King Charles. The chance that his eternally vexatious youthful brother is likely to be about to barrel again into the headlines is one thing His Majesty wants about as a lot as Harry and Meghan getting their very own afternoon chat present (I can see the pastel sofas and his’n’hers matcha lattes now).
Another issue to bear in mind on this doable new Andrew mess (shudder) is that, reportedly, subsequent month the non-disclosure settlement relevant to each Andrew and Ms Giuffre, a Perth-based mother-of-three, will run out, leaving them each free to talk publicly.
“It was crafted to cover the year of the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee,” a supply has advised the Mail. “Once it is up, there is nothing to stop the Duke possibly becoming more proactive.”
And it’s that final phrase – ‘proactive’ – that ought to have Charles reaching for an infinite afternoon stiffener with a Quick-Eze chaser, given he already has one royal firestorm to cope with within the type of his ever bolshie son and daughter-in-law. His Majesty already has the headache of making an attempt to work out what to do concerning the Sussexes and their repeated, pouty primetime eruptions, with out his radioactive brother deciding he would possibly wish to try to clear his title.
And that is the place the King is de facto in a bind, provided that with Queen Elizabeth’s affect gone and the Duke of York reportedly now having the dough to pay his personal attorneys’ payments, there may be nothing to cease Andrew inflicting as a lot of a ruckus as he needs.
But, this story will get worse but for Charles.
As if it wasn’t sufficient to witness an aggrieved, self-pitying Andrew clog upfront pages and the courtroom system, he may additionally try to crack the bestseller record.
A longtime good friend of Andrew has advised the Mail that “It is inconceivable that he has not thought” about writing a tell-all of his personal.
(Shall I give everybody a minute to cease choking in stupefaction and horror?)
“Plenty in his circle think that’s just what he should do and Fergie, who has written her own memoir, My Story, has got all the contacts in publishing,” the good friend advised the Mail.
“He would never have considered it while his mother was alive but it would be the perfect riposte now.”
Meanwhile, additionally in January, the New York Post reported that Ms Giuffre has signed a literary deal of her personal value thousands and thousands. (The charge issues are going, Charles’ blood strain goes to skyrocket each time he sees a WHSmith ebook catalogue on Queen Camilla’s desk.)
The irony is, within the late Queen having supposedly left her second son a “substantial inheritance,” she has given him the ammunition to make her eldest son’s first yr as King that rather more nightmarish. As Charles practises carrying the St Edward’s crown and never toppling over, he additionally has to face the prospect of the Andrew scandal rearing again as much as plague the palace – once more – like some type antibiotic-resistant pressure in a Saville Row swimsuit.
I’ll allow you to determine if cash can’t purchase happiness – however it could actually definitely purchase loads of drama …
Daniela Elser is a author and a royal commentator with greater than 15 years’ expertise working with quite a few Australia’s main media titles.
Source: www.news.com.au
