Andrew Lownie: historian and author on his new book Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York
September 6, 2025 • 14 mins
Historian Andrew Lownie has written a new book designed to be the final nail in the coffin of Prince Andrew.
Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York is the result of four years of research and interviews by Lownie and it aims to examine the lives of Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.
He says the book also addresses the whole royal institution, including the way Andrew's various scandals were handled.
"The fact is, the Queen protected him, complaints were made about him and nothing was ever done - and indeed, people who did complain were penalised."
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News talks'b So Now to.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
The book that is predicted to be the final nail
on the coffin of Prince Andrew, ending any chance of
royal return and cementing his unflattering reputation. The book is
called entitle To the Rise and Fall of the House
of York by best selling biographer Andrew Loney. Andrew spent
four years researching and interviewing hundreds of people to bring
us what is an extraordinary account of the Duke and Duchess,
(00:36):
a book full of scandal. Andrew Loney is with me now.
Good morning, Andrew, Good morning. I wonder whether my reaction
to this book will be the common reaction, and that
is that I knew a lot about the Duke and
Duchess of York scandals, but having the financial and the
sexual scandals that went on over decades presented to you
in one book, it is quite overwhelming. I'm sort of
(00:59):
taken back that it took until twenty twenty two before
the royal family sort of took a little bit of
action on Andrew.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Yes, it is extraordinary. I mean, he was protected. I mean,
there is new material there. I talked to three hundred
people who hadn't talked before, and I think particularly that
the financial corruption is all new. But you're right some
of those sexual scandals who knew about. But I think
that the line of the royal families basically to sit
in the fence and stick their head in the sand
and hope the problem will go away. Never explain, never complain,
(01:29):
and the news agenda will move on. And I hope
maybe this will make people realize, you know, just how
protected these people being. And actually it's not just about
Andrew and Fergie, it's about the whole institution. You know
that the factors the Queen protected him. The complaints were
made about him, nothing was ever done, and indeed people
(01:50):
who did complain were penalized. So ambassadors who who put
bad reports were suddenly sent off to Nigeria. Protection officers
who complained suddenly found themselves back on the beat in
South London, you know. And so the institution is self
needs to pull itself together because these guys are going
to pull are going to destroy it. You know, they
(02:12):
must feel very annoyed, people like William that they're doing
their best with their public duties, and here are two
grifters who are undermining all the good work they do.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
You mentioned in the book that Prince William dislikes Prince
Andrew even more than his father, so that might have
a bit of an impact, do you think in times?
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Absolutely? I think the interesting thing is, you know, if
William comes the throne very soon, then I think Andrew
is toast and he's going to lose his dukedom. He's
going to, you know, be encouraged to go into exile.
But if Charles, who's a kindly old chap, lasts a
bit longer, then you know, maybe everyone will just forget
about Andrew. There'll be another there'll be some other story Andrew.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Did the Queen know what was going on? Or at
times was she keeped in the dark and protected by
her staff.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
No, I think the queen knew. I think that that's
the shocking thing. I know that the things were brought
to her problems with him as a trade envoy, some
of the Epstein material. And I thought she was as
an old woman, just didn't want to know and kind
of said, you know, don't bother me with us. But
she actually colluded with him. She actually supported some of
his business ventures, particularly in places like Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
(03:25):
You know, she entertained these people, and the Queen was
very very well briefed. I mean, she had the police
protection officers would would tell her what was going on.
Members of her staff traditionally taken from the intelligence services.
She would have known exactly what was happening. And in see,
there are plenty of occurrencies where you know, basically they
(03:46):
tried to shut down the story and not just the
comms team, you know, the most famous being Amy Roback
at ABC Television that had actually the whole story of Virginia,
Jeffrey and Andrew years before it broke, and the intelligen
station was threatened with lack of access. And that's how
they operate. They it's a Karen stick. You know, if
you go along with our agenda, then will make life
(04:08):
easy for you and give you little tipbits, and if
you're difficult, then we'll cut off all access. So all
the people who are the journalists and the writers basically
play this game. It's the lobby system, and it needs
outsiders like me to come in and say, well, we're
not playing those games. We're going to you know, talk
to other people, perhaps you know slightly further out, but
(04:29):
who are prepared to speak more openly.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Why does the royal family feel the need to continue
to protect them. Why don't they just tack them away
in a corner of inverness?
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Well exactly, I mean that would be the obvious thing,
to stick them in bull moral. I mean they have
done that with some of their you know, mentally ill relations,
lock them away, and he could He's got a little
palace in Abu Dhabi, they could send him there. But
I think the problem is that it's not just him,
as I say, it operated with the connivance of all
of them. A lot of others are doing the same thing.
(05:02):
I mean, not necessarily for their own personal gain, but
for their charities. You know, King Charles has been caught
with money from various people and cash for honors and
stuff and plastic bags. So the thing is, once one
of them falls, I think that they feel the rest
of them fall in the domino effect. Whereas my argument
is if you clean the stables out, then there's no problem.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Andrew, how did you get this book published and past
the lawyers? Because there is so much fascinating and very
damaging information in this book. I can only imagine what
might have had to be taken out.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Yeah, about twenty pages have been taken out. We had
eighteen proofs, of which two were editorial and sixteen were lawyers.
And we continue to revise things and take things out.
Everything was done, you know, I had to get sign
offs from people, I had to try and get double sources.
The fact that I'm not a sort of tabloid journalist,
I think helps that people did talk to me, and
(05:58):
I think people trust me because my books, you know,
have always been regarded as being well researched. You know,
we have. I mean, there was stuff I was surprised
that they let through. But that's great and fun enough.
We haven't been challenged on that. I mean, we've often
had things come from left field. But I think because
it's all to be honest, it's all true. I haven't
(06:21):
made anything up. I mean, but there is a lot
of stuff that we took out very frustratingly that I
would like to have there fun enough stuff that's coming
out now, For example, the relation with Epstein with the
British Ambassador in America, Jet Peter Mandelson. There's stuff about
the length of the relationship that they had with Epstein.
They claimed it finish in twenty ten. Evidence has now
(06:42):
come out to twenty fifteen, which I had, So there's
gonna be a lot of new stuff in the paperback.
And so these new disclosures have helped me, and I
do see it as a broad investigation that it's not
just me that other people, you know, should be picking
holes at their story.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
The one thing that strikes you in this book, which
as you say, is very well researched, is the lack
of response from the royal family and the government. Why
couldn't you get hold of the information that you needed.
I know, for example, that you put in many freedom
of information requests and they were denied.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Yes, I think one of the most important things is
the ten years. But when he was a trade envoy
in twenty one to eleven, all those papers and most
of those papers should be in the National archives. He
was a taxpayer funded civil servant, and yet I haven't
in four years of requests and literally, you know, probably
two hundred requests got at anything. They use every exemption
(07:38):
possible to prevent one getting access to this material. The
Foreign Office taught people not to talk to me. They themselves,
the Yorks taught people not to talk to me. So
there has been this huge cover up by the government.
They don't want this to come out, and you know,
I think it's a shame because but of course I
understand it. It would explain who he's taking on these trips,
which included Epstein and a lot of his personal business contacts.
(08:03):
It would show who was seeing and what he was doing.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
What did he achieve in his role as a special
representative to UK Trade and Investment.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Well, I mean, you know, there are some stories that
he was effective, particularly in the Middle East. It's always
very difficult because you know, you've got nothing to judge
it against. I mean, the fact is he wasn't replaced.
The fact is that most of the ambassadors I talked
to said that he was counterproductive, that they had to
clean up the mess afterwards. He was incredibly expensive, I
mean everything was private jet and it is very difficult
(08:35):
to do an audit to work out what he achieved
at the end. And in fact, most of the ambassadors
said to me, you know, we like you know, this
is work that we do over many years. We don't
want someone just coming in who hasn't read as brief
thinks he knows how it operates and actually makes it
more difficult. So yeah, I think it was a waste
of time. I mean, he sometimes wondered what he was
doing that be Foreign Office kind of part to trade,
(08:59):
couldn't quite work out why they were sending him there,
and the ambassadors couldn't work it out. So it was
just to keep him occupied because he got as far
as he could go in the navy. He'd been promoted
as far as he could be, and they needed to
do something with him. But he would be better being
being the steward up at bell Moral than this, because he,
you know, caused all sorts of diplomatic instance, he was
(09:21):
trying to flog his house, and he was trying to
cage money off some of these people he made. You know,
he didn't understand their cultures. You know, he was a disaster.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Throughout the book we hear about how both the Duke
and Duchess leveraged their status to make money or you know,
then they seemed to be gifted a lot of money.
To me, it looks like a complete lack of dignity
to make to take money from anyone and everyone to
live on how did they see it?
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Well, I think entitled it sums it up. I think
you know, they they got onto the gravy train and
they were going to take advantage. If people were foolish
enough to upgrade them, or to give them presents and
jewels and pay them large sums of money to promote
the granbery juice, then let's take it. They're very greedy.
They like to live the j set life. This was
easy money, and they've actually taught the children to do
(10:10):
exactly the same. So there were no moral boundaries there.
I mean, I have to say the Queen was a
pretty negligent mother, and Sarah Ferguson's parents were griftis as well,
so always getting into debt, always. You know, they were
supposed to be posh, but they were all pretty vulgar
and there was no control of them. I mean, that's
(10:33):
this extraordinary thing. No one actually sort of tried to
rein them in and said this is not appropriate. You know,
you can't sell pictures of you know, the queen's grandchildren
in the bath just to make some money.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Oh my goodness, you've just sort of explained there how
Andrew's got himself into this mess. He's got himself into.
But also does it kind of come down to being
that second son. Did he just struggle to find his
role in his identity within the family.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
No, I don't believe that for a minute. I mean,
Edward and Anne are also of siblings. I mean they've
established roles, they're supporting acts, and they do a really
good job. You know. In some ways, he had all
the advantages. You know, he could pursue his career. He
was under the radar in terms of his private life.
He could have had a really good life, but because
he's greedy and naive, he wanted more so. I mean,
(11:29):
you know, of course he had these folly de grandeur
that he would become regent and he would take over
from Charles, he would give up and stuff. But you know,
he kind of always knew when he was born that
it was very unlikely he would be king, and he
should have, you know, cut his cloth accordingly. And in
(11:49):
some ways, you know, Charles it's been a bit of
a burden on him, you know, the fact his life
has been preordained. So I think Andrew had every advantage
and he basically blew every opportunity he was given as
a sort of self sabotage here. You know, he's given
opportunities and he kind of blows it.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Think people in the UK feel Prince Andrew has made
a positive contribution.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Well, there was a program on two nights ago in
which it was a sort of trial has he been
a liability to the royal family and he was voted
guilty there. His approval ratings are pretty negative and they
have been for a long time. As of hers, you know,
there's no there's no evidence. In fact, there's plenty of
efforts to show that actually he's not an asset, for example,
to charities, he's actually a problem. Same with Sarah Ferguson.
(12:33):
So no, I mean I think there's there's there's a
myth that's been sold to people that somehow you know
they do a good job. But when you start looking
at it and analyzing it, I mean that you know,
the lots of people who you know, my king is
right or wrong, and we can't criticize the monarchy. And
I think that what I hope will change is we
will now have, for example, a Royal Register of Royal interests,
(12:56):
will now have more parliamentary scrutiny of the worlds. I
hope we'll have a parliamentary inquiry into what went wrong
with him as Special Envoy, And twenty years ago MP's
were calling for the National Crime Agency to look at
his activities as Trade Envoy, and I think that they
should be looking at him again because there was stuff
that I took out for legal reasons which I'd be
(13:18):
very happy to pass the National Crime Agency, which I
think would lead to a criminal investigation.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
So do you think that this book has sealed Andrew's fate?
Do you think there is any way back for him
from here? As you mentioned, there seems to be so
much more to come.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Yeah, yeah, I know. We've got Virginia Jeffrey's book, We've
got possibly the Epstein files coming out. We've got possibly
the victims speaking up. We've got Chrace talking about him
being in handcuffs. So, I mean, you know, I'm part
of I suppose a mixture of pressures. I mean, I
think he was pretty finished beforehand. I think the interesting
question is whether Sarah Ferguson, who is the sort of
(13:55):
comeback kid, the resputant of the royal family, whether she
will manage to come back. She's very good at inventing herself.
I don't know how often she comes to New Zealand,
but she goes to Australia quite a lot, and they
all lover They all think she's a victim as opposed
to this person who just constantly reinvents herself.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Oh fascinating stuff. Andrew, thank you so much for your
time today and talking us through that. We shall watch
this space very carefully.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
It's been a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
That was biographer Andrew Loney. His book entitled The Rise
and Fall of the House of York is in stores now.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News talks'b So Now to.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
The book that is predicted to be the final nail
on the coffin of Prince Andrew, ending any chance of
royal return and cementing his unflattering reputation. The book is
called entitle To the Rise and Fall of the House
of York by best selling biographer Andrew Loney. Andrew spent
four years researching and interviewing hundreds of people to bring
us what is an extraordinary account of the Duke and Duchess,
(00:36):
a book full of scandal. Andrew Loney is with me now.
Good morning, Andrew, Good morning. I wonder whether my reaction
to this book will be the common reaction, and that
is that I knew a lot about the Duke and
Duchess of York scandals, but having the financial and the
sexual scandals that went on over decades presented to you
in one book, it is quite overwhelming. I'm sort of
(00:59):
taken back that it took until twenty twenty two before
the royal family sort of took a little bit of
action on Andrew.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Yes, it is extraordinary. I mean, he was protected. I mean,
there is new material there. I talked to three hundred
people who hadn't talked before, and I think particularly that
the financial corruption is all new. But you're right some
of those sexual scandals who knew about. But I think
that the line of the royal families basically to sit
in the fence and stick their head in the sand
and hope the problem will go away. Never explain, never complain,
(01:29):
and the news agenda will move on. And I hope
maybe this will make people realize, you know, just how
protected these people being. And actually it's not just about
Andrew and Fergie, it's about the whole institution. You know
that the factors the Queen protected him. The complaints were
made about him, nothing was ever done, and indeed people
(01:50):
who did complain were penalized. So ambassadors who who put
bad reports were suddenly sent off to Nigeria. Protection officers
who complained suddenly found themselves back on the beat in
South London, you know. And so the institution is self
needs to pull itself together because these guys are going
to pull are going to destroy it. You know, they
(02:12):
must feel very annoyed, people like William that they're doing
their best with their public duties, and here are two
grifters who are undermining all the good work they do.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
You mentioned in the book that Prince William dislikes Prince
Andrew even more than his father, so that might have
a bit of an impact, do you think in times?
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Absolutely? I think the interesting thing is, you know, if
William comes the throne very soon, then I think Andrew
is toast and he's going to lose his dukedom. He's
going to, you know, be encouraged to go into exile.
But if Charles, who's a kindly old chap, lasts a
bit longer, then you know, maybe everyone will just forget
about Andrew. There'll be another there'll be some other story Andrew.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Did the Queen know what was going on? Or at
times was she keeped in the dark and protected by
her staff.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
No, I think the queen knew. I think that that's
the shocking thing. I know that the things were brought
to her problems with him as a trade envoy, some
of the Epstein material. And I thought she was as
an old woman, just didn't want to know and kind
of said, you know, don't bother me with us. But
she actually colluded with him. She actually supported some of
his business ventures, particularly in places like Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
(03:25):
You know, she entertained these people, and the Queen was
very very well briefed. I mean, she had the police
protection officers would would tell her what was going on.
Members of her staff traditionally taken from the intelligence services.
She would have known exactly what was happening. And in see,
there are plenty of occurrencies where you know, basically they
(03:46):
tried to shut down the story and not just the
comms team, you know, the most famous being Amy Roback
at ABC Television that had actually the whole story of Virginia,
Jeffrey and Andrew years before it broke, and the intelligen
station was threatened with lack of access. And that's how
they operate. They it's a Karen stick. You know, if
you go along with our agenda, then will make life
(04:08):
easy for you and give you little tipbits, and if
you're difficult, then we'll cut off all access. So all
the people who are the journalists and the writers basically
play this game. It's the lobby system, and it needs
outsiders like me to come in and say, well, we're
not playing those games. We're going to you know, talk
to other people, perhaps you know slightly further out, but
(04:29):
who are prepared to speak more openly.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Why does the royal family feel the need to continue
to protect them. Why don't they just tack them away
in a corner of inverness?
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Well exactly, I mean that would be the obvious thing,
to stick them in bull moral. I mean they have
done that with some of their you know, mentally ill relations,
lock them away, and he could He's got a little
palace in Abu Dhabi, they could send him there. But
I think the problem is that it's not just him,
as I say, it operated with the connivance of all
of them. A lot of others are doing the same thing.
(05:02):
I mean, not necessarily for their own personal gain, but
for their charities. You know, King Charles has been caught
with money from various people and cash for honors and
stuff and plastic bags. So the thing is, once one
of them falls, I think that they feel the rest
of them fall in the domino effect. Whereas my argument
is if you clean the stables out, then there's no problem.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Andrew, how did you get this book published and past
the lawyers? Because there is so much fascinating and very
damaging information in this book. I can only imagine what
might have had to be taken out.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Yeah, about twenty pages have been taken out. We had
eighteen proofs, of which two were editorial and sixteen were lawyers.
And we continue to revise things and take things out.
Everything was done, you know, I had to get sign
offs from people, I had to try and get double sources.
The fact that I'm not a sort of tabloid journalist,
I think helps that people did talk to me, and
(05:58):
I think people trust me because my books, you know,
have always been regarded as being well researched. You know,
we have. I mean, there was stuff I was surprised
that they let through. But that's great and fun enough.
We haven't been challenged on that. I mean, we've often
had things come from left field. But I think because
it's all to be honest, it's all true. I haven't
(06:21):
made anything up. I mean, but there is a lot
of stuff that we took out very frustratingly that I
would like to have there fun enough stuff that's coming
out now, For example, the relation with Epstein with the
British Ambassador in America, Jet Peter Mandelson. There's stuff about
the length of the relationship that they had with Epstein.
They claimed it finish in twenty ten. Evidence has now
(06:42):
come out to twenty fifteen, which I had, So there's
gonna be a lot of new stuff in the paperback.
And so these new disclosures have helped me, and I
do see it as a broad investigation that it's not
just me that other people, you know, should be picking
holes at their story.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
The one thing that strikes you in this book, which
as you say, is very well researched, is the lack
of response from the royal family and the government. Why
couldn't you get hold of the information that you needed.
I know, for example, that you put in many freedom
of information requests and they were denied.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Yes, I think one of the most important things is
the ten years. But when he was a trade envoy
in twenty one to eleven, all those papers and most
of those papers should be in the National archives. He
was a taxpayer funded civil servant, and yet I haven't
in four years of requests and literally, you know, probably
two hundred requests got at anything. They use every exemption
(07:38):
possible to prevent one getting access to this material. The
Foreign Office taught people not to talk to me. They themselves,
the Yorks taught people not to talk to me. So
there has been this huge cover up by the government.
They don't want this to come out, and you know,
I think it's a shame because but of course I
understand it. It would explain who he's taking on these trips,
which included Epstein and a lot of his personal business contacts.
(08:03):
It would show who was seeing and what he was doing.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
What did he achieve in his role as a special
representative to UK Trade and Investment.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Well, I mean, you know, there are some stories that
he was effective, particularly in the Middle East. It's always
very difficult because you know, you've got nothing to judge
it against. I mean, the fact is he wasn't replaced.
The fact is that most of the ambassadors I talked
to said that he was counterproductive, that they had to
clean up the mess afterwards. He was incredibly expensive, I
mean everything was private jet and it is very difficult
(08:35):
to do an audit to work out what he achieved
at the end. And in fact, most of the ambassadors
said to me, you know, we like you know, this
is work that we do over many years. We don't
want someone just coming in who hasn't read as brief
thinks he knows how it operates and actually makes it
more difficult. So yeah, I think it was a waste
of time. I mean, he sometimes wondered what he was
doing that be Foreign Office kind of part to trade,
(08:59):
couldn't quite work out why they were sending him there,
and the ambassadors couldn't work it out. So it was
just to keep him occupied because he got as far
as he could go in the navy. He'd been promoted
as far as he could be, and they needed to
do something with him. But he would be better being
being the steward up at bell Moral than this, because he,
you know, caused all sorts of diplomatic instance, he was
(09:21):
trying to flog his house, and he was trying to
cage money off some of these people he made. You know,
he didn't understand their cultures. You know, he was a disaster.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Throughout the book we hear about how both the Duke
and Duchess leveraged their status to make money or you know,
then they seemed to be gifted a lot of money.
To me, it looks like a complete lack of dignity
to make to take money from anyone and everyone to
live on how did they see it?
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Well, I think entitled it sums it up. I think
you know, they they got onto the gravy train and
they were going to take advantage. If people were foolish
enough to upgrade them, or to give them presents and
jewels and pay them large sums of money to promote
the granbery juice, then let's take it. They're very greedy.
They like to live the j set life. This was
easy money, and they've actually taught the children to do
(10:10):
exactly the same. So there were no moral boundaries there.
I mean, I have to say the Queen was a
pretty negligent mother, and Sarah Ferguson's parents were griftis as well,
so always getting into debt, always. You know, they were
supposed to be posh, but they were all pretty vulgar
and there was no control of them. I mean, that's
(10:33):
this extraordinary thing. No one actually sort of tried to
rein them in and said this is not appropriate. You know,
you can't sell pictures of you know, the queen's grandchildren
in the bath just to make some money.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Oh my goodness, you've just sort of explained there how
Andrew's got himself into this mess. He's got himself into.
But also does it kind of come down to being
that second son. Did he just struggle to find his
role in his identity within the family.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
No, I don't believe that for a minute. I mean,
Edward and Anne are also of siblings. I mean they've
established roles, they're supporting acts, and they do a really
good job. You know. In some ways, he had all
the advantages. You know, he could pursue his career. He
was under the radar in terms of his private life.
He could have had a really good life, but because
he's greedy and naive, he wanted more so. I mean,
(11:29):
you know, of course he had these folly de grandeur
that he would become regent and he would take over
from Charles, he would give up and stuff. But you know,
he kind of always knew when he was born that
it was very unlikely he would be king, and he
should have, you know, cut his cloth accordingly. And in
(11:49):
some ways, you know, Charles it's been a bit of
a burden on him, you know, the fact his life
has been preordained. So I think Andrew had every advantage
and he basically blew every opportunity he was given as
a sort of self sabotage here. You know, he's given
opportunities and he kind of blows it.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Think people in the UK feel Prince Andrew has made
a positive contribution.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Well, there was a program on two nights ago in
which it was a sort of trial has he been
a liability to the royal family and he was voted
guilty there. His approval ratings are pretty negative and they
have been for a long time. As of hers, you know,
there's no there's no evidence. In fact, there's plenty of
efforts to show that actually he's not an asset, for example,
to charities, he's actually a problem. Same with Sarah Ferguson.
(12:33):
So no, I mean I think there's there's there's a
myth that's been sold to people that somehow you know
they do a good job. But when you start looking
at it and analyzing it, I mean that you know,
the lots of people who you know, my king is
right or wrong, and we can't criticize the monarchy. And
I think that what I hope will change is we
will now have, for example, a Royal Register of Royal interests,
(12:56):
will now have more parliamentary scrutiny of the worlds. I
hope we'll have a parliamentary inquiry into what went wrong
with him as Special Envoy, And twenty years ago MP's
were calling for the National Crime Agency to look at
his activities as Trade Envoy, and I think that they
should be looking at him again because there was stuff
that I took out for legal reasons which I'd be
(13:18):
very happy to pass the National Crime Agency, which I
think would lead to a criminal investigation.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
So do you think that this book has sealed Andrew's fate?
Do you think there is any way back for him
from here? As you mentioned, there seems to be so
much more to come.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Yeah, yeah, I know. We've got Virginia Jeffrey's book, We've
got possibly the Epstein files coming out. We've got possibly
the victims speaking up. We've got Chrace talking about him
being in handcuffs. So, I mean, you know, I'm part
of I suppose a mixture of pressures. I mean, I
think he was pretty finished beforehand. I think the interesting
question is whether Sarah Ferguson, who is the sort of
(13:55):
comeback kid, the resputant of the royal family, whether she
will manage to come back. She's very good at inventing herself.
I don't know how often she comes to New Zealand,
but she goes to Australia quite a lot, and they
all lover They all think she's a victim as opposed
to this person who just constantly reinvents herself.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Oh fascinating stuff. Andrew, thank you so much for your
time today and talking us through that. We shall watch
this space very carefully.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
It's been a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
That was biographer Andrew Loney. His book entitled The Rise
and Fall of the House of York is in stores now.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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