October 19, 2025 • 11 mins
As commentators reflect on the wreckage of Prince Andrew’s reputation, new reports trace his decades-long slide — from Falklands war hero to tabloid scandal magnet. The Independent and other outlets recount his disastrous Epstein ties, financial controversies, and failed attempts at rehabilitation. Royal watchers now see this as King William’s first great triumph, marking a new era of ruthless modernization inside the House of Windsor.
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Check out "Palace Intrigue Presents: King WIlliam" here.
👑 Follow our hit series Crown and Controversy! Season 1 is fully available now for everyone. Season 2 has new episodes every Sunday on the regular feed. GET THE FULL SEASON 2 BEFORE REGULAR LISTENERS as a subscriber! Hit that "UNINTERRUPTED LISTENING" Banner on the top of the Apple player. AND listen to Crown and Controversy "NORWAY'S ROYAL REBELS" here and get the full season as a premium subscriber now.
PREMIUM SUBSCRIBERS get all these shows plus Deep Crown COMMERCIAL FREE LISTENING!! NO ADS!!
👑 The Palace Intrigue Social Hub is Live! Join the conversation on Facebook and Instagram or click the links to start your royal journey!
Plus you unlock 25+ series from Caloroga Shark Media!se
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Calorogus Shark Media.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hello and welcome to Palace Intrigue. I am your host,
Mark Francis. In The Independent, Sean O'Grady writes, never has
one man visited so much misery upon one family, damaged,
the British monarchy so grievously and indeed distressed so many more,
and all with such an apparent arrogance and insuciance towards
the consequences. That one man, of course is Jeffrey Epstein,
(00:40):
now no longer around to face any kind of justice.
But at this juncture at least it's worth reflecting that
if Andrew had never met Jeffrey, things would most likely
be very different today for both him and Virginia Jeffrey
nee Roberts, whose accusations have destroyed whatever Andrew was ever
going to do with the rest of his life, Irving
(01:00):
the wreckage of ditched historic titles now dormant, with his
robes of the Order of the Garter now consigned to
the wardrobe, it is difficult to imagine another world where
Andrew was the most popular of the royals. A man
whose handsome looks, whinning grin adventurous ways, and rugged charm
attracted suitors and gushing headlines in equal measure, but we
(01:21):
have lived in it. He was rumored to be his
mother's favorite, and he struck an embarrassing contrast with his
more sensitive, even soppy, elder brother, ridiculed for talking to
his plants, his interest in mysticism and mission to save
the Patagonian toothfish. While Charles appeared in eccentric, Andrew didn't
seem to spend much time worrying about anything to any
great depth, though honest reflection would have done him some good.
(01:45):
Andy was a change from the stuffy ways of the Palace,
the decorated war hero flying his helicopter into the Falklands War,
married to the vivacious breath of fresh air Fergie, who
liked a laugh just as he did. By the time
of his own fairytale wedding in nineteen eighty six, he
had become well established as a man of action and
somehow a more modern figure. An article in The Independent
(02:06):
reminds us all of the trouble Andrew has caused. In
nineteen eighty four, a young Prince Andrew made headlines for
all the wrong reasons during an official visit to Los Angeles.
During a construction project in the Watts neighborhood. He stunned
reporters by picking up a can of paint and sprang
it at the press pack. When asked about his behavior,
he smiled and said I enjoyed that, before wiping his
(02:27):
hands on the newspaper, a moment that would set the
tone for decades of royal embarrassment to come. In two
thousand and seven, questions over his financial dealings surfaced when
Andrew sold his Sunning Hill Park estate near Windsor Castle
for fifteen million pounds, around twenty percent more than the
asking price. The Bayer Kazakh billionaire to Murr Kibiliev, happened
(02:48):
to be the son in law of then President Nurselton
and as abray of, prompting suspicions that the deal was
less about property and more about influence. By twenty ten,
his ex wife Sarah Ferguson had added to the controversy
when an undercover reporter caught her in film apparently offering
to sell access to the Prince for five hundred thousand pounds.
Although Andrew denied involvement, the sting reinforced the perception that
(03:11):
money and proximity to the Duke of York often came
hand in hand. In twenty eleven, Andrew's long standing friendship
with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein forced him to resign as
Britain's Special Trade Envoy. The Prince was also facing scrutiny
over links to Muhamagha Dafi's son Safe and to a
convicted Libyan gun smuggler, connections that deepened concerns about his
(03:33):
judgment and associations. Then came July twenty nineteen, when Epstein
was arrested for sex trafficking. His death in a New
York jail a month later reignited scrutiny of Andrew's alleged
sexual encounters with one of Epstein's victims, Virginia Geoffrey, who
claimed she had been trafficked to the Prince at age seventeen.
Andrew denied the allegations, but could not shake the stain
(03:53):
of association. On the sixteenth of November twenty nineteen, Andrew
attempted to clear his name in a BBC Newsnight interview
with Emily Mateless, a disastrous performance that only worsened his standing.
He defended his friendship with Epstein, failed to show empathy
for victims and offered bizarre explanations, including his insistence that
he could not sweat. Public outrage was swift and overwhelming.
(04:17):
By November twenty twenty, Buckingham Palace confirmed that Andrew would
suspend all royal duties for the foreseeable future. Within days,
he had been stripped of his more than two hundred
and thirty charitable patronages, effectively banished from public life. In
twenty twenty two, Andrew agreed to settle a civil lawsuit
brought by Virginia Geoffrey in the United States for a
reported ten million pounds. The Prince admitted no wrongdoing, but
(04:40):
acknowledged that Jeoffrey had suffered as a victim of abuse.
By twenty twenty four, new concerns emerged when court documents
revealed Andrew's association with a Chinese businessman later barred from
the UK over espionage fears. Security officials warned that the
relationship could have been exploited to influence the Prince. The
(05:01):
saga took a tragic turn in April twenty twenty five,
when Virginia Geoffrey died by suicide at her home in
Western Australia. Six months later, British newspapers revealed that Andrew
had sent Epstein an email in twenty eleven, months after
claiming he had cut tires, telling him we are in
this together and will have to rise above it. For
the royal family, it marked the point of no return.
(05:22):
More pallacy, just a moment. In the Royalist Tom Sykes
called this the first great triumph of King William the Fifth.
Sykes writes, everyone can see the truth. Charles looks exhausted,
He has lost alarming weight, and he is still receiving
regular radiotherapy and immunotherapy. He spends long stretches at High
(05:44):
Grove and Bowmorl in near total rest. Yet in the
official narrative he is merely convalescing, soldiering on a few
discreete lines are inserted, like the ones slipped into a
telegraph piece this week the king, whose cancer diagnosis has
given him other pressing priorities as a form of insurance
for when the worst happens. The announcement of Charles's illness
fired the starting gun on what courtiers called the change
(06:07):
of rain. From that moment, power began to flow from
the king to the air, and from that moment, William's
patience for his father's sentimentality, for his brother's chaos, and
for his uncle's entitlement ran out. Charles tried to order
Andrew out. The plan was hopelessly under researched. The Crown
Estate least gave Andrew an ironclad right to stay, but
(06:29):
the optics were brutal. Anonymous briefings suggested he might have
his electricity cut off. The King looked petty and impotent,
Andrew refused to budge. Charles will survived longer than was
expected in those first fraught few weeks. Still, the energy
now flows to William, whose team, young, digital ruthless are
clearly ready to give the institution the most almighty kick
(06:50):
up the behind. This is the pre succession. One former
courtier told me. It's what Charles did to the Queen
when he fired her private secretary Christopher, only now it's
being done to him. It is a curious but familiar moment,
a dying monarch too proud to abdicate, an heir already
acting as king, and a family rearranging itself around a
slow motion and what remains of Charles' reign is now
(07:13):
less about governance than legacy, about how he will be remembered.
He has spent his life seeking reconciliation with his subjects,
his sons, and his brother, but reconciliation is not the
mood of the next generation. The Windsor House that William's
building will be leaner, sharper, and less forgiving in the sun.
Matt Wilkinson analyzes it is far cleaner for all involved
(07:35):
that Andrew is seen making his own decision to give
up use of his titles, rather than being forced by
the hand of the King or Parliament. It is also
better for Andrew's rehabilitation and reputation that he has seen
making the difficult choices himself. At least he is able
to say that he is attempting to no longer embarrass
the royal family, the King, the United Kingdom, or himself.
(07:57):
And maybe, just maybe, Andrew hopes that by making the
gesture pressurable ease on his tenancy of Royal Lodge. Royal
watcher Jenny Bond tells The Mirror that Charles still has
to deal with his Royal Lodge issue. I suspect the
King will let this one drop for a while. He
has forced his brother to give up his titles and honors.
Perhaps that is sufficient for now. He has tried in
the past to persuade Andrew to leave Royal Lodge, but
(08:19):
to no avail. Andrew has a cast iron tenancy agreement,
and as long as he can abide by the terms
of that agreement and pay the costs of upkeep, it's
next to impossible to make him leave. I think the
King now intends to let that matter rest, at least
for the time being. I think the Royal family is
now on better footing. Bond described Andrew as a canker
(08:40):
eating into the institution of monarchy, noting that while headlines
about the Epstein scandal would not disappear entirely, at least
the Palace can say they have taken what is almost
the ultimate sanction public humiliation once again for Andrew and
the enforced relinquishing of his titles. Turning to the Prince
of Wales's, Bond suggested that William was instrumental pushing for
(09:00):
the move. I think William has been pushing for tougher
action against his uncle for a long time. It must
be so dispiriting to be working hard to make the
monarchy relatable, modern and a force for a good in
the world, only for its reputation to be so relentlessly
trashed by lurid headlines about Andrew. I suspect he was
heavily involved in the discussions about what action should be taken,
(09:22):
and I think William was the driving force in twisting
Andrew's arms so far behind his back that he finally
squealed that he would give up his title. He is
set on making changes to the monarchy, and once his
mind is made up, he is completely focused on achieving
his aims. The Andrew problem was becoming an intolerable obstruction
to those aims, and William was determined to clear the way.
(09:44):
On the impact to Andrew's daughters, she adds, whatever else
you might think about Andrew and Sarah, they are brilliant
parents and have brought up two very decent young women.
They will remain princesses and be welcome at events with
the rest of the royal family, such as Christmas at Sandringham.
They are extreme close to their parents and have stayed
loyal through thick and thin. I'm sure they'll be supporting
(10:04):
Andrew and Sarah through this latest crisis, just as they
have been there for them in the past. They must
believe their father's Protestations of innocence, otherwise they surely couldn't
live with themselves, and there have it. If you'd like
to email us, address is the Palace Intrigue at gmail
dot com. Please follow us on Spotify, Apple, Facebook, Instagram,
(10:25):
all the social hubs, and leave us a nice review.
If you're enjoining the show, don't forget today. All our
new shows are out. You have Palace Intrigue here, you
have Palace Weekly. You have Crown and Controversy season two.
You have Crown and Controversy Norway, The Royal Rebels and
our new series King William presented by Palace Intrigue. You
(10:48):
can get all the links for those new shows in
our show notes, or just search Palace Intrigue on your
favorite podcast player. All great shows, and if you are
a subscriber, you can get those whole season ahead of
everybody else and commercial free. Just hit that button up
top there on the Apple Player that says listen uninterrupted
(11:08):
by Mark Francis My thanks to John McDermott, this Palace
Intrigue and God Turns
Calorogus Shark Media.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hello and welcome to Palace Intrigue. I am your host,
Mark Francis. In The Independent, Sean O'Grady writes, never has
one man visited so much misery upon one family, damaged,
the British monarchy so grievously and indeed distressed so many more,
and all with such an apparent arrogance and insuciance towards
the consequences. That one man, of course is Jeffrey Epstein,
(00:40):
now no longer around to face any kind of justice.
But at this juncture at least it's worth reflecting that
if Andrew had never met Jeffrey, things would most likely
be very different today for both him and Virginia Jeffrey
nee Roberts, whose accusations have destroyed whatever Andrew was ever
going to do with the rest of his life, Irving
(01:00):
the wreckage of ditched historic titles now dormant, with his
robes of the Order of the Garter now consigned to
the wardrobe, it is difficult to imagine another world where
Andrew was the most popular of the royals. A man
whose handsome looks, whinning grin adventurous ways, and rugged charm
attracted suitors and gushing headlines in equal measure, but we
(01:21):
have lived in it. He was rumored to be his
mother's favorite, and he struck an embarrassing contrast with his
more sensitive, even soppy, elder brother, ridiculed for talking to
his plants, his interest in mysticism and mission to save
the Patagonian toothfish. While Charles appeared in eccentric, Andrew didn't
seem to spend much time worrying about anything to any
great depth, though honest reflection would have done him some good.
(01:45):
Andy was a change from the stuffy ways of the Palace,
the decorated war hero flying his helicopter into the Falklands War,
married to the vivacious breath of fresh air Fergie, who
liked a laugh just as he did. By the time
of his own fairytale wedding in nineteen eighty six, he
had become well established as a man of action and
somehow a more modern figure. An article in The Independent
(02:06):
reminds us all of the trouble Andrew has caused. In
nineteen eighty four, a young Prince Andrew made headlines for
all the wrong reasons during an official visit to Los Angeles.
During a construction project in the Watts neighborhood. He stunned
reporters by picking up a can of paint and sprang
it at the press pack. When asked about his behavior,
he smiled and said I enjoyed that, before wiping his
(02:27):
hands on the newspaper, a moment that would set the
tone for decades of royal embarrassment to come. In two
thousand and seven, questions over his financial dealings surfaced when
Andrew sold his Sunning Hill Park estate near Windsor Castle
for fifteen million pounds, around twenty percent more than the
asking price. The Bayer Kazakh billionaire to Murr Kibiliev, happened
(02:48):
to be the son in law of then President Nurselton
and as abray of, prompting suspicions that the deal was
less about property and more about influence. By twenty ten,
his ex wife Sarah Ferguson had added to the controversy
when an undercover reporter caught her in film apparently offering
to sell access to the Prince for five hundred thousand pounds.
Although Andrew denied involvement, the sting reinforced the perception that
(03:11):
money and proximity to the Duke of York often came
hand in hand. In twenty eleven, Andrew's long standing friendship
with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein forced him to resign as
Britain's Special Trade Envoy. The Prince was also facing scrutiny
over links to Muhamagha Dafi's son Safe and to a
convicted Libyan gun smuggler, connections that deepened concerns about his
(03:33):
judgment and associations. Then came July twenty nineteen, when Epstein
was arrested for sex trafficking. His death in a New
York jail a month later reignited scrutiny of Andrew's alleged
sexual encounters with one of Epstein's victims, Virginia Geoffrey, who
claimed she had been trafficked to the Prince at age seventeen.
Andrew denied the allegations, but could not shake the stain
(03:53):
of association. On the sixteenth of November twenty nineteen, Andrew
attempted to clear his name in a BBC Newsnight interview
with Emily Mateless, a disastrous performance that only worsened his standing.
He defended his friendship with Epstein, failed to show empathy
for victims and offered bizarre explanations, including his insistence that
he could not sweat. Public outrage was swift and overwhelming.
(04:17):
By November twenty twenty, Buckingham Palace confirmed that Andrew would
suspend all royal duties for the foreseeable future. Within days,
he had been stripped of his more than two hundred
and thirty charitable patronages, effectively banished from public life. In
twenty twenty two, Andrew agreed to settle a civil lawsuit
brought by Virginia Geoffrey in the United States for a
reported ten million pounds. The Prince admitted no wrongdoing, but
(04:40):
acknowledged that Jeoffrey had suffered as a victim of abuse.
By twenty twenty four, new concerns emerged when court documents
revealed Andrew's association with a Chinese businessman later barred from
the UK over espionage fears. Security officials warned that the
relationship could have been exploited to influence the Prince. The
(05:01):
saga took a tragic turn in April twenty twenty five,
when Virginia Geoffrey died by suicide at her home in
Western Australia. Six months later, British newspapers revealed that Andrew
had sent Epstein an email in twenty eleven, months after
claiming he had cut tires, telling him we are in
this together and will have to rise above it. For
the royal family, it marked the point of no return.
(05:22):
More pallacy, just a moment. In the Royalist Tom Sykes
called this the first great triumph of King William the Fifth.
Sykes writes, everyone can see the truth. Charles looks exhausted,
He has lost alarming weight, and he is still receiving
regular radiotherapy and immunotherapy. He spends long stretches at High
(05:44):
Grove and Bowmorl in near total rest. Yet in the
official narrative he is merely convalescing, soldiering on a few
discreete lines are inserted, like the ones slipped into a
telegraph piece this week the king, whose cancer diagnosis has
given him other pressing priorities as a form of insurance
for when the worst happens. The announcement of Charles's illness
fired the starting gun on what courtiers called the change
(06:07):
of rain. From that moment, power began to flow from
the king to the air, and from that moment, William's
patience for his father's sentimentality, for his brother's chaos, and
for his uncle's entitlement ran out. Charles tried to order
Andrew out. The plan was hopelessly under researched. The Crown
Estate least gave Andrew an ironclad right to stay, but
(06:29):
the optics were brutal. Anonymous briefings suggested he might have
his electricity cut off. The King looked petty and impotent,
Andrew refused to budge. Charles will survived longer than was
expected in those first fraught few weeks. Still, the energy
now flows to William, whose team, young, digital ruthless are
clearly ready to give the institution the most almighty kick
(06:50):
up the behind. This is the pre succession. One former
courtier told me. It's what Charles did to the Queen
when he fired her private secretary Christopher, only now it's
being done to him. It is a curious but familiar moment,
a dying monarch too proud to abdicate, an heir already
acting as king, and a family rearranging itself around a
slow motion and what remains of Charles' reign is now
(07:13):
less about governance than legacy, about how he will be remembered.
He has spent his life seeking reconciliation with his subjects,
his sons, and his brother, but reconciliation is not the
mood of the next generation. The Windsor House that William's
building will be leaner, sharper, and less forgiving in the sun.
Matt Wilkinson analyzes it is far cleaner for all involved
(07:35):
that Andrew is seen making his own decision to give
up use of his titles, rather than being forced by
the hand of the King or Parliament. It is also
better for Andrew's rehabilitation and reputation that he has seen
making the difficult choices himself. At least he is able
to say that he is attempting to no longer embarrass
the royal family, the King, the United Kingdom, or himself.
(07:57):
And maybe, just maybe, Andrew hopes that by making the
gesture pressurable ease on his tenancy of Royal Lodge. Royal
watcher Jenny Bond tells The Mirror that Charles still has
to deal with his Royal Lodge issue. I suspect the
King will let this one drop for a while. He
has forced his brother to give up his titles and honors.
Perhaps that is sufficient for now. He has tried in
the past to persuade Andrew to leave Royal Lodge, but
(08:19):
to no avail. Andrew has a cast iron tenancy agreement,
and as long as he can abide by the terms
of that agreement and pay the costs of upkeep, it's
next to impossible to make him leave. I think the
King now intends to let that matter rest, at least
for the time being. I think the Royal family is
now on better footing. Bond described Andrew as a canker
(08:40):
eating into the institution of monarchy, noting that while headlines
about the Epstein scandal would not disappear entirely, at least
the Palace can say they have taken what is almost
the ultimate sanction public humiliation once again for Andrew and
the enforced relinquishing of his titles. Turning to the Prince
of Wales's, Bond suggested that William was instrumental pushing for
(09:00):
the move. I think William has been pushing for tougher
action against his uncle for a long time. It must
be so dispiriting to be working hard to make the
monarchy relatable, modern and a force for a good in
the world, only for its reputation to be so relentlessly
trashed by lurid headlines about Andrew. I suspect he was
heavily involved in the discussions about what action should be taken,
(09:22):
and I think William was the driving force in twisting
Andrew's arms so far behind his back that he finally
squealed that he would give up his title. He is
set on making changes to the monarchy, and once his
mind is made up, he is completely focused on achieving
his aims. The Andrew problem was becoming an intolerable obstruction
to those aims, and William was determined to clear the way.
(09:44):
On the impact to Andrew's daughters, she adds, whatever else
you might think about Andrew and Sarah, they are brilliant
parents and have brought up two very decent young women.
They will remain princesses and be welcome at events with
the rest of the royal family, such as Christmas at Sandringham.
They are extreme close to their parents and have stayed
loyal through thick and thin. I'm sure they'll be supporting
(10:04):
Andrew and Sarah through this latest crisis, just as they
have been there for them in the past. They must
believe their father's Protestations of innocence, otherwise they surely couldn't
live with themselves, and there have it. If you'd like
to email us, address is the Palace Intrigue at gmail
dot com. Please follow us on Spotify, Apple, Facebook, Instagram,
(10:25):
all the social hubs, and leave us a nice review.
If you're enjoining the show, don't forget today. All our
new shows are out. You have Palace Intrigue here, you
have Palace Weekly. You have Crown and Controversy season two.
You have Crown and Controversy Norway, The Royal Rebels and
our new series King William presented by Palace Intrigue. You
(10:48):
can get all the links for those new shows in
our show notes, or just search Palace Intrigue on your
favorite podcast player. All great shows, and if you are
a subscriber, you can get those whole season ahead of
everybody else and commercial free. Just hit that button up
top there on the Apple Player that says listen uninterrupted
(11:08):
by Mark Francis My thanks to John McDermott, this Palace
Intrigue and God Turns
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