Prince Andrew’s life is in ruins and he has only himself to blame

Andrew’s dealings with Jeffrey Epstein have done untold damage to countless lives – and the only surprise is that the former Duke of York’s demise has been so painfully slow, says Sean O'Grady

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 insouciance towards the consequences.

That one man, of course, is Jeffrey Epstein, now no longer around to face any kind of justice, but at this juncture at least it is worth reflecting that if Andrew had never met Jeffrey, things would most likely be very different today, both for him and for Virginia Giuffre, née Roberts, whose accusations have destroyed whatever Andrew was ever going to do with the rest of his life.

Nothing can absolve this most greedy and foolish of men from his unprincely vices (AP)

None of that, of course, absolves this most greedy and foolish of men from his unprincely vices – and those do not include being “too honourable” as he infamously put it in his catastrophic Newsnight interview in 2019. It is his own excesses, his own stupidity and his own legendary arrogance that have left him where he is today.

Surveying the wreckage of ditched historic titles now “dormant”, with his robes of the order of the garter (1348) 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, winning grin, adventurous ways, and rugged charm attracted suitors and gushing headlines in equal measure. But we have lived in it.

He was rumoured to be his mother’s “favourite”, 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 his mission to save the Patagonian tooth-fish. While Charles appeared an 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.

“Andy” was a change from the stuffy ways of the palace – the decorated war hero flying his helicopter in 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 1986, he had become well established as a man of action, and somehow a more “modern” figure.

The day he got married he was given the title of “Duke of York”, a traditional high honour for the sovereign’s second son, and one that was not granted by Edward IV in 1385. The Queen’s father, later George VI, had been conscientious in the role. The last duchess before Fergie was the Queen Mother. Hard acts to follow.

Andrew’s demise has been a painfully slow one since his marriage began to break down, ending in divorce in 1996, and the decline in his standing accelerating markedly since the first serious allegations came to light more than a decade ago. He has long since faded from public view, but the revelations about his private life still periodically spill out, now joined by news of his links to Chinese espionage and a spymaster who is a member of the Chinese politburo and close to President Xi.

The royal family could not go on like this and there was surely discreditable material to come from Giuffre’s memoir, Nobody’s Girl, and from the increasing scrutiny of Chinese intelligence gathering in Britain. The last extract from the Giuffre book contained a particularly grim passage in which she writes about sex with Andrew.

Even now, in his “resignation” statement, Andrew “vigorously denies” all the allegations against him, but the fact is, no one believes him. No one believes him when he told Emily Maitlis that he’d never even met Virginia Giuffre, and that he’d been in the Pizza Express in Woking on the day in question, rather than at the Tramp nightclub and then Ghislaine Maxwell’s house in Belgravia. He told us he had had a medical condition caused by an “overdose of adrenaline” caused by being shot at in the Falklands war, one that meant he couldn’t sweat. He passed off his friendship with Epstein as networking. He said he’d cut Epstein off when he hadn’t – but even worse than that, in the latest email to emerge, Andrew said to the disgraced financier that “we will play again”. It’s unlikely that he meant chess, or even polo.

For many of us, his misbehaviour is something that provokes a shake of the head and some reflections about the wisdom of the hereditary system. But for the institution that placed so much faith in him, for the family he let down so badly, and for those caught up in the Epstein scandal, the damage is grave and lasting. He will not be forgiven.