The feud between PRINCE William and Prince Harry isn’t the only rivalry going on in the royal family at the moment.
According to royal experts, King Charles and Prince Andrew’s relationship is now “very, very bitter” due to the Duke of York’s refusal to leave his home, Royal Lodge.
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The monarch, 75, is reportedly threatening to sever ties with his younger brother, the Duke of York, 64, over his failure to vacate the Royal Lodge.
Andrew – often dubbed Elizabeth II’s favorite son – shares the home, in the grounds of Windsor Castle, with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.
The shamed duke will never return to public service after paying millions to settle an abuse case with sex trafficking victim Jeffrey Epstein, and Charles has been trying to evict him from the 30-bedroom property for 18 months as she stays in bad shape state.
Kate Mansey, royal editor of The Times, says Charles and Andrew’s rivalry appears to mirror that of the king’s own sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.
Speaking on your podcast, Royalty with Roya and Kateshe said: “I think we thought about Harry and William’s fight, but it’s very, very bitter now between Andrew and the king.”
She added: “What’s so interesting is how strained relations between the brothers have become.”
The Sun exclusively revealed that Andrew rejected the chance to move into Frogmore Cottage last year after Harry and Meghan were ordered evicted.
Andrew is said to have pointed out that he has a 75-year lease – but could Charles still force a move?
Kate continued: “Someone told me, a close friend of the king, that this can be done in an organized or disorderly way.
“Getting rid of Andrew from the Royal Lodge can be done with grace and dignity, or it can be forced upon him.
“So this is kind of a fight talk, because Charles is paying a lot of money for him to stay there – his security, his allowance.”
Palace sources insisted that Prince Andrew “remains the king’s brother” and is welcome at family events, but will never return to public service.
The disgraced duke’s police protection was removed when he stepped away from royal duties amid the Epstein scandal.
But Charles stepped in to pay his multimillion-dollar private security bill.
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The crisis shows no sign of going away after Netflix aired its hit drama Scoop detailing Andrew’s ‘car crash’ Newsnight interview.
And there is yet another representation of his shame in an Amazon series about his downfall, where Andy is played by actor Michael Sheen.
The scandal-hit father of two has stayed away from the public eye since causing controversy, taking the family to a service for the late Greek King Constantine at Windsor Castle in February in the cancer-stricken king’s absence.
But last month he was seen playing golf without a care in the world with friends in Scotland.
King Charles and Prince Andrew’s relationship
King Charles and Prince Andrew were reportedly closer as children, despite their 12-year age difference.
There are claims that the now-monarch used to read bedtime stories to the young Duke of York, and they participated in royal duties together.
In 1981, Andrew was one of the best men at Charles’ wedding to Princess Diana.
Some royal experts suggest that their relationship began to fall apart after the Duke began dating Sarah Ferguson in 1985, whom he married the following year.
Richard Fitzwilliams identified the period when Andrew’s marriage “began to disintegrate and Sarah Ferguson became involved in a variety of controversial activities” that the bad blood came to the surface.
“I mean, I think it’s very clear that Charles had doubts,” he continued, adding that there were also problems with “the way Andrew handled his post” as “special representative for British trade.”
In November 2019, things really came to a head when Andrew’s disastrous Newsnight interview aired, in which he failed to say he regretted his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
The pair appear to have met in the early 1990s.
Fitzwilliams added: “Charles must have been very concerned about some of the company his brother kept.”
Andrew was forced to abandon his royal duties following the BBC broadcast and was later stripped of several titles and patronages amid his legal dispute with Virginia Giuffre.
Any hope that attitudes towards Andrew will soften now that Charles is king seem unrealistic.
Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told The Sun: “The King undoubtedly has a problem, and the Royal Family has very, very clearly, extremely serious and embarrassing perpetual problems with Prince Andrew.”
He said that the differences between the two brothers, however, were striking throughout their lives.
“They seem to have remained completely opposite, actually, in many ways,” he explained.
“Of course there is a 12-year age difference between King Charles and Prince Andrew,” he continued, adding that they “didn’t have much in common.”
I think we thought about Harry and William’s fight, but this is very, very bitter now between Andrew and the King
Kate Mansey
“Charles is quite intellectual, serious, sensitive. Andrew, quite arrogant, extroverted.”
Referring to the Royal Lodge dispute, Mr Fitzwilliams said: “Could you argue what his aim is now?
“He has no real role, never will. So what happens, and then he should get some money.
“Well, that’s up to the king, obviously. It’s an embarrassing situation.
“The facts are, however, that he still remains a terrible and terrible embarrassment to the Royal Family, but that is a different matter.”
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‘There is no way back for Prince Andrew,’ says PR guru
PRINCE Andrew’s reputation is irreparably damaged and he will never be able to engineer a return to public life, according to one of Britain’s leading PR gurus.
Brand and culture expert Nick Ede, who runs PR agency East of Eden, called the embarrassed royal “deluded” for thinking he could ever return to royal duties and encouraged him to give it up and ‘enjoy his life’ in exile.
It follows the release of Scoop – a Netflix film based on the 2019 interview he gave to Newsnight.
Nick said: “There is no way back for him.
“I think you know this perpetual idea that he might still be back. Nobody cares. He has no fans.
“There is no one out there who says ‘We want to see Prince Andrew’, not a single person. I think he has to realize that. But I think it’s going to take a long, long time for him to really understand. He is very deluded.
“In my opinion, the best thing he could do is enjoy life. He has beautiful daughters. He has a great relationship with Fergie, he has a beautiful house.
“Just live a peaceful life.”
Reflecting on the interview from five years ago – the fallout of which led to Andrew stepping back from royal duties “for the foreseeable future” – Nick compared the fallout to Frost vs Nixon and said he would have encouraged him not to do it.
He said: “If I was advising him, I would say, stay still, stay still, just get on the ground. You know you’re a prince. Enjoy the life you lead, but don’t open that can of worms, because that’s what it is.
“There was no admission that a relationship with someone like Epstein was terribly toxic. There was no idea that there were many trafficking victims whose lives were completely ruined by Epstein. He didn’t seem to think that the association he had with that man was anything other than positive.
“I think his worst faux pas was obviously being in that interview and agreeing to it in the first place, not realizing that he was actually going to be interviewed by a very, very good journalist who was going to ask him questions that he might not have liked. .
“But I think what this did really showed how archaic Prince Andrew is in his views and thoughts.
“Read the room. He never read a room.”
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
