Who in the Royal Family Was Involved With Epstein
The Downfall of Prince Andrew: Here'due south What You Need to Know
After a New York judge ruled that a ceremonious adjust against the prince could motion forward, he was stripped of his military titles. What happens at present?
He was a dashing helicopter airplane pilot and war hero, who absorbed millions of Britons during the Falkland Islands war. Royal watchers liked to say he was a favorite of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.
These days, yet, Prince Andrew, 61, is cartoon global infamy and revulsion over accusations that he raped a teenager in 2001.
The prince has repeatedly denied the accusations. But his once-glittering majestic life was shattered irreparably in January after a federal approximate in Manhattan ruled that a civil example related to the sexual abuse accusations could go along.
The reaction from Buckingham Palace was swift and punishing. Just a day later, the prince'due south 95-year-old mother stripped him of his war machine titles and royal patronages. Going forward, the prince will no longer utilise the title "His Royal Highness," a symbol of his status equally a senior fellow member of the regal family. The Lord's day, a popular British tabloid, summed information technology upwards: Prince Andrew had been "finer banished."
Looming over the case is the prince's friendship with the former financier and bedevilled sexual activity offender Jeffrey Epstein, who the accuser, Virginia Giuffre, claimed had trafficked her to the prince. Mr. Epstein committed suicide in prison in 2019. On Jan. 26, lawyers for Prince Andrew requested a jury trial to contest Ms. Giuffre's claim, heightening the prospect of a lurid sexual-corruption lawsuit unfolding in a Manhattan courtroom and potentially tarnishing the reputation of the royal family.
The case has deeply shaken the royal family, already buffeted past scandal and the rancorous deviation of Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan. The timing could hardly be worse: Queen Elizabeth is poised to gloat her 70th anniversary on the throne this twelvemonth, and the monarchy — the symbol and unifier of an frequently restive nation — has been seeking to burnish and renew its brand for future generations.
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Raising questions about form, entitlement and toxic masculinity, the accusations against Prince Andrew have likewise laid bare the changing face of Uk during the #MeToo era.
And while the monarchy has outlived previous crises — war, abdications, revolutions, murderous kings — the latest one has also underscored how a resilient and venerable institution tin still exist battered by the bad behavior and poor judgment of its royal members.
Who is Prince Andrew?
Built-in on Feb. 19, 1960, Prince Andrew attended Gordonstoun boarding school in Scotland, his father'due south alma mater. He appears to have inherited his father's adventurous bent, and went on to a distinguished military machine career.
A spare, rather than the heir, to the throne, his busy bachelorhood — linked to actresses and models, amid others — was tabloid fodder, earning him the nickname "Randy Andy" and a reputation every bit a playboy prince.
When he married Sarah Ferguson in 1986, he became the Duke of York. The spousal relationship concluded in divorce a decade later amid accusations of infidelity. Only the couple, who had 2 daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, remained shut. They proceed to share a home at Imperial Lodge, a residence virtually Windsor Castle.
While as a young human being Prince Andrew was known as something of a rake, he earned respect after training as a naval officer and serving as a helicopter airplane pilot during the Falkland Islands war. His appetite for risk was axiomatic in 2012 when, to enhance money for charity, he abseiled down the side of the Shard, an iconic London skyscraper, from the 87th floor.
Paradigm
Before becoming ensnared by scandal, Prince Andrew's regal duties included serving as a trade representative for Uk, a role that brought him into the orbit of the superrich. He was a patron of dozens of charities, and had viii British military titles.
Royal watchers had seen him as the queen's favorite, possibly because of a jokey personality and a noun military background that accept echoes of his father.
Why is Prince Andrew in problem?
Prince Andrew's woes are largely the result of his association with Mr. Epstein, who was being held on federal sexual activity trafficking charges when he died, and Ghislaine Maxwell, who was recently found guilty of conspiring with Mr. Epstein to recruit, groom and abuse underage girls. The accusations against Prince Andrew surfaced in 2015 during a federal lawsuit against Mr. Epstein in Florida. Ane accuser, Ms. Giuffre, claimed that the prince had raped her when she was 17.
Later on a disastrous BBC interview, broadcast in November 2019, in which he tried to explicate his friendship with Mr. Epstein — and spurred a backfire subsequently characterizing the beliefs of the convicted sex offender as "unbecoming" — the prince announced he was indefinitely stepping away from public life. During the interview, the prince said he had "no recollection" of coming together Ms. Giuffre.
But he could not explain a widely published photo taken in London that showed him with his arm effectually the girl'due south waist. He told the BBC that he had no memory of the photograph "always beingness taken." He also fabricated several bizarre claims to deflect his accuser'due south charges, among them that he was medically incapable of sweating. Ms. Giuffre has asserted that the prince was sweating profusely during one of their meetings.
In August 2021, Ms. Giuffre filed a lawsuit against Prince Andrew in federal court in Manhattan, repeating her accusations. His lawyers take tried to get the case dismissed, simply on Jan. 12 a judge allowed the suit to proceed.
What are the next steps in the case against Prince Andrew?
If both sides concord to a settlement, which would bring the civil lawsuit to an end, Prince Andrew would probable not accept to admit any liability or wrongdoing, but he could face sizable financial costs. Under an agreed-upon scheduling society in the lawsuit, lawyers for Ms. Giuffre and Andrew must complete legal discovery — the exchange of documents and the taking of depositions of experts — past July 14. If the case goes to trial before a jury, as Prince Andrew's lawyers accept requested, it could atomic number 82 to the public airing of tawdry and damaging details about the prince that could farther undermine the monarchy.
How has the queen reacted?
Afterward Jan's ruling in the sexual abuse lawsuit, Buckingham Palace announced that the prince would be relinquishing his armed services titles and royal charities. In a stinging rebuke, the palace likewise said the prince would no longer use the championship "His Majestic Highness." The palace'south terse statement said that Andrew would "continue not to undertake whatsoever public duties" and that he "is defending this example as a private citizen."
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The linguistic communication of the palace's annunciation appeared carefully calibrated to stave off any efforts by the prince to rehabilitate himself.
The decision to deprive Andrew of his military machine titles and the honorific "His Regal Highness" puts him on the same footing every bit his nephew, Prince Harry, who was forced to give up both after he and his married woman withdrew from imperial duties and moved to Southern California in 2020.
What does this mean for the royal family?
Queen Elizabeth II will mark 70 years on the throne in Feb, which was supposed to offer an opportunity to reframe the royal narrative later three years of unrelenting turmoil. But at present the legal case could bandage a curtain over her celebrations. There are also deeper, more long-lasting risks for the monarchy as it seeks to remain relevant in the age of TikTok.
The queen remains honey by the British public for her work ethic and long service; she has been served past 14 prime ministers, showtime with Winston Churchill, and has edged out Queen Victoria as the longest-reigning monarch in British history. But members of the younger generation have come up of age during a period when the monarchy has been rocked by scandal, and the accusations against Prince Andrew are helping to solidify that perception.
As it is, in multicultural United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland and across, some have already felt alienated from the monarchy after Meghan and Harry's difference. The sense of it being an anachronistic family out of affect with contemporary mores was reinforced during an explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey in which Meghan, a biracial former extra, raised the result of racism within the royal family.
The relegation of Andrew to the royal wilderness will besides reinforce the royal model of Prince Charles, who volition succeed his female parent after her death and who has been advocating a streamlined Firm of Windsor.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/article/prince-andrew-news-epstein-queen.html
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