While we can all appreciate the fact that some British media outlets are trying to report on Prince Andrew and keep one spotlight on his predation and legal mess, I do feel like they’re just recycling the same old story with hardly any new details. For months, we’ve known that Andrew barely has any money, despite the fact that just four years ago, he was cash-flush enough to buy a $22 million Swiss chalet on a weird payment plan. Now he’s sold off the chalet to pay his debt, but I guess he doesn’t have anything left over? So Andrew is officially broke-ass and yes, the Queen is paying his legal bills. We’ve known that for months. Please allow the Telegraph (via the Daily Mail) to repeat it once again:
The Queen is spending millions of pounds funding Prince Andrew’s fight against sex abuse allegations, reports say. The Duke of York is being sued in New York by Virginia Giuffre, now 38, who claims he sexually abused her on three separate occasions when she was 17 — in London, New York and on billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s Caribbean island. Andrew, 61, has consistently and strongly denied the allegations.
Her Majesty, 95, agreed to pay for the duke’s legal defence last year shortly after his disastrous interview on BBC Newsnight, according to the Daily Telegraph. The duke last week expanded his American legal team to include Melissa Lerner alongside his lead counsel Andrew Brettler. Mr Brettler is thought to be charging the Duke around $2,000 (£1,476) an hour.
The Queen will source funds from her private Duchy of Lancaster estate, the newspaper reported. Royal courtiers are said to expect the bill to run into millions as the civil case against Andrew continues for months or even years. And a potential settlement or damages payout would cost millions more on top of the overall bill.
Lerner is from Los Angeles-based Lavley Singer — a top law firm known for making celebrities’ legal problems disappear.
While I don’t know Virginia Giuffre, my guess is that she would have been fine with a cash settlement, just as long as there was no non-disclosure agreement attached. That’s what happened when Ghislaine Maxwell settled with Virginia: Maxwell paid up and there was no NDA. What Virginia wants most of all is some kind of admission of the harm done to her by Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein and Prince Andrew. Anyway, my point is that if Andrew’s British lawyers were worth a damn, they would have told Andrew to quietly settle this with Virginia years ago and it would have likely saved the Queen a lot of money. But here we are. I don’t doubt that when it’s all said and done, Andrew’s legal bill and potential settlement with Virginia will go far past $5 million.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, WENN.
He probably has had lawyers telling him to settle and he refuses to. I honestly think he doesn’t believe he really did anything truly wrong. Maybe offside/unbecoming but not morally/legally wrong.
I don’t think that interview would have happened if he had any sense of reality.
I feel like Andrew felt he was doing Virginia a favour by allowing her access to the royal penis.
He has never been that bright. He thinks he is because he is in the good books of his mother who is blinded by her love for him. He thought the interview went well and must have been so shocked at the public’s reaction. The UK right now is a mess. Food and fuel shortages due to Brexit. People are out of work and they’ve had their benefits cut. Policemen raping and killing women is bringing up a lot of strong feelings. The irony of a fellow woman funding a fight against another woman is not lost on some. This is the queen who was given extra money during covid. The one who asked for volunteers to weed her garden. And yet she found millions of pounds to support her son.
Agreed on all points.
Oh, god. The money is a pittance compared to what that old bitty has stashed on the Isle of Jersey.
I think you’re spot on.
He has spent his whole life being told he’s better than the commoners and they’re lucky to be able to engage with him. Never mind the more nefarious things that are just part and parcel of royal life. I honestly don’t think he feels he has done anything wrong.
I don’t think he thinks he did anything wrong and – I’ve said this before on here – i don’t think the queen does either. she probably thinks “he’s handsome and a prince, of course the girls are just throwing themselves at him!!!” She’s not thinking about victims of trafficking or lack of consent or age differences or anything like that. we’ve come a long way when it comes to discussions of consent, harassment, rape, trafficking, etc – but we haven’t come far enough and someone as old and insulated as the queen is going to be even more backwards in her thinking.
but a good lawyer AND a good PR person should have spent the past few years just hammering that into Andrew.
Becks you have to assume that they keep those people around. I strongly suspect that for roles like that they keep the ones who agree with them and say what they want to hear and get rid of the others.
No that’s true. I don’t know about his lawyers, but at the very least his PR person has been a bit of a disaster, to put it mildly. (didnt someone quit after the interview?)
A family that has sought to carve out an exception to diversity and internal complaint laws in the 20th century, will definitely not see themselves as having to follow other laws like ordinary people.
Unfortunately, this does not appear to be a teachable moment for the BRF.
…But sure, be mad that Meghan is on the cover of Time with Harry.
For the first time abolish the monarchy trended on twitter. Many are very upset that she is paying for Andrew’s lawyers. Also the queen was booed in Scotland. I feel a change is coming.
You know what im wondering? How andrew managed to pay for B&E’s security if he has no income. Because for YEARS it was reported that he paid for that privately
You make a valid point. It won’t take long to put things together. People are asking questions and it’s not looking good for the family. Andrew will surely hasten the downfall of that family.
I am convinced he was making all sorts of shady side deals with his whole Pitch@Palace thing and exchanging access for money. And then there was the sale of his old estate for millions above the market price to a rather sketchy businessman. So I think there would have been money for security for Beatrice and Eugenie. I also suspect QEII was quietly passing him money all along from her “private” funds. And there’s also the fact that QEII doesn’t have to report what the sovereign grant money is spent on.
Andrew is as sleazy as they come. And greedy and stupid too, because the amount of money he would have been skimming should have set him up just fine if invested smartly.
I hope that jubilee turns into a shitshow full of protests.
+1
That’s a good start (the booing and Twitter abolish trending) but these efforts must be sustained, and there must be newspaper columns linking the RF’s actions to these disapproving reactions; otherwise, the RF and BM will claim the protesters were just saying “Boo-urns” you know?
@Elizabeth Regina, your news that the queen was booed in Scotland just made my day. Thank you for that. And thank you Scotland.
This, more than anything, will be the downfall of the monarchy.
Meghan and Harry are just pawns of distraction. The real rot is with Andrew.
The younger generation that the royals depend on for the continuation of the monarchy will see the hypocrisy in treatment btwn how M&H were treated and compare it with the nonce, and will know that Royal morality and superiority is inauthentic and a lie.
If the British people are okay with this, with everything going on in the UK right now, I don’t know what to say. I do know that every ratchet needs to be told to faff off if they say anything about Meghan while giving this a pass. This is the Queen actively supporting her son’s misbehavior. The misbehavior being CAVORTING WITH A PEDOPHILE.
Every time a ratchet talks about Meghan, they need to be reminded about this, openly and publically.
WE ARE NOT! This excellent deep dive in to h&m timeline with Andrew mess thrown in is definitely worth a watch, and to the point, how we mostly feel (on dusty saltine Isle) https://youtu.be/sBZPaDH2aK0
Agreed. Andrew is reviled in the UK. No one likes him, no one believes him, no one is ok with any of this but unfortunately there’s nothing we can do about it except vent on social media.
How come this man cannot pay for himself ?and why his mother has to always cover for him? He is rich,his daughters are rich married to rich man,why can’t he settle it himself? Always asking mum who,even if she says it’s the duche of Lancaster,people of Britain are really paying for it…She is probably too old to know what he did and it’s probably courtiers who are doing all these things….but optics wise?!!
Because that would involve accountability, and the entire BRF is fully shielded from *anything* they do.
No matter who it is, royal or not, men need to be held accountable for abuse towards women. He is a pedophile and his blue blood should not protect him! This is why women continue not get justice!!!
Their mindset is that of their ancestors from hundreds of years ago- the aristocrats can just kill, rape, and enslave the commoners, they are above the law.
Oh when this came out, #abolishthemonarchy trended on UK Twitter for hours. I was genuinely surprised it did but I guess I shouldn’t because pretty much everyone hates Andrew here. A lot of people even called out the queen and again, I was surprised because it’s the first time I’ve really seen people criticise her (even though it doesn’t compare to what H&M get on a daily basis)
Young people are the key, and good for them.
I agree the open criticism of the queen was something I never thought I’d see. She was even booed in Scotland. A lot more people are fed up than they think. A gold dress can only go so far. Bread and circuses never work in the long term.
About time! My generation isn’t going to shift anything so entrenched but I have hope for the future.
This is like the Profumo affair isn’t it? They genuinely believe that the Press and individuals should protect the Royals’ privacy above everything else.
It’s unbelievable.
There was absolutely no outrage about this in the press. But according to Camilla Tominey the Royal rota report on the Royal Family without fear or favour.
I genuinely don’t think William will ever become king. I think once Charles is crowned, whatever is left of the monarchy and their BS will completely crumble.
I think so, too.
Andrew is a catalyst. So is the obvious racism toward Meghan.
And then Charles, a vindictive person, will come in and it’s just going to implode or perhaps explode in public view. You know he can’t be happy that Mummy is bankrolling Andy all the time.
The whole thing makes me so ill. People have actually argued that because she was “of age” in the UK, that all this wasn’t illegal. Last I checked, sex trafficking IS illegal, and she was essentially Epstein’s sex slave, threatened if she didn’t comply. I watched an interview with her. They targeted her when she was underage and roped her in with the promise of being trained as a massage therapist. She’d already been molested at a much younger age, so she really thought all the sex exploitation was expected of her. It’s just tragic.
That’s why I think it’s so important to clarify he’s being accused of rape, not (or not only) pedophilia. It’s interesting how many people don’t want to say rape, subconsciously or deliberately. It doesn’t matter if she was 17 or 18.
Let him have a public defender like everyone else who can’t afford legal representation.
More and more I think that when Queen Elizabeth’s reign is over the anti-monarchy movement will really take off. That even she is taking flak for paying Andrew’s legal bills says a lot. To have one family control so much money and enjoy their positions strictly because of birth (or marrying in) looks increasingly indefensible in the 21st century. I don’t think the younger citizens of the UK will continue to stand for it.
I really wish this was reported on more than Kate and Meghan. But here we are. Of COURSE the Queen is paying for it. Just in general I see so much hatred and vitriol thrown at Meghan and Kate and two brothers fighting, and it’s like … but here’s THIS DUDE.
Maybe I’m an optimist but I truly believe this is the beginning of the end for the monarchy. Sooner or later, the accumulated dirt on the royals that the BM are hiding from the public will start to leak out, this is just the tip of the iceberg. What PA did is utterly unconscionable, and anyone with a conscience needs to shout it from the rooftops, and it’s time for the British media to start spilling. That mummy is footing the bill to protect the favourite son who raped a trafficked teenager is nothing short of criminal. The monarchy has insulted not just Virginia or anyone else he may have raped, but the entire country.
I hope so! It’s important also to place Andrew in context because his family members have presided over a colonial enterprise that involved rape and massacre for centuries. Just look at the historical records written by actual people in the colonies / former colonies. Look at his great-uncle Louis ffs. So, he didn’t randomly spring up out of nowhere but the entire family enabled and profited from crime.
I do think this is the thread that will unravel the whole royal tapestry.
I hope you’re right, but I don’t know. From where I stand the BM spent more time and energy hyperventilating about Lili’s name than about their queen paying the legal bills of predator son.
As they head into a winter of Brexit-induced austerity, I’m sure the people of the UK will take comfort knowing that Randy Andy is still Mummy’s favourite sex offender.
If any story demands the words “scandal” and other superlatives, it’s allegations of sexual abuse of a teenage by the queen’s son. Yet, the words “scandal, blind sighted, and bombshell” do not appear anywhere in the except. There also seems to be no investigation as to where the money came from, I mean, the queen hasn’t worked for it. Furthermore, the D. Fail has not mentioned any other former clients to these lawyers who were accused of misdeeds in an effort to link Andrew to bad people.
Last week, the BM foraged through the Sussexes’ private transportation even though it was fully payed for by them, then the BM named a random company, mentioned past allegations against that company and drew the conclusion that the Sussexes might do business with that company. If the BM is willing to speculate that much when it comes to the Sussexes, why not do actual journalism about your own citizens? Just a thought.
Because the Tory government and the Royal family (the aristocracy as well) it supports all want to stay in power. Its easier to attack a bi-racial American than it is to attack themselves.
Here’s hoping the journalists of the UK are able to break free of their shackles and tell the truth someday.
the Queen has so much money and still has the audacity to make us taxpayers pay for the reno of her homes. Just BP costs us 400M.