Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre reached a private financial settlement yesterday. As part of their agreement, Andrew issued a very carefully-worded public statement in which he did not apologize to Virginia or directly admit to raping her or “accepting” trafficked victims as gifts from Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. But the fact that Andrew was denying, denying, denying everything and making a big deal about how he would vigorously fight this in court, and he had never even met Virginia, well… the money is an admission of guilt. The statement is an admission of guilt. The fact that the Queen stripped him of his HRH and patronages just after the judge refused to dismiss the case is an admission of his guilt too.
Andrew losing his bid to dismiss Virginia Giuffre’s lawsuit was the thing that changed everything. Up until that point, I believe Andrew thought he could bluff and bluster his way through everything. Here’s the timeline, for those who are interested:
Jan. 12: Judge Kaplan rejects Andrew’s motion to dismiss. Kaplan says the depositions need to be scheduled soon and sets a loose schedule for a fall trial. All hell breaks loose in the British media – sh-t got real.
January 14th: The Queen calls Andrew into Windsor Castle and strips him of his HRH and patronages. Detailed reporting about how Andrew doesn’t actually have that much money begins to circulate. Andrew seems to be publicly positioning himself as willing to settle with Virginia for a sum of something like $3-5 million.
January 28: Giuffre’s lawyer, David Boies, tells British outlets that Virginia is open to settling, but she wants to ensure that Andrew is “held to account” in some way.
February 4-5: The date for Prince Andrew’s March deposition is set. The Queen issues her Accession Day statement, noting that it’s her “sincere wish” that Camilla be made Queen Consort when the time comes.
February 15: Andrew and Virginia’s settlement arrangement is completed and announced.
Now, there’s some reporting – which I completely believe – that Andrew and Virginia’s lawyers have been in discussions and negotiations for weeks, and that there was an effort made by Andrew to NOT step on the Queen’s Accession Day (Feb 6th). I don’t know if the settlement agreement had been worked out by then, but timing the announcement was of the utmost importance. I also believe that Andrew’s lawyers were probably talking settlement as early as January 13th, the day after Andrew lost his bid to dismiss Giuffre’s case. The Daily Mirror says that Andrew instructed his lawyers to contact Giuffre’s legal team for a settlement “at the earliest possible moment.” It’s easy to schedule a deposition if you believe you’ll never have to sit for it.
As for the money… while I’m very curious about the number (and I’ll have separate coverage of that today), I’m also very interested in who paid for what. Again, look at the timeline. This was, to my mind, an explicit quid pro quo between Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Andrew. In exchange for Charles – who is basically Regent in everything but name – signing off on the monarch’s funds to be used for Andrew’s settlement, Charles elicited the Queen’s public blessing on “Queen Camilla.” Getting Andrew’s mess to go away was always in Charles’s best interest too. He just dug in his heels because he wanted the Queen to sign off on the Camilla thing. I’m assuming the Queen raided the Duchy of Lancaster funds to pay for Virginia’s settlement. But it doesn’t look like any of the royal reporters are going to ask their palace sources about it.
Also: apparently, everyone else noticed the timeline too.
Hearing from my sources that Prince Charles threatened to veto this unless he got confirmation that Camilla would be Queen
— Sir Ken Stonger QC (@Ken_Stonger) February 15, 2022
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, WENN.
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- The Duke of York attends the Sunday service at the Royal Chapel of All Saints, Windsor, following the announcement on Friday April 9, of the death of the Duke of Edinburgh at the age of 99. Picture date: Sunday April 11, 2021. Prince Philip, was the longest-serving consort in British history.,Image: 604743186, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
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- The Duke of York attends the Sunday service at the Royal Chapel of All Saints at Royal Lodge, Windsor, following the announcement on Friday April 9, of the death of the Duke of Edinburgh at the age of 99. Picture date: Sunday April 11, 2021. Prince Philip, was the longest-serving consort in British history.,Image: 604743229, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
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- The Duke of York during a television interview at the Royal Chapel of All Saints, Windsor, following the announcement on Friday April 9, of the death of the Duke of Edinburgh at the age of 99. Picture date: Sunday April 11, 2021. Prince Philip, was the longest-serving consort in British history.,Image: 604743242, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
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- The wedding of Lady Gabriella Windsor and Thomas Kingston at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Featuring: Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Andrew Where: Windsor, United Kingdom When: 18 May 2019 Credit: John Rainford/WENN
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- The wedding of Lady Gabriella Windsor and Thomas Kingston at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Featuring: Prince Andrew Where: Windsor, United Kingdom When: 18 May 2019 Credit: John Rainford/WENN
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- Emily Maitlis interviews the Duke of York, Prince Andrew on his relationship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Newsnight. Broadcast on BBC Two Featuring: Duke of York, Prince Andrew When: 16 Nov 2019 Credit: Supplied by WENN **WENN does not claim any ownership including but not limited to Copyright, License in attached material. Fees charged by WENN are for WENN’s services only, do not, nor are they intended to, convey to the user any ownership of Copyright, License in material. By publishing this material you expressly agree to indemnify, to hold WENN, its directors, shareholders, employees harmless from any loss, claims, damages, demands, expenses (including legal fees), any causes of action, allegation against WENN arising out of, connected in any way with publication of the material.**
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- Emily Maitlis interviews the Duke of York, Prince Andrew on his relationship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Newsnight. Broadcast on BBC Two Featuring: Duke of York, Prince Andrew When: 16 Nov 2019 Credit: Supplied by WENN **WENN does not claim any ownership including but not limited to Copyright, License in attached material. Fees charged by WENN are for WENN’s services only, do not, nor are they intended to, convey to the user any ownership of Copyright, License in material. By publishing this material you expressly agree to indemnify, to hold WENN, its directors, shareholders, employees harmless from any loss, claims, damages, demands, expenses (including legal fees), any causes of action, allegation against WENN arising out of, connected in any way with publication of the material.**
Yup yup yup. That’s what we were saying yesterday.
Did Andrew go to the queen and ask for money, did Andrew go to Charles and ask him to sign off, did the Queen demand that charles sign off – well, I guess we’ll never really know how the game is played, the art of the trade, how the sausage is made. We just assume that it happens.
But what does seem to be clear is the timing. And if this was the Queen’s money like we’ve said, then I guess it says a lot that someone felt there still needed to be “permission” from Charles. regent in all but name indeed.
I was wondering the same – why did the Queen need his permission?
And no one else (except Charles and the Queen) was in the room where it happened…😊
Agreed Ang. I feel like Charles used the situation to square away a lot of family business with this. Liz wants a lavish Jubbly and Andy to be cared for after she’s gone. They both knew Andy being deposed could blow The Firm to smithereens and ruin those plans. Charles squeezed her to get what he wanted (and I’m willing his wants went beyond Queen Camilla).
Love it that Hamilton references are appropriate for this situation!
As soon as the settlement was announced people knew exactly what the QC cost. I hope the monarchy is dissolved after the Queens death and they are never are crowned.
This family is so gross – what a bunch of disgusting grifters. I hope Canada says bye bye to them soon
I do also @Cessily, but have little hope for all the provinces and territories agreeing to ANYTHING together. And each one would be vying for special status..or in the case of Quebec, more special than anyone. And the First Nations would be correct in saying if we got rid of them, then what happens to our treaties that we’ve been fighting to have y’all live up to as agreed. And on and on…I’m thinking better to start slow. Rename BC’s capital from Victoria to ??. Rename BC to? etc. Then same throughout the lands. I’d like to think we could honour the Indigenous Peoples’ being here first by dropping the colonists names and reverting to the original names for the spaces. That would be a start, whilst we’re figuring out how to dump the monarchy as a whole. Our constitution…well, they really tied us up tightly.
Surly Gale: thank you very much. It’s an important idea to reconstruct as much of history as we can to remove the imperialists/conquerors from being the foundation of our place names.
Of course it was. This isn’t a family. It’s a business.
So is the queen in really bad shape, health-wise? Why push out these two items in such close temporal proximity that absolutely everybody concludes it’s a quid pro quo? Sitting on the Camilla announcement for a month or two would have been fine…unless you think that the queen could go any moment now and you don’t feel that you can risk a posthumous announcement.
Perhaps Charles felt that he needed the QC announcement made before he’d bend on Andrew?
And it’s all going to blow up in their faces anyway. They think they are slick playing secret squirrel chess, but EVERYONE can see the machinations going on behind the scenes. EVERYONE.
As the saying goes, “the bill has come due.” Karma is hitting the royal family from all sides.
It’s been fun to watch. Lol at “secret squirrel chess.”
The Cambridge “charm offensive” to the Caribbean will come across as “charming” as a scouring pad rubbed onto bare skin. Can they manage a tour where they could be questioned about Andrew, Queen Camilla, AND Meghan? Is it really possible to stage-manage a tour so closely that no one will be permitted to talk to them? If so, then what’s the point of touring?
I hope that the royal family continues to get the treatment it deserves.
Not to mention Archie and Lili. I can see PWT and Keens grimaces now.
Bitter Brother will walk away saying an equivalent to: “We are not a racist family”. lolololol
Hope this will be one of the final nails in the coffin holding TRF’s “reputation”.
I honestly didn’t think of this, but you are so right, it had to be Queen Camilla exchanged for not opposing the settlement using royal $!
What a cynical, selfish, disturbing family this is. The Queen shows the dangers of having enablers around predators, but the complicit always justify their behaviour as love.
I wonder if Andrew was always going to be a sociopath with an enabling mother, or it’s the toxicity of the royal bubble.
I wish that this next generation of Cambridge kids will be better but William and Kate seem to operate by the same cynical selfish playbook (not that they will necessarily be Andrew level sociopaths, but more like William level narcissism).
Don’t like to dwell on it, but what are the odds that the Cambridge offspring grow up to become just as idle and entitled as their parents. You know Mama Middleton just loves to rub in how royal they are.
I do think we’re witnessing the slow circling of the drain.
Maybe I’m reading this wrong but I think this really sh*it’s on Camilla’s “queenship”. I mean being named queen consort as part of a deal to pay off your brother in law’s rape accuser? Ewww! Anyway, I hope this ends the whole ” no comment from Prince Harry!” crap because no way he wants to be a part of this. At least I hope not, silence is golden.
I wonder if Eugenie’s outing with Harry was a message to the family aswell? I mean, growing up she had to endure her parent’s scandals but it was nowhere near as terrible as this.
It does sh*t on her queenship. It wasn’t the queen’s sincerest wish for Camilla to be consort, rather it was just a means to an end to save her rapey son. It’s tainted everything. So now Kate looks foolish going on her little outing with the in-laws, with her subtle show of support for Queen Camilla. William’s blessing of his step mom, while gaslighting his own mother a few months back, also looks thoughtless. Even the rats who praised this mess have egg on their faces and the only ones coming up roses are H&M for saying absolutely nothing.
That’s true – it’s poetic justice. Charles schemes and schemes for years to win approval for this all important title of QC for Camilla, and in the end he hands her a crown of sh!t, inextricably linked with settling the case of a raped and trafficked minor. Happy belated Valentine’s day indeed.
Sordid sh*t.
I’m also imagining the lawyers trying to work out the settlement and Davis Boies and his team straight up rolling their eyes that it has to be timed around the queen’s accession day. They never would in public but behind the scenes, yeah.
Yeah, it’s definitely a quid pro quo and interesting that the press hasn’t seen it fit to write about it or to ask questions about it.
This family is beyond disgusting; Charles blackmails his elderly, sick mother to ensure that his long time mistress, now wife, become queen. Does he not realize that people remember that he & Camilla thought Diana, who was a teenager when Charles married her, would just go along with their affair? They made her life a living hell & are indirectly responsible for her death
Harry certainly remembers
Shadow king Chuck had been very busy lately with his queen Camilla campaign and his quid pro quo scheme. It’s so vulgar and distasteful. This family isn’t looking very “royal” now, are they.
Yes, and in his distraction, the authorities continue to investiage his corrupt bribes for access operation. It can take center stage now.
Still don’t see the big deal about Camilla being named QC. It’s what she was always going to be regardless of Charles’ promise. Settling with Virginia Giuffre was always in Andrew and the Crown’s best interest, but Andrew is too stupid, egotistical and entitled to admit the truth. I do think Charles stepped in and that’s why everything happened rather quickly (stripping of his patronages, HRH, etc). The longer this went on, the longer the press had time to uncover more pictures like the one with Andrew, Ghislane and Bill Clinton touring BHouse with Andrew as guide. Dino way would Charles want this case to get to the discovery phase where even more could be uncovered.
The money came from the Queen’s private coffers. We’ll never know the true cost because she’ll never tell and neither will Ms. Guiffre. I hope this settlement brings her some measure of peace.
It was always going to happen, but now its happening with the Queen’s stamp of approval, loud and clear. If it had happened after the Queen died, and they were all like “oops we lied when we said she would be Princess Consort,” people would have been outraged at the idea of Charles going against his dead mother’s wishes etc. Now, charles is using the public goodwill for his mother to advance Camilla like he always intended.
You know what’s even more messed up about all this? Camilla says her cause is helping sexual violence victims!!! That’s her whole grand “serious” cause!!!! Collaborating with Boots and putting mini shampoos and hairbrushes into little toiletry kits *eye rolll* If she truly cared about rape victims, she wouldn’t go anywhere near this scheme to pay off the pedo brother-in-law while making her queen. Every time I think this family can’t get any more dysfunctional, they stoop even lower.
Petty Betty has seriously jeopardized the whole monarchy to save her pedophile son and Charles let it happen for his obsession with “Queen (Consort) Camilla.”