I was trying to do the math on this, and you’ll have to excuse me for doing this in Eastern Standard Time, it’s just easier for me. Prince Andrew’s BBC interviewed began airing at 4 pm EST on Saturday. But 5 pm, social media was blowing up across the pond and even here in America, and that was sustained throughout Sunday as clips from the interview were widely circulated (the BBC eventually put the entire interview on YouTube). By Monday, all of the American morning shows and evening news programs had segments on Andrew’s interview and how badly it had gone. There were news outlets doing deeper dives into his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Monday was also the day we heard that Andrew had told the Queen that the interview went well. Tuesday was full of stories about the Queen supporting her favorite son and how the family all had his back. Meanwhile, all the stories just kept getting worse and worse, as Andrew’s lies just kept falling apart, and it was open season on stories about his shady finances and racism too.
And so… all in all, it took about 90 hours for Andrew to “resign” from public life and “take a step back” from royal duties. By my count, if we’re starting with the end of the interview on Saturday to his statement on Wednesday – which was released around 1 pm EST – it was about ninety-two hours of one of the worst news cycles ever, in the history of the royal family. Here’s Andrew’s statement:
“It has become clear to me over the last few days that the circumstances relating to my former association with Jeffrey Epstein has become a major disruption to my family’s work and the valuable work going on in the many organisations and charities that I am proud to support.
Therefore, I have asked Her Majesty if I may step back from public duties for the foreseeable future, and she has given her permission.
I continue to unequivocally regret my ill-judged association with Jeffrey Epstein. His suicide has left many unanswered questions, particularly for his victims, and I deeply sympathise with everyone who has been affected and wants some form of closure. I can only hope that, in time, they will be able to rebuild their lives. Of course, I am willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency.”
Well, it was his only move, honestly. There was no way he would have been able to successfully “ride out” this catastrophe. But my point in adding up the hours was that… it was pretty clear in the first 24 hours that Andrew was in the center of self-made sh-tstorm. It was clear within 48 hours that there was no “managing” the crisis and no way through it. It was clear that Andrew would have to go, to resign from public/royal life. So… why did it take ninety f–king hours? Why did we have to roll our eyes through the palace’s bumbling and tone-deaf attempts at damage control? Why did the Queen not understand for ninety-two hours that Andrew had to go?
Photos courtesy of WENN, BBC and Avalon Red.
It’s likely that he thought he could do this interview to change public opinion in his favour since he’s known for awhile that French and American authorities want to speak to him.
Anyway, imagine how bad it must be for the Racist Paedo Loving Monster that is the Queen to finally slightly law down the law.
Now, when are we going to get an investigation into the Middle Eastern kickback money that’s been flowing to him for years now?
He went to TQ my ass, more like he was frogmarched into it. Considering that EVERYONE who was associated with him was running for the hills he and the RF had no choice, they had to do this to save their own rep.
The Fail are being relentless in their coverage of him.
In his statement he said he would co-operate as necessary with law enforcement like that is going to happen – he will never speak to the FBI or the Met.
“Appropriate” law enforcement, remember. There’s the weasel word giving him an out. I’d like to see Andrew try and excuse himself from inquiries based on his pronouncement of whether or not another country’s police force is legitimate. That’s not going to stir up any diplomatic issues at all.
And why not Interpol? Or is this not the kind of thing they deal with? I’m pretty sure there’s inter-agency cooperation with the FBI.
This is one time that I’m really enjoying the Daily Mail’s coverage. They are going in on Andrew! I’m loving the old pictures that they’ve been digging up to discredit everything he said.
I said yesterday that I was really shocked by this. It is of course the right move, and the only move the palace could
Make right now, which is why it’s so shocking to me that they made it.
The most I expected was for Andrew to sort of just fade away into the background and not be seen for a few months until the palace decided he could be visible again. This is clearly much better.
I feel the same way. The bar is so low that this was a pleasant surprise, even though it’s also the only decent thing.
This is where the BRF finally learns the power of social media. This story was never going away because sympathetic newspaper editors couldn’t shut it down.
I dunno, in BRF time 90 hours seems pretty speedy.
Lol agree
I agree. I’m actually very surprised it happened this fast.
Because the queen is the petty tyrant that raised these petty tyrants. It’s good for her to be exposed as what she is. Honestly I think the brits should abolish the monarchy altogether. People keep talking about how much tourism money the royals bring in but somehow France “manages” to attract plenty of tourism without a royal family. I honestly think the UK is a popular destination not because of the royals but because of all of the lovely cities to visit there.
Also of course the DM is running a negative story about the Sussexes this morning. Gotta throw them under the bus at any chance! Insane.
Agree with all of this.
#abolishthemonarchy
He’s going to hide until the scandal dies down. But he’ll resurface for sure. He probably still thinks he’s done nothing wrong and doesn’t get the public outrage over it. I wonder what they told the Queen about the scandal..
Exactly he will be back, like the cockroach he is. This is just lip service to public image but the BRF won’t feel like he has done anything wrong really. These people have grown up in an institution where everyone panders to them and never says “no”.
ITA. Sometime next year, say spring, the press will have other scandals and the Epstein-Story will have died down (like before). And then his official engagements will slowly increase and nobody will notice. Hence the “foreseeable future”.
I hope he is not aided by RRs and tabs running stories about how sad and lonely he is and how he has suffered enough.
It’ll depend heavily on whether or not charities and patronages will want to work with him again a few months down the line.
I expect that, barring any serious developments in the case, it’s likely he’ll go around on an apology tour in a year or so. We’ll start to get articles in the DM and elsewhere about how he’s “just so remorseful” and he’s “really taken the last year to grow and reflect on what he was doing his whole life” and “he’s a changed person now” etc etc etc. But he will not have a public life to go back to if people don’t request his presence at events and things like that. And that’s not up to him or the Queen or anyone else to force. He might try his hand at rehabilitation, but I’m hoping that the social fall out from this lasts much, much longer, hopefully the remainder of his life, so that he’s basically barred from ever having to inflict his presence on the public ever again.
Hopefully Charles will have even more say, and more sway over his mother by then.
Charles is an important part of keeping him away from the public eye, but I’m hoping that everyone else avoids him like the plague for the rest of his life. That’s the real insurance policy here. I know for a fact that I won’t be supporting any charity or endeavour that partners with or associates with Andrew in the future.
he will be back in public eye for the big wedding he surely still believes beatrice deserves. he won’t miss that.
“Stepping down from royal duties” = “not required to work, but will maintain the same lifestyle”
This is NOT a comeuppance. This is the royal family hiding Andrew from the spotlight, and from any *real* repercussions. I’ve said before the royal family will deny, deflect, and defend their own. The denials didn’t really work, so now they’re deflecting — removing Andrew from sight while stories of Wiliam/Kate/Harry/Meghan take over the news cycles. I expect a ramping up of “leaked” stories about Meghan. This is the royal family’s way of bringing closure to Andrew’s wrongdoings. Problem solved! Now move along.
i read that the queen pulled his 250,000 annual salary in addition to pulling him from royal duties. he’s only got a 20,000 annual navy pension now.
the queen will give him cash somehow though. he’s the favorite, “mummy’s special little boy” even as a 60 year old criminal pervert
The $250k is taxpayers’ money — I think it comes from the Queen’s Sovereign Grant (annual funds which are, what, $100 million per year)? But she also has income from the Duchy of Lancaster that pays for private expenses and her other investment income. There is no way Andrew is being cut off financially. To do so would force him to find other avenues of income, and that would lead to even bigger problems. They are just removing his income from tax payers, not the private gifts.
Took 93 hours because they were trying to find a way to throw Meghan under the bus again and somehow make it her fault 🙄
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
I’m surprised they didn’t pull a “Epstein was American, you know who also is American? Meghan”.
And why the f—- will he still be paid while he’s taking time to stare at his hands and wonder where it went wrong for the favourite.
I am so done with these people.
He won’t, if he isn’t a working royal he won’t get a penny of the Monarchy grant. I suspect that most of his office staff will be moved elsewhere and I hope that Thirsk woman is sent packing.
The woman who convinced him to do this interview? I say again, only half joking, is she a mole to get him toward justice? I mean he was more or less keeping his dumb mouth shut but then he didn’t and now he’s out.
He won’t be payed – his £200k salary will be cut off. He actually lives off kickbacks from terrible ME regimes, but those will dry up.
Betcha the Paedo Loving Queen will give him cash, though.
Well that’s something at least. But yes I doubt we’ll see him struggling while the Queen still adores him.
Definitely. Plus, he’s been a shady character his whole adult life and I’m sure he’s got cash/bonds/etc stashed away all over the planet.
He loses Sovereign Grant funding, but he isn’t losing any taxpayer-funded protection officers or taxpayer security at Royal Lodge.
As someone said on Twitter, the Prince Andrew situation is a great example of the public turning against you.
I am shocked that Prince Andrew stepped down so quickly.
I wonder if the Queen has ever seen Charles apoplectic with rage, rage partly directed at her? Maybe Charles got daddy involved?
But what an unnecessary mess Prince Andrew made.
Like did no one on his team watch the interview before saying it’s good to air?
Like why agree to an interview in the first place?
He has shown himself to be an idiot.
Have to say that all the commentariats from the many different sites I went to yesterday were all calling for Andrew to leave public life. One site speculated that Charles was going full-on Grape Ape shit in New Zealand.
Also, a majority of posters on other sites stated that the Sussexes now look geniuses for making Christmas plans away from the BRF. Many posters were speculating about the church pap-walk on Christmas day at Sandringham. I predict the York princess (without their father) will be riding in the Queen’s car.
I’m not entirely sure that Andrew won’t go to church on Christmas. It’s considered a family thing not a public duty. Philip didn’t go last year, but he did the year before while he was retired. I’m hoping they actually understand how bad it would look. He went to Will and Kate’s wedding even though Fergie was banned because of the deal he made with Epstein to pay her debts. Parliament was also calling for him to step down as trade ambassador. It only got delayed because of Will and Kate’s wedding. I have no idea if they really understand how bad this is.
This would be a good year for W+K to spend the holidays with her family.
It would, but I doubt they are going to be allowed to. Have a merry Christmas Will. I hope you get everything you deserve.
At first I read your comment as, ‘the church perp walk.’
So he is stepping away from public duties but is he still being supported by taxpayers??? If he isn’t going to provide any services to the Crown he shouldn’t be allowed to live off the people any longer.
also #AbolishTheMonarchy
I asked the same question above (I share your intense hatred of the monarchy). No he won’t but the Queen will no doubt make sure he’s ok.
I’m SURE TQ won’t let her favorite boy go hungry. He had gotten money from TQM when she died (though he’s probably burned through it); he got MILLIONS of pounds in kickbacks from the deals he “facilitated” for dictators and oligarchs (let’s not forget how Sunnyhill went for £3M OVER ASKING price to an oligarch, who let it rot for 8 yrs before razing it to the ground), and I’m sure TQ has trusts set up for her kids that aren’t on the Civil List anymore (she *does* support them through HER grant).
And I’m sure she’ll slip him a few (hundred thousand) pounds in his Christmas stocking /*snark*
That house was so feckin’ ugly. Even at the time it was built it was simultaneously tacky and ghastly. There was even reporting of the Queen dissing it for looking very suburban. “Surrey Southfork” is sticking in my mind, but I’m not sure if that was the actual insult or not. Brits, does that sound right to you?
She waited to see if there was backlash from the interview. It wasn’t until companies and charities dropped him that she “nobly” acted. She would have let it ride otherwise.
I agree with this take.
I doubt she acted at all. It probably had to do with his various engagements letting him know he won’t be needed. Better for his ego to act like it’s his choice.
I’m sure it was pressure from Charles, she simply sticks her head in the sand but I can’t see him letting this thing slide, it’s a huge stain on an already dirty monarchy.
I think when the politicians were chiming in and opinion polls show majority lost of respect for the monarchy the queen and Charles had no choice but to pull the trigger. You know it’s bad when the Fail reports Charles and the queen conferred on this while he is on tour. No Sovereign Grant money, his staff may get fired. Eugenie and Beatrice are going to be pappped more over this scandal. And Andrew’s other alleged dirty deeds are going to be looked at. Chris Ship reports the BRF is bracing itself for a subpoena for Andrew from the FBI. I think the queen needs to rethink Andrew’s Christmas at Sandringham appearance.
The good news is the Sussexes have been off the pages from the Fail, although others are running stories. Andrew’s treatment by the press is a warning shot to the Cambridges- anyone who breaks cover on the alleged KP feeding negative e stories on Meghan or William’s alleged cheating expect similar hit pieces.
Beatrice is NOT going to get her public wedding, in fact I suspect the engagement may get called off. Her husband to be is a social climber and I can see him getting cold feet at marrying her, he and his family are not going to want to be associated with Andrew esp as ALL his dodgyness is being exposed by the Fail.
I doubt he’ll jump ship. The York’s have been friends with his family for ages. He had to know what he was getting into. The whole Epstein thing was basically an open secret. Parliament had already forced him to step down as trade ambassador partly because of it. Edo is also not really social climbing since he has always been in Bea’s circle. She may have a title, but she’s no more important than Zara. He’d need a working Royal/rich heiress to get higher on the ladder. Bea’s only going to become less important over time. Socially speaking anyway.
I feel sorry for Bea and Eugenie. They got stuck with some sh-tty parents.
@Ainsley, Bea is well-connected, and she is a royal, on paper, with a title and everything. Even for aristocrats and other posh toffs, that’s a big deal. They might have their own title and money and status, but there’s nothing that ever comes close to being with a member of the royal family, and they know it. So he’s not a social climber in the traditional sense, no, but being able to say that your wife is a member of the RF, that she’s the Queen’s favourite granddaughter, etc, that stuff matters a great deal in terms of relative prestige. And the fact is, these aristocrats are the biggest, grubbiest status chasers of everyone else.
Yesterday I kept thinking about Beatrice and her doomed wedding plans. I feel sorry for her, and I feel sorry for both girls at having such a horrible father. I’m sure they still love him, but if they wonder if parts of the scandal might be true, it will hurt them terribly.
Good riddance to bad rubbish. I read elsewhere that Charles had a hand in Andrew’s sudden retirement. And someone else wrote that letter….no way did that arrogant twat write it.
That statement came from the pro’s at the BP press office which would have to have been approved by TQ.
Royal commentators are saying this is permanent but given how he was smirking means Mummy has agreed to give him a nice pension to go away and that she has promised to protect his pasty ass from the FBI.
Oh and also – wonder about poor Bea’s wedding now…..0
The DM started writing about how Andrew afforded his posh lifestyle and Poof he was gone! The RF really don’t want anyone looking into all the various “gifts “ they receive from various “friends “. That’s my tinfoil tiara theory for today!
Nonce, Paedo Prince and Prince Andrew Epstein have been trending in the UK since that awful interview. There really was no way out of this one.
I also believe ‘foreseeable future’ means ‘indefinitely’. Andrew is done and his goose if thoroughly cremated.
Yes nonce was number 1 at one point in twitter UK.
I think he will try and resurface again, he is too arrogant and pompous, he craves the public limelight and being seen as important by other people. I hope his limited circle of shady friends shun him but I won’t hold my breath.
#Nonceuponatime was doing well on twitter as well, and I agree that his goose is cooked, just in time for Christmas 🎅
Because the British royal family arrogantly thought that this would blow over, look at all the times that this has surfaced and what does his mummy do? Give him a fake rank and shower him with medals, get photographed with him, all wide smiles, nothing to see here plebs, be thankful you are getting a glimpse of us!
But it’s not a tawdry love triangle scandal, it’s a scandal of horrific human trafficking and underage sex abuse, I’m glad the majority of the public sees through pedo andy.
I asked my British partner why the UK just doesn’t abolish the monarchy and he says it will take years and a lot of study to unravel the monarchy’s ties to the government and people are just lazy to change it. 🤷🏻♀️
All of this. Stepping out means proving the plebs were right and the Royals were wrong, it reminds them their position is more frail than they think.
Andrew’s not the first royal with deplorable behavior. They’ve gotten away with crap like this (this level of awful, if not worse) for centuries. Of course they think they can get away with it again.
Quelle surprise!
Andrew won’t be seen with the Royal Family this Christmas. The Queen may not fully grasp how much of a PR this really is but Charles and William probably do.
He’ll stay home, the Queen will arrive with Beatrice and Eugenie to be seen as a supporting grandma and George and Charlotte will walk with the rest of the family as the best distractions possible.
Yup, I feel pretty confident we are going to see at least George on the Christmas stroll this year.
The Queen. In 2018 the Queen launched the London marathon. For this she stood outside in Windsor, on a green lawn with a sort of table in front of her. A big red button was fitted on this table. Beside her stood a courtier/assistant. It seemed that he told her that she now could press the button and she asked him, if that was the button thereby pointing at the only red button around.
I have this video on my twitter timeline.
Exactly. Thanks for that 🙂
They seemed very keen in ride this story out at the start of the week, but I feel like things suddenly changed yesterday. Is there more to come out?
there are reports that he may have been filmed on bedroom cams installed at Epstein’s mansion. The FBI is understood to be reviewing hundred of hours of footage seized from Epstein’s properties which some says was his insurance policy.
Where are you reading this? I’d gotten discouraged that any of the rapists were going to face any justice and just quit reading.
Evening Standard has an article about how it was Prince Charles who moved decisively to end pedo andy’s career in public life, pedo andy wasn’t given any choice in the matter. “This is not about personalities, this is about protecting the institution of the monarchy itself” a senior figure said.
“It is very sad, Obviously, both the Queen and the prince love Andrew (gag!!)… but the health of the monarchy is too important to risk.”
#AbolishTheMonarchy
I hope the authorities are unrelenting with PA and all of the perpetrators. Those girls and women deserve justice – being sidelined to some cushy retirement isn’t it.
The Guardian is reporting that Andrew gets tl keep working on his Pitch@Palace initiative. Took one day to muddle the waters again and renounce the complete ‘backstepping’. He’s staying around as long as his mama’s alive.
I find that hard to believe as the main backers for that initiative have backed out – he’s burned toast. No one will touch him.
Vanna- DM says Andy’s going to Bahrain for pitch@palace. Andy must need more of those ME oligarch dollars.
OMG! Well they might be the only ones who will still be seen with him. Speaking of which Fergie was just in Saudi Arabia doing “charity work” recently and complimenting MBS on his leadership.
Maybe the York family will move to Dubai or something, I could see it happening.
Bye.
90 hours is actually pretty speedy for the BRF. What I find interesting is how the Daily Fail has decided to actually report REAL news about Andrew and BRF. Meghan’s lawsuit has had some very interesting ripple effects.
The whole situation is a shit show and it’s hard to always know who is smearing who. But one thing occurred to me recently. Charles is out of the country and the Sussexes have heavily publicised their break, so could it be that Charles wanted Meg , Harry and himself out of the way when he finally engineered Andy getting permission for his interview ? I read Emily’s editorial on the interview and it was clear that the green light came literally at the last moment (Tuesday) at around the time Charles went on tour. The interview then happened two days later on the Thursday. There seems to have been an urgency to get it done whilst Chuck was out of the country.
The alternative is that Charles had been against the interview and Andy finally managed to convince Mama once Chuck was out of the country.
I don’t think Charles knew about it. I think that Andrew likely kept it from him until he knew Charles would be out of the country, got his mummy to give approval knowing she’d never deny him anything, especially if Charles isn’t there to speak against it, and thought that he’d get it all done and wrapped up, a proper PR coup that acquits him and puts him back in the public favour, all before Charles came back from his trip.
It’s the sort of thing that, to me, squares with Andrew’s personality and life choices. He’s arrogant enough to think he knows best. And frankly, I don’t think Charles is smart enough to do such power plays with the press, especially not with huge issues like the Epstein case, which I think he would have not wanted to touch with a ten foot pole because of how gnarly it is. He’s wise in exploiting situations to make himself look good, yes, but not that smart.
Buh bye, Felicia.
close th door on ur way out PA..
and take ur leeching wife with u.
This was a speedy response tbh. I thought for sure that Andrew would be slowly phased out and they’d send him packing with some type of contrived health issue and that he’d keep the money from the Sovereign Grant and everything. I’m deeply surprised that they’ve cut the cord so thoroughly. Although, if one doesn’t have any patronages, because charities don’t want to work with him, and no one will invite his presence at events because to do so would be PR disaster for any such event, then he doesn’t really have a job, does he? And if he doesn’t have a job to do for the British public, why on earth should they pay him all that money to sit at home comfortably in retirement?
The real question for Americans is how we can make Trump do this. Stat!!!!!
The family has been around in one form or another for a 1000 years. The Queen has reigned for 67.
92 hours is NOTHING.
Short answer; Because she’s 93….