In his biography “Spare”, Prince Harry ventures out and is the first royal to comment on the Prince Andrew sex scandal. The British royal family had previously avoided this as far as possible. The Jeffrey Epstein affair, Harry said, was a “shameful scandal”.
Prince Andrew, who was a long-time friend of financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, was charged last year with two counts of sexually abusing Virginia Giuffre, who was a minor at the time. Prince Andrew had always vehemently denied the allegations. Ultimately, an out-of-court settlement was reached. Prince Andrew had to pay around 14 million euros. “People had a lot of reasons to complain about us, sex crimes weren’t one of them,” comments Harry.
Andrew becomes a topic in Harry’s book in connection with the prince and his wife Meghan’s resignation from royal duties and departure from Britain. Accordingly, Meghan raised the question at the time whether this decision could lead to the royal family curtailing the couple’s security measures. A possibility that Harry, as he describes, thought impossible, in view of his uncle Prince Andrew still getting protection. And that was never up for debate in the family. “He was involved in a shameful scandal, accused of sexually assaulting a young woman and no one had even suggested that he should lose his protection,” Harry said. 62-year-old Prince Andrew resigned from public office last year after a disastrous BBC interview.
It will “never” happen that they lose their protection, Harry is said to have said at the time: “Not in this climate of hatred. And not after what happened to my mother.”. He ruled out such a case even “after the death of my Uncle Andrew.” As is well known, Harry misjudged the situation. Because after Harry and Meghan emigrated to the USA, the couple was denied the privilege of special protection that the royal family is entitled to. Harry then sued the Home Office. A final decision on the case is still pending.
Sources: DailyMail, The Mirror
