More than a year after he lost his royal and military titles, Prince Andrew is being welcomed back into the royal family by none other than his older brother, a source close to the monarch told The Daily Beast. King Charles III invited his disgraced brother to stay in Scotland's Balmoral Castle, where Andrew was seen carpooling with Prince William and Kate Middleton on Sunday.
"Andrew won't ever have the same ceremonial role within the family, he is no longer and never will be a working royal. That is clear," the source, described as a friend of the king, said. "But he is part of the family. He is the king's brother. He has not been found guilty of any crime, and I think it's fair to say that the king is making it clear that he won't turn his back on his brother." The recent revelation is especially shocking considering that Charles previously played a huge role in his brother's expulsion from the royal's inner circle. Amid the final months of the late Queen Elizabeth's reign, Andrew was barred from performing royal duties after he justified his close friendship with Jeffrey Epstein in an infamous BBC interview. He was ultimately stripped of his royal patronages in the wake of a sex-abuse lawsuit brought forward by Virginia Giuffre, a victim of Epstein's sex-trafficking ring.
As for Andrew's recent sighting with the Prince and Princess of Wales, British biographer Andrew Lownie explained to The Daily Beast that the royal family have been using the couple "to get [the royals] out of trouble a lot lately, and once again, they are doing the heavy lifting here, fixing problems not of their creation."
Lownie continued, "Until now, the family have been trying to distance themselves from Andrew, but Sunday's ballet suggests that there's been a change of strategy. The question is, why? Andrew is still very toxic . . . So, why have they apparently decided they need to be showing some sort of support for him and that they're all in this together?"
