Prince Andrew could be shut out of the Royal Family completely and relegated to looking after the Queen's corgis, a royal expert has suggested. It has been claimed that King Charles III can't see any real future for his brother within the The Firm, despite the fact he allowed him to wear his Navy Uniform during a vigil for the late monarch.
However, as the Duke of York is no longer a working royal, he had to don civilian clothes for Her Majesty's state funeral at Westminster Abbey last week. Prince Andrew was forced to step back from royal life after a scandal involving his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein and alleged sexual abuse of Virginia Giuffre came to light - allegations the he vehemently denies.
In a car crash interview with Newsnight in 2019, the 62-year-old refused to say he regretted his relationship with the billionaire sex offender and earlier this year had a civil sexual assault case brought against him by Ms Giuffre, who he previously claimed he never to have met. The Duke later paid off his accuser in a multi-million pound settlement, the Mirror reports.
Now, Andrew could be reduced to nothing more than the royal dog walker-in-chief under Charles' rule, it has been alleged. Royal expert Nigel Cawthorne understands that the Prince could end up receiving just a token allowance from the new King. But he can forget about being a public-facing member of the Royal Family any time soon.
The Duke, often dubbed the Queen's favourite son, faces a very little meaningful future in the monarchy, the author stressed. "I can't see he's got much of a role [in the Royals] aside from Lord High Dogwalker, keeper of the royal corgis," Cawthorne told The Sun Online.
"Who would want him? What supermarket or school wants Andrew cutting the ribbon? Andrew could end up embarrassing them even more - so instead [Charles] would have to give him some 'hush money'."
It comes after claims in a few book that Andrew "lobbied hard" to stop Charles from becoming King. The writer went on to explain the brothers have a deeply rooted "rivalry" which dates all the way back to when they were young.
It, according to expert Cawthorne, came to a head during the 1990s when Andrew tried to set himself up as William's Regent. Since then, Andrew has "consistently embarrassed The Firm," Cawthorne went on.
It is understood that Prince Andrew and Princess Beatrice gave the Queen the two corgis that outlived the monarch and promised to take care of them if she died. Andrew and his family presented the Queen with two puppies during lockdown to help keep her entertained at Windsor while her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, was in hospital.
Earlier this year, the Queen stripped her son Andrew of all of his honorary military roles, including Colonel of the Grenadier Guards, and he gave up his HRH title. Last week, it was claimed Andrew "lobbied hard" with the hope that it would mean Charles would not become king when his mother died - and that William would wear the crown instead.
Andrew's behaviour was alleged to have been "very, very negative and extremely unpleasant" to the Queen, who disagreed with him about the line of succession. And this reportedly marked a rare occasion where Andrew didn't get what he wanted from his mother.
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