The Queen has been sharply criticised for her decision to walk with the Duke of York to the front of the congregation that gathered for Prince Philip’s memorial on Tuesday.
Prince Andrew accompanied his mother to the service to honour the Duke of Edinburgh at Westminster Abbey, and walked her down the aisle to the front of the congregation as it began.
It marked Andrew’s first public appearance after he reached a settlement with Virginia Giuffre, who accused him of sexually abusing her when she was 17.
In February, the Duke came to an out-of-court agreement to pay more than £10 million, including damages to Giuffre and a donation to charity “in support of victims’ rights” to stop the civil case against him from proceeding to trial.
He has consistently denied the allegations levelled by Giuffre and claimed he did not remember ever meeting her.
Andrew’s prominent role at Philip’s memorial surprised royal commentators, with some saying that it “overshadowed” the service that was meant to honour the late Duke, who died on 9 April 2021.
Royal commentator and author of Finding Freedom, Omid Scobie, tweeted: “[Andrew’s] presence was always going to be controversial, but Prince Andrew taking on the self-appointed role of consort for the day has completely overshadowed a beautiful service.
“And to think just a week ago palace sources were fretting about the optics of a ‘wheelchair’.”
Peter Hunt, former BBC royal correspondent, tweeted that the decision was equivalent to “the Queen endorsing Andrew after he paid millions to a woman he says he has no recollection of ever meeting”.
Hunt added: “Either Charles and William didn’t intervene – or they did and failed to stop the prince performing such a high profile role at his father’s memorial service.”
He later told the PA news agency that Andrew’s role “didn’t happen by chance” and said: “He could have sat in the congregation with others, with his relatives, but they actively decided that he would have this role of supporting her.
“So she has chosen, in essence, to remind people that he hasn’t admitted any wrongdoing, he’s not guilty of anything, he’s innocent. And she’s very clearly stating that he had a role at family occasions.”
Hunt also raised the question of whether Prince Charles and Prince William would have been supportive of Andrew’s prominent role, adding that both “will have been very aware of the risks”.
According to reports, it came as a “shock” to many when the Duke “insisted” on walking the Queen to the front of the congregation.
The Daily Mail quoted a family source as saying that senior members of the royal family were “dismayed” by the events.
But other royal commentators suggested that the decision may have simply been a matter of “practicality”.
Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty Magazine, told the PA news agency that the Queen may not have “necessarily regarded” the decision as a way of showing support for her son.
He said it may just have been “a practicality as much as anything” and a plan that “fitted the purposes of the occasion”.
“I mean, clearly with him by her side, then the support is there physically and in every other way really,” he added. “It’s a complicated situation on a very personal level for the Queen as his mother.”
