Prince Andrew has tested positive for COVID, the royal family announced Thursday.
The timing means the disgraced prince will miss events celebrating his mother Queen Elizabeth II’s unprecedented Platinum Jubilee this weekend.
Andrew was not invited to Thursday’s parade through London or the ceremonial balcony appearance afterward. But he had been expected to appear at a National Service of Thanksgiving on Friday at St. Paul’s Cathedral.
In May, Buckingham Palace said that “after careful consideration” the queen had decided to only invite “working royals and their children” to the balcony. That meant Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle were also absent, though unlike Andrew, they got to participate in the parade.
Queen Elizabeth stripped Andrew of his military ties and royal duties in January. At the time, Andrew was viciously fighting a lawsuit by alleged Jeffrey Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, who accused Andrew of raping her when she was 17.
Andrew settled the lawsuit for a reported $13.5 million in February and has only been seen in public once since: when he escorted Elizabeth at the funeral of her husband, Prince Philip.
The Platinum Jubilee marks 70 years on the throne for Elizabeth, making her the second-longest reigning Western European monarch in history. Her reign is the longest in the history of the British Isles.
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