Following his sun-soaked Grecian break over the summer, Prince William appears to have returned to royal duty with a bang this month.
Not only was he forced to make excuses to actively avoid Prince Harry when the estranged royal returned to London, but William also saw himself thrown into an extremely awkward encounter with Prince Andrew last week, when his uncle appeared to jostle up next to him at the funeral of the beloved Duchess of Kent.
Up until now, both Harry, 41, and Andrew, 65, have been vying for the top spot on William’s metaphorical ‘most hated royal’ list, or at the very least his ‘most troublesome member of The Firm’ memo.
However, as more gross details from the Jeffrey Epstein enquiry emerge at the very same time that Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah ‘Fergie’ Ferguson appear to have chosen, of all places, a funeral to make their public return, a source tells us that there is now one clear winner – Andrew.
Making matters worse, they tell us that Heir Apparent William, 43, is adamant that Andrew needs to be removed from public appearances and royal life entirely, while other members of The Firm disagree –seemingly prompting Andrew to cling on for all its worth.
The insider says, ‘Prince William can’t stand his uncle Andrew and would love to see him booted from the royal household for good, but he’s not getting much support as he’d like from other family members and it’s causing escalating tension behind the scenes.
‘He thinks it’s ridiculous that Andrew is still being tolerated and invited to certain functions, he wouldn’t allow his uncle to darken any royal door at this point.
‘There’s little doubt William will put his foot down and spare Andrew no mercy once he does become King down the line but William’s hands are tied right now, and it’s causing him no end of annoyance.’
William did his best to ignore his uncle at the Duchess of Kent’s funeral ©Getty Images
Just days after Andrew and Sarah attended the funeral, the pair were plunged into their biggest scandal yet after an email exchange between Sarah and Jeffrey Epstein was made public.
In the shocking email, which Sarah, 65, wrote to the now-deceased convicted paedophile, the Duchess of York describes Epstein as her ‘steadfast, generous and supreme friend’, adding ‘Sometimes the heart speaks better than the words. You have my heart.’
On March 7th 2011, Sarah made a statement in which she described her friendship with Epstein as a ‘terrible, terrible error of judgement’, adding, ‘I will never have anything to do with him again.’
However, on April 26th, Sarah sent her private email to Epstein, apologising ‘to you and your heart’, before explaining how the scandal – which had seen Epstein released from jail after a 13 month sentence for paedophilia in 2009 – had left her ‘broken and lost’.
It was also revealed that, in 2010, Andrew had reportedly arranged for Epstein to pay off £15,000 of Sarah’s debts – a sum she accepted despite his jail time.
The damning revelations come six years after Andrew was forced to step down following his own involvement with Epstein and the allegations of sexual abuse levelled against him by Virginia Giuffre.
At the time, he was stripped of all of his military titles and patronages and, while the late Queen Elizabeth II allowed Andrew to continue to reside at Royal Lodge on the Windsor Estate as per the terms of his 75-year lease (which doesn’t end until 2078), there have been numerous calls by the public, and reportedly members of The Firm to evict him.
But the source says for now, this is something Charles, 76, refuses to do.
Charles is torn between protecting his brother and bending to his son’s demands ©Getty Images
‘King Charles has made it abundantly clear that it’s not a simple or straightforward scenario to just throw him out,’ the insider says. ‘That way, they could make an enemy of him and the family have many more pressing matters to tend to for now.’
However, Andrew’s latest PDA (Public Display of Awkwardness) could hint that the ‘disgraced’ royal knows he could be on borrowed time, and the source says he is determined to use it wisely in buttering up his ‘stubborn’ nephew.
‘Andrew has been trying to charm his way back into William’s good books and kill him with kindness, which was the main reason why he went out of his way to pose alongside him at the funeral,’ the insider says.
‘He wanted everyone, his nephew included, to know that he intends to go nowhere and the entire eye rolling and bad mouthing in the world won’t change that.
‘He’s been chipping away at building bridges with his brother, which seems to be working because he’s still invited to important gatherings and most of the talk about him being forcibly ejected from Royal Lodge has subsided – at least for now.’
And the source says that while William is now the first in line to the throne, with reports suggesting that he is likely to continue The Firm’s pledge to ‘slim line’ the monarchy when he and Kate Middleton takeover, the source says Andrew still views him as ‘a little boy’ – a viewpoint that could wreak havoc in the long haul.
‘Andrew’s still not taking William seriously,’ the insider says.’He still sees him as the little kid he’d babysit and take care of when he was a little boy and he’s savvy enough to know that big picture decisions like booting a leading member out of the royal fold would cause an almighty scandal for The Firm.
‘There’s also a side of Andrew that’s totally ambivalent and believes William’s being a spoilt brat and that he’s throwing around all these empty threats without bearing in mind that he’s not been convicted of anything.’
And the source says that, in time, Andrew still hopes to get back into William’s ‘good books’.
They tell us, ‘Andrew hopes to regain William’s trust and find a path back to royal service, as delusional as that sounds. He still cherishes the close relationship he had with Queen Elizabeth and never fails to remind people that she always defended him when others did not.
‘So William has a real mess on his hands, assuming he does proceed to try and ice Andrew out and one day boot him from the household. Andrew loves to boast that he’s Teflon, there’s no-one capable of turfing him out of his rightful home and family. And in many ways he’s probably right.’
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