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Prince Andrew is a “recluse” who spends his days watching TV in his 30-room dwelling, and barely goes out besides to trip a horse or stroll the canine, a brand new profile of the fallen prince reveals.
Andrew, who was kicked out of the royal household after his disastrous Newsnight interview in November 2019, has, nonetheless, indulged in “intense self-reflection” and having spent three years in “his personal type of lockdown,” is “extra considerate and extra conscious than he has ever been,” pals say.
The Day by day Telegraph’s royal reporter Camilla Tominey says that his daughter Princess Beatrice, now 34, “warned” Andrew that the interview was “all a really dangerous thought, however sadly nobody listened to her,” in accordance to what's described as a “well-placed supply.”
One good friend says Andrew has been painted as “the archetypal pantomime villain,” however provides: “He acknowledges privately that Newsnight was certainly not his best hour…What he’s additionally come to appreciate are the pitfalls of residing in an Edwardian courtroom the place there’s little or no pushback, it’s all, ‘Sure sir, no sir, three baggage full, sir.’”
The good friend says that Andrew hopes to now play a “backseat” function within the monarchy, saying: “All he needs to do is make issues as clean as doable in stark distinction to days passed by. Appearing as that supportive brother determine, completely within the background however for the good thing about the monarchy as a complete, is a future template for the way he feels he could make some kind of contribution. Relatively than being a distraction, he needs to turn out to be a stabilizing affect and sounding board inside the household on a really non-public foundation.
“Earlier than all this occurred there was a fairly widespread view that he was a troublesome man to like. One of many fundamental criticisms was that he ignored recommendation. However since Newsnight, he’s listened to the individuals who have been telling him to maintain his head down and that’s what he’s finished.”
Intriguingly, Tominey writes that “a proposal has been put to the duke that will see him reside out the remainder of his years doing one thing that will give him private fulfilment, in addition to being impactful and resonant,” however doesn't say what that's.
Tominey additionally means that Andrew, who paid a multi-million greenback settlement to Virgina Giuffre, the lady who accused him of sexually abusing her, might have been left a big sum of cash by his mom in her will.
Tominey paints Andrew as residing a constrained life, saying that he “has successfully been grounded” and quotes one supply as saying he has been in “his personal type of lockdown for the previous three years.”
The report says he's “a digital recluse” with a supply saying: “Nowadays, he barely goes out in any respect. He not often goes out socially within the night—the place would he go? The one occasions he used to exit had been to go to the queen on the fortress and now he can’t even do this.”
As to how Andrew continues to pay for his still-expensive existence, together with a chef and workers, a supply says: “[The queen] remained satisfied of Andrew’s innocence to the very finish so she would have sorted him. Retaining them financially safe really protects the establishment—it means they don’t must go on the lookout for funding elsewhere which has landed them in bother previously.”
A supply dismisses rumors Andrew and Sarah will remarry, saying: “Sarah wouldn't need to be dragged into the politics of the Royal family,” and one other supply added, “They've separate bedrooms, nothing has modified on that rating, however, because the duchess at all times places it, they continue to be the happiest divorced couple on the earth.”