Despite his villainous behaviour, anyone feel a teeny bit sorry for Andrew?

This.

Please reserve your sympathy for VG and her children who will grow up without their mother. Or the nameless other women we do not yet know about who suffered at the hands of AWM and his evil associates.

I feel no sympathy for his ‘devastated’ children who continue to live in luxury. I may have missed it but don’t think they have uttered a word of sympathy or compassion for any of the victims of sex trafficking? The 14 year old girls forced to parade semi naked at Epstein’s gatherings? I guess it’s hard to find the time to think about others when you’re busy flitting across the Middle East under the pretence of working.

I agree that it’s a shame it ended like this for him. When you look at pictures of his return from the Falklands you see a man who held so much public admiration and could have gone to do a lot of good (although he was apparently already known as a pretty odious character in the Navy at that time).

Unfortunately a complete absence of basic intelligence combined with a lifetime of being pandered to has brought him to where he is now. But that’s no-one’s fault but his own.

Archer isn't a member of the Royal family

@Sansgonads this is beyond what is politically correct in 2026.
When was it politically correct to behave like this man.

Nope. I’m saving all my empathy for the young girls and women he abused.

Nope. Brought it all on himself. I don’t feel sorry for people who take advantage of women and young children and take money from paedos. Who knows what else he’s done?

In a way, this is what the Royals are for and have always been for. They are, in a way, Johnny come latelys, the media arm of the British State.

Every so often one of them lands in the crap and get pilloried, put in the stocks, so to speak. Very rarely was it the Queen though it did happen (her poor response to the Aberfan disaster in the 1960s, her poor response to Diana's death); more often it would be Philip and his gaffes, I think the Duchess of Windsor, was it? (the still-alive tall slender blonde Catholic one, seen as bit tactless and a bit forward, we hardly hear of her now.) Others, too, on occasion.

It's to make the public feel we have some purchase on the situation, like we have a say in it. I think Harry got wind of this and got out when he could, to paraphrase the Philip Larkin poem, which sums this situation up.

Upstream, someone praises Princess Ann and she seems a good egg. But is she really? I mean, obviously in comparison to the others - the somewhat pale and uninteresting Edward, the self-pitying Charles, the boorish Andrew - but what if it were just her? She might not look so good, she can be a bit snappy, she has no overt charisma; 'they' might come for her instead.

William seems okay but then again, without other worse options, it could be easy enough to make a case against him - some say, well Harry says, that he used his younger brother to deflect criticism, to feed the tabloids stuff.

Andrew is the one being picked off, while those with real State power in the US are not. That's his role and possibly always was, like the sucker in a horror movie who catches on too late, it may well be this was what was always planned for him. Or, you could say, the Royal Family lack a Pam Bondi to shut this down, and wouldn't be able to procure one anyway.

Having read Lownie’s book, I don’t feel sorry for him at all.

It’s true he had an extremely dysfunctional childhood, but so did his siblings and they do not sexually harass nannies causing them to leave their jobs, or scream at their servants for getting their grandmother’s titles wrong, they don’t hurt the arm of police protection officers by driving too fast in Windsor great park.

Leaving aside his alleged major crimes of sexual abuse of vulnerable women , allegedly giving away classified information and endangering the state, alleged fraud by making personal deals while working for the state, alleged money laundering etc, unfortunately, what comes across is that he is an unremittingly crass, pompous, unpleasant bully of “the little people” as he sees them. And he apparently shows not a shred of comprehension about how he behaves or any remorse.

Also, with all of the privilege and resources at his disposal, this is the way he chose to spend his time? Making more dodgy money and gratifying himself sexually, no matter the collateral damage to others?

He didn’t even have to make much of an effort to help others. All he had to do was behave with a modicum of decency to staff and other people and he probably would have been forgiven for murdering a few pheasants and attending a few naval lunches a year.

I despise him honestly.

It is possible to belive that AMW expected barely legal women to throw themselves at him in nightclubs / life in general as he was a handsome Prince (years of 'Randy Andy' headlines) & an over indulged, dysfunctional man.
However, he was having sex with trafficked young women, knowingly or not.
There are many cases where the Law does not accept 'oooh, I didn't know' as a defence. If he did not know he should have known / taken care to find out.

He continued to be very close friends with someone imprisoned for facilitating child sex abuse & tried to help him restore his reputation. He KNEW (& he lied)

CSA is not 'a peccadillo'. It is a crime.
Not 'of it's time'. Wrong then. Wrong now.
The children involved, as well as the young women (& some young men)
have a lifetime of memories to contend with. Be thankful it's not you or yours.

@NewspaperTaxis I complety agree re whistle blowing it's really not easy at all

People have dependants and people relying on them to work and even if they didn't they probably have bills to pay.

I think that's tosh about him being a target. You can say that about anyone especially gang members but in the UK they go to prison. Jeffrey Archer served part of his sentence in Belmarsh he was no more targeted than anyone else. It's just an example that the press see him as different to the rest of us.

I would absolutely assume a massive cover up if he too 'commits suicide'.

I say that because I assume a suicide would be very convenient for the RF, monarchy and most certainly others. The press are very deliberately not focusing on the CIA, Mossad, Russian intelligence connections. It would put an instant stop to further speculation, the RF would become objects of pity. Anyone continuing to talk about it would be smeared as crass. It would shut everything down

A very convenient way to contain or forestall any leaks.

So it will be interesting to see if that's the outcome. 3 suicides of 3 important figures in this dark web of whatever it is.

*And I'd reach the same conclusion if he suddenly dies of 'natural causes' or at the hands of a 'deranged fellow prisoner', or 'an accident'.

Oh I miss the MN laugh reaction option 🤣🤣🤣

Yes and No!.
So far, he has not been convicted of any crime (except in the court of public opinion).
In the case of Ms Guiffre, this can never really cone to court, as she is now deceased and cannot be cross examined.
He has actually been arrested for bad conduct in public office, meaning the possibility of giving away confidential information, while being a trade envoy. This is what is being investigated, and I am not sure whether he has been charged with an offence, yet.
What has always surprised me, is that the Gov of the day gave him this position, and I'm even more surprised that he ever had any confidential information.
That said, I have always despised Andrew since the time he sprayed paint over some photographers. Their cameras were ruined, and I think had to be compensated.

I would hazard a guess that all of the Royal family were indulged and spoilt. Charles has someone to dress him. He has someone to put toothpaste on his toothbrush - these people don't live normal lives at all.

I agree - and l wouldn't be at all surprised if the next headline is Andrew MW has committed suicide.

I think he deserves to be arrested and I hope justice is served but I do feel compassion when I remember that he was sexually abused as an 8 year old (apparently) and taken to a brothel by a friend’s parent at the age of 11. I wonder how much his childhood experiences of abuse affected him and whether they were why he appears to have become so oversexed?
He should - as an adult - have still been able to feel compassion towards victims of sexual abuse and he deserves to be punished for any crimes he has committed.
If it is true that he was indulged and spoilt, that no one ever said no to him and that he is not very bright then, to a certain extent, this helps to explain why he became such an arrogant, self serving man. It also suggests that he was manipulated by Epstein (and others) and was out of his depth, making him a more pitiful figure than he might otherwise be. I still think he deserves to face justice though.

If he's found guilty he'll do his time under house arrest according to the press. He would be too much of a target and a security risk in prison

His entire life is shamelessly funded by the public, his family does nothing but take public money to finance their luxurious and leisurely existence.

That might be one of the reasons why there's so much focus on him!

It's neither here nor there as to whether he's the only one named in the Epstein files receiving any justice. It doesn't matter. He's getting deserts for what HE did. You get caught stealing with friends, and they get away with it, you cannot say but 'it wasn't just me, it's not fair'.

The fact is life's not fair as the victims know only too damn well. The fact is he put himself in the focus by not showing any proper attempt to conceal himself, and by extension the crown, by foolishly posing for keepsake pictures and sleeping with trafficked women on his home turf. The fact is he purposely invited the spotlight on himself by doing an interview in which he had no intention of telling the truth. The fact is we might be more egalitarian than the Americans and our women's rights and anti-slavery advocacy is older and possibly more refined than the Americans and that difference matters (it's interesting actually) So yes the hammer is falling on him for now.

No sympathy for any of that.

I will say though that I don't take overt pleasure in someone's downfall, even if I take acute satisfaction in Justice. On that I do have some pity for him in the sense of a Christian sadness that he didn't turn away from these wicked acts when he had the chance and has ruined himself, either with the orchestration of nefarious others or by himself.

That is sad, because with all his gifts and privileges he had a massive potential for good and now it is squandered.

I have absolutely no secrets on the scale of Prince Andrew’s.

Not a bit.
Neither do I feel a teeny bit sorry for the bastard who let his girlfriend freeze to death, as discussed on another thread.
Let them get what they deserve.

I have no sympathy for him at all, anyone who has should read Entitled. He is a disgusting human being and I hope they lock him up.

No, but I also don't agree with the 'I'm pleased the Queen is not alive to see this' type comments, he's a monster she created by awful parenting. The saving grace is that she may have tried to cover up, whereas I think and hope Charles will hang him out to dry. Prison will be way harder for him than most people and I hope he does the time, but I wouldn't be surprised if he took his own life soon, as Epstein did.

Absolutely this

Screwed up children become screwed up adults.
Brought up by a series of paid servants, distant parents and everyone around you worried about losing their jobs if they upset you.Little wonder then that you think you can do as you like.Little wonder you have zero emotional intelligence, or ability to discriminate between those who are your “friends,” out for a share in your status and privileges, and those who are genuine.
So I feel sorry for the destroyed exprince he has lose his status, family, home, even his precious teddy bears are packed away.
Whilst I feel some sympathy for him as a human being, it demonstrates the dysfunction of the whole Royal family. Not even a good thing for those brought up in it, the system produces emotional cripples.