Friday's Guardian
Randy Andy, Air Miles Andy, and now the Duke of Hazard: headline writers have always found evocative ways to shorthand the Queen’s second son at different stages in his royal career.
As the Duke of York, 59, is spotted teeing off at the Real Club Valderrama, the exclusive golf club in Sotogrande, southern Spain, coverage of his controversial former friendship with the disgraced billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein continues to make uncomfortable reading for Buckingham Palace.
The latest optics are grainy video of him at Epstein’s New York mansion, amid reports of royal foot massages dispensed by young women.
The duke, first named in US court documents in 2015, has issued outright denials over allegations he had sexual encounters in 2001 with Virginia Roberts, now Giuffre, when she was a 17 -year-old masseuse for Epstein. The claims were struck from the US court record by a judge who described them as “immaterial and impertinent”. Also vehemently denied are allegations, in recently released court papers of the Guiffre case, made by Johanna Sjoberg that Andrew touched her breast while sitting on a couch at Epstein’s home in 2001.
There can be no denial, however, about Andrew’s crass lack of judgment. That video, and a photograph of him walking with Epstein in New York’s Central Park, were taken in 2010 – two years after the billionaire was convicted of soliciting a minor for prostitution and was a registered sex offender.
“The situation changed when Epstein was convicted. It was [Andrew’s] conscious decision to stay loyal, to not criticise his friend the convicted paedophile. And, while that may be fine for him, it’s a step too far. What it’s saying is the royal family tolerates this sort of behaviour,” said one veteran royal commentator, who has met Andrew on several occasions, and believes he should now step down from his public roles.
Time and again, Andrew, who a courtier once reportedly described as having “a pompous level of self-importance”, has demonstrated an eye-watering lack of judgment. Palace staff have rated him the rudest of royals, according to reports. A secret cable, published on WikiLeaks in 2010, revealed a US ambassador describing Andrew speaking “cockily” during one official lunch, leading to a discussion that “verged on the rude”.
He earned the soubriquet Air Miles Andy after the National Audit Office censured his helicopter habit in 2005, which included him spending £32,000 in one year flying to Scotland to the Royal and Ancient club at St Andrews in his capacity as captain.
In 2011, following pressure over the Epstein connection, he stood down from his role as UK special representative for trade and investment. It did not help when his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, admitted having accepted £15,000 from Epstein to help pay off her debts.
His links have often raised eyebrows; meetings with the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s son Saif; entertaining the son-in-law of Tunisia’s ousted president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali at Buckingham Palace; his relations with Timor Kulibayev, son-in-law of the president of Kazakhstan, who purchased the duke’s Sunninghill Park home for £3m more than its £12m asking price in 2007.