Andrew - continuing his effort to end the Monarchy Part 3

[simpsonthecat]

Here we are

Previous thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/the_royal_family/5487636-andrew-continuing-his-effort-to-end-the-monarchy-part-2?page=20&reply=150676336

Oh lord, they’re using the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh (aka the anodyne and arguably ‘popular’ Edward and Sophie) to do it.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15715521/prince-edward-visited-andrew-mountbatten-windsor-easter-fears-mental-state-epstein.html

There’s no such thing as a free lunch, as I guess E&S are about to find out. It’s their chore now to demonstrate the virtues of concern and understanding to the public, through one meaningless gesture at a time. (Leaking the ‘dinner with Andrew’ ffs.)

They never learn.

That’s just the press respinning the previous story that Edward was visiting Andrew because he was cross with him that he hadn’t moved out of Wood Farm in time for him and Sophie to use it over Easter.

All they know is they saw Edward visiting.

I think this article has some extra material - the inclusion of Sophie and ‘royal sources’. Different writer, too. Well it was news to me!

Spooky isn’t it?

Agree with this. Very poor decision if either are allowed back into public life. If they want to see their family, well that’s one thing. Don’t make out they are the victims. They aren’t.

There's probably more.

I simply do not believe GM, AMW, SF and PM were the only people in the UK deeply mired in this entire Epstein schtick.

The Royals are at the edge. If anything it would be wise for Charles to sweep up and hand over the crown to William now.

A shiney new RF is what's needed.

The late Queen should have handed the crown over to Charles earlier also. For people supposedly invested in preserving the Crown above all else, they seem to feel it's about themselves more than anything.

I don't think there's anything wrong with family members being concerned, or visiting a sibling for a 'welfare visit' as someone has termed it.

I can imagine that AMW's moods may well fluctuate, and that his family may want to judge for themselves how he is. Given that photographers seem to be permanently stationed there, it would be difficult to do so without anyone knowing.

I haven't so far seen any real suggestion that the RF is trying to 'rehabilitate' AMW or bring him back into public life. For quite a while I have seen social media commentators suggesting that the RF will be making use of AMW's 'mental health' - not to bring him back to public life, but to create sympathy for him, as @TheAutumnCrow has suggested.

That's why I wondered in my first post why TS/AL are pushing this story particularly now. It may, of course, simply be because royal news has moved on from AMW a bit.

I simply do not believe GM, AMW, SF and PM were the only people in the UK deeply mired in this entire Epstein schtick.

I agree.

I assume there were more powerful political, finance and business men involved. Presumably they remain powerful, and we haven't heard of them.

Isn't the King going to have a State Banquet with probably the most prolific of the Epstein monsters soon? I could say something not very nice about that, but I'll desist for now.

I’ve read that at least one previous Prime Minister as well as other key politicians were involved too.

I gather that Tom Sykes (and subsequently Andrew Lownie) is/are apparently saying that The Palace is on a mission to get the public to feel pity for Andrew.

That might explain Ed's leaked reported Easter mercy mission to check on his apparently feared for brother.

I think C3 is probably relieved that MW and ex are taking the flak over their friendship with an appalling paedophile.

Always worth noting his ill-advised chumming up with Savile ('Nobody will ever know what you've done for this country, Jimmy'). supporting a cautioned sex offender (Peter Ball) with a house purchased with funds diverted from the Treasury and 'mentors' Mountbatten and Van der Post.

That’s just the press respinning the previous story that Edward was visiting Andrew because he was cross with him that he hadn’t moved out of Wood Farm in time for him and Sophie to use it over Easter.

I haven't seen this interpretation of The Visit.

Do you have a link?

The original story was in the Sun initially last week, and picked up by other outlets after that.

Here is the Standard's offering
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/royals/prince-edward-visit-andrew-exile-b1277647.html
(sorry, archiving stopped working again)

I can only imagine what the victims of Louis Mountbatten must be feeling when they see AMW’s fall from grace. They will never get justice or even recognition of what he did to them.

Of course not

He was protected beyond belief

Yes he was. Was Prince Louis named after him?

Probably

So interesting the book about the Mountbattens, despite any good they did, they were both absolutely debauched. Just shocking

Interesting that Melania Trump is now saying she didn't know Epstein. I wonder if Lownie can back up his claim (since removed from Entitled) that she'd had a relationship with him and he'd introduced her to Trump?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/09/melania-trump-jeffrey-epstein

Despite the photos of Melania in the company of Epstein.

Melania is saying she met Donald Trump in 1998 at a party. And that she met Epstein in 2000.

She says that subsequently their social circles crossed in New York and Palm Beach, hence how she knew ‘Epstein’s accomplice’ Ghislaine Maxwell. She suggests it was on a superficial, polite level.

And she wants the rumours online to stop, and a Congressional hearing to start. She wants a hearing to take sworn testimony from Epstein’s victims, of which she says she is not one. Nor, she says, is she involved in any other way.

It’s on the BBC website. Only 5-6 minutes.

I’d be interested to know what other posters think of her body language and voice/delivery.

I wonder if Lownie can back up his claim (since removed from Entitled) that she'd had a relationship with him and he'd introduced her to Trump?

It's not often a historian's publisher has to withdraw 60 000 copies of a book.

https://archive.is/iBBVS

I have read many different sources that Melania actually had some sort of relationship with Epstein

I don't doubt it. There's more than one pic of her, Epstein and Trump together.

I think the Queen was unable to see that times had changed since the Abdication Crisis of Edward VIII and that staying Queen so long ended up being harmful. I think we'd still have had a lot of issues if she'd abdicated around 2000, but maybe different ones. Otoh I'm not sure how Charles & Camilla as monarchs just a few years after Diana's death would have gone.

I think you have to draw a big line between Edwina & Louis though. Edwins may have had 20 or whatever lovers and she was a dreadful mother but she did enormous good via charity work. I also cut her some slack due to her awful childhood with her neglectful mother dying when she was 9, father a total deadbeat and stepmother cruel. It's not an excuse but it does provide some context . I also suspect Louis was quite a difficult man to be married to, especially if he was not that much interested in women.., though that does not excuse affairs.

Whereas Louis Mountbatten didn't do charity on that scale at all, arguably did more harm than good in several cases at work, and, if the evidence is true, may well have sexually abused boys as young as 8.