On November 17, Prince Andrew Albert Christian Edward, Duke of York, finds his mother at Windsor Castle, as every Sunday at Mass time. The queen's younger son nods, kisses the queen's gloved hand, then bends over to kiss him on both cheeks. A little ritual that "mummy" particularly likes.
That morning, he has good news to tell him. The night before, Elizabeth II, 93, was in bed when 2.5 million of her subjects watched, dumbfounded, at the river interview - forty-five minutes - given by her son to the BBC. Journalist Emily Maitlis will say that she was pinched: "I'm asking a member of the royal family about his sex life and his friendship with a pedophile! "
Doubtful answers, inappropriate laughs, cynical explanations… The prince's declarations left the media and viewers stunned. "The show begins at 9 p.m.," sums up Lydia Starbuck, columnist for royalty. At 10 p.m. Andrew is finished. The person concerned is not aware of this, persuaded, as he has just said to his mother, of having successfully passed this communication operation which he has been preparing in secret for three months. Since August 10, 2019.
That day, in a cell of the federal prison in New York, Jeffrey Epstein is found hanged. This 66-year-old American millionaire was accused of being in charge of a vast adolescent sex trade. The record is overwhelming. Epstein dead, it is his entourage that the victims will demand accountability.
At the heart of the scandal, a small black leather book seized by the FBI. Epstein has always prided himself on knowing the great people of this world. And that's true. There are direct lines from Donald Trump, Bill Gates, Bill Clinton… and no less than sixteen numbers to reach Prince Andrew.
But in this personal Who's Who, are also registered simple first names. Female. Followed by the words "massage". The victims of the predator. Tens. Sarah, Michelle, Joanna, Courtney, Katie, Melissa… and Virginia. The one by whom the scandal reaches Buckingham.
At 17, she receives the order to sleep with him
Virginia Roberts told investigators how, in 1999, employed at the Donald Trump Golf Country Club in Palm Beach, Florida, she was approached by a beautiful brunette woman with an English accent. This one presents itself: Ghislaine Maxwell. And offers the girl to earn 200 dollars to massage the feet of a rich man. Virginia is not praying.
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She no longer goes to school, was raped during her childhood. She is 15 years old. The man is 46. But, instead of a massage, Jeffrey Epstein imposes sex on him. This marks the start of five years of control. “I was not tied to a radiator. They were my chains, they were so powerful, ”she says.
The girl is not the only millionaire's sex toy. “Jeffrey explained to me that he provided daughters to his relatives so that they could be indebted to him. And one of the recipients of these favors is Prince Andrew, the second son of the Queen of England. Virginia Roberts told investigators that she had three sexual relationships with him. The first took place in March 2001 in London. The teenager made the trip with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, inseparable duo. After a brief love affair, Ghislaine became, according to Jeffrey, "his best friend".
A member of British high society, she is close to Sarah Ferguson, the ex-wife of Prince Andrew. Adding the name of a Windsor in his little black book, for Epstein, is priceless. Or rather, it can be bought. Virginia is therefore ordered to sleep with the Duke of York. She is 17, he is 41.
A torn royal family
At that time, Andrew no longer made the headlines. The crown is rising from a nightmarish decade. The British followed the soap opera of their royal family live: Charles and Diana torn apart by TV shows, stolen photos of Sarah Ferguson, then married to Andrew, who is licked toes by a Texan billionaire ... "Too much ”for the queen, who will impose on her sons what was previously unthinkable: divorce.
Another rupture failed to cause the monarchy to falter. The one between Elizabeth and her people, on the death of Princess Diana, in 1997. The sovereign does not measure the wave of popular emotion. "Royalty is very conscious of holding its legitimacy from the people," recalls Marc Roche, biographer of Elizabeth II, and this is the only time the queen has forgotten it. "
In his Memoirs, former Prime Minister Tony Blair remembers that the monarch, in a rare moment of confidence, had promised to "learn the lesson".
"Andy the hot rabbit", the "parasite", eternal second
The reconquest operation relies on those for whom the British have a natural compassion, William and Harry. Charles proves to be a good father and assumes, in broad daylight, his relationship with his mistress of always, Camilla Parker Bowles. He becomes popular again, which is not the case with his brother.
Ex-helicopter pilot, Andrew participated in the Falklands War, cultivates false airs of Tom Cruise ("Top Gun" is his favorite film) and a reputation as a drummer. The newspapers call him "Andy the hot rabbit" or, more annoying, the "parasite". His life as a patachon at the expense of the taxpayer worries Prince Charles, himself a formidable businessman.
In 2001, he offered Andrew a job. Become his assistant. A poisoned gift. The two brothers have nothing in common. "The Prince of Wales, explains Marc Roche, his biographer, prides himself on having gone to university and considers Andrew as a rather limited soldier, who has no intellectual conversation. "
"My brother's problem," Charles would have said, "is that he wants to be me." For twenty-two years, until William was born, Andrew was second in succession to the throne of England. A substitute role. But he holds what Charles will never have, the first place in the heart of their mother. "It's no secret," says Penny Junor, author of the Windsor books. When it comes to Andrew, the queen loses all objectivity. "
Andrew, the child of reconciliation
"Twelve years separate Charles from his brother," says Marc Roche. Twelve years worth a century in the eyes of the very young queen, mother of two small children, Charles and Anne, when she was carried overnight to the throne, to the brutal death of her father, King George VI, in 1952.
Elizabeth II is 25 years old and has not received the education of a queen. Overwhelmed, she entrusts her children to the nurses at Buckingham Palace. His family life was reduced to a very low point. Especially since a conflict opposes her husband. The children are named after him, Windsor, not their father, Mountbatten. He will hold it against the Queen for a long time. "I am the only man in the country who does not have the right to give his name to his children," he will complain publicly.
Twelve years of solitude, sulks, separate bedroom, which will end with an agreement: a new family name, Mountbatten-Windsor, and a newborn baby. Andrew was born in 1960, a child of reconciliation. "The baby is absolutely adorable," confides Elizabeth II in a letter to a friend, "he will be terribly spoiled, I'm sure!" "
Andrew is dating Gaddafi's son
In 2001, the preferred son allows himself to refuse the offer of employment of the prince of Wales. There is no question of staying in the shadow of his older brother. Another much more exciting mission awaits him. The government has offered him the post of special representative for foreign trade. Traveling the world to promote the made in Britain, he loves it.
But Andrew is dating the son of Gaddafi or shady billionaire Kazakhs. His lack of discernment gives cold sweats to the government. Inseparable from Jeffrey Epstein - now invited to royal receptions -, the prince travels almost every month aboard the millionaire's Boeing 727, as evidenced by the flight logs seized by the FBI. A plane nicknamed the "Lolita Express" because Epstein goes nowhere without being accompanied by young girls. Very young, even minor. And these are not rumors.
Epstein also holds the prince by the wallet
In the spring of 2005, in Palm Beach, Florida, the parents of a teenage girl filed a complaint, the first of a long list. Investigators have never seen this. Epstein "consumed" three girls a day. Arrested in July 2006, he pays a deposit and remains free. He was sentenced in 2008 to thirteen months in prison, a flexible sentence. Andrew knows it doesn't bother him. He is wrong.
“I, people, buy them, I do what I want with them, I can even destroy them. These words by Epstein, reported by one of his victims, are reinforced by the arsenal of video surveillance discovered during searches in Florida, Manhattan or on his private Caribbean island, which will be nicknamed Orgy Island, the island orgies. Cameras in every room, hundreds of hours of recording, now in the hands of investigators. Andrew, like all the guests, could have been filmed in a compromising situation.
And that's not all, Epstein also holds Andrew by the wallet because of his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, whose prince has remained close. Unlike Diana, beneficiary of several million pounds sterling at the time of her divorce, Sarah received no compensation. Decision imposed by Prince Philip. The queen's husband has a tenacious hatred for "Fergie", the vulgarity of which he cannot bear.
Andrew asks Epstein to pay Fergie's bills
However, it has kept its lifestyle and is heavily in debt. At Andrew's request, the Queen discreetly mopped up this multi-million pound overdraft, but her bank account is a bottomless pit. Hard-pressed, Sarah paid for her participation in pathetic reality shows and became an ambassador for Weight Watchers diets. Happiness for the tabloids who track it. Until setting a trap for him in May 2010.
Posing as a businessman, a reporter makes a secret deal with her. For the sum of 500,000 pounds (the equivalent of around 620,000 euros today), she promises to present her ex-husband to him. She does not know that the scene is filmed. "I'm so sorry," said Fergie.
Not by humiliation, Andrew flew to New York in December 2010. Objective: to visit Jeffrey Epstein to ask him to pay the bills for his ex-wife. Small problem, the American comes out of prison, and he is classified pedophile of level 3, the most dangerous. Big problem, the two men are photographed together during a walk. They find themselves on the front page of the newspapers.
As for Sarah Ferguson, "sorry again", she admits having committed "a huge error in judgment" by accepting 15,000 pounds sterling from Jeffrey Epstein. In reality, according to Vanity Fair magazine, "it would be more like hundreds of thousands of pounds." In 2011 Andrew was removed from office as Special Representative for Foreign Trade. Epstein and him are a thing of the past.
His daughters deprived of the royal income
But Charles now has more ammunition than he dreamed of to eliminate his younger brother. On June 5, 2012, during the diamond jubilee of Elizabeth II, which marks the 60th anniversary of her reign, the traditional appearance of the royal family on the balcony is like no other. With the sovereign, Charles and Camilla, William and Kate Middleton, his young wife, Prince Harry and ... that's it! The image of a “simplified” monarchy, long desired by the Prince of Wales.
"For Charles, the 21st century monarchy will only survive if it offers good value for money," reports Marc Roche. Andrew was the last member of the family who balked at no longer holding office. The prince also pleaded for his daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, to get more royal assignments.
Often nicknamed the "Cinderella sisters", the Duchesses of York are not popular in the newspapers or in public opinion, which considers that it does not have to pay for the lifestyle of second princesses . To celebrate his 25th birthday, in 2015, Andrew organized a disguised evening at Windsor Castle: 200 guests were greeted by Eugenie in Snow White costume. The princess was escorted by seven dwarfs, "hired" for the occasion. Bad taste, madness of grandeur ... the newspapers did not miss them.
One more argument in the hands of Charles who had already convinced the queen, in 2013, to deprive her nieces of the royal income. "Andrew had a hard time living with him and his daughters out of the first circle," says Marc Roche, "and that gave him a sort of resentment and arrogance ready to explode. "
The shock photo that forces him to explain himself
Arrested last July, Jeffrey Epstein risked life in prison. With his death, the lawyers for the 90 victims listed in the file consider the queen's son to be a major witness. His main accuser, Virginia Roberts, 36 years old today, released a shock photo, which corroborates her account of her meeting with Andrew, nineteen years earlier. We see them entwined.
She also confided at length in a program whose broadcast is scheduled for December 2, 2019. Andrew decides to speak before. And to do it from Buckingham, place of power if ever there was one. The royal calendar offers a shooting window in mid-November. The Queen will be in Windsor and Charles on an official trip.
On November 14, the BBC team leaves the royal palace after an hour of question and answer. Prince Andrew was surprisingly self-assured, far too much.
"Shame", "Outcast", "Disgrace" ...
As soon as the first extracts were broadcast by the BBC, Prince Charles in New Zealand took charge of the operations. "Cutting the rotten branch, the Windsor know how to do it," recalls Marc Roche. On Sunday November 17, Andrew prides himself on having succeeded with his mother, who does not know what he is talking about.
But in newsstands, it's another story told by newspaper headlines. "The shame", "The outcast", "The national laugh", "The disgrace ..." The next day, Monday, the brands that finance the charities of the prince disengage. Tuesday, the coup de grace on television. In the midst of an electoral debate, while the future of the United Kingdom in Europe is at stake, the question is asked: "Is Prince Andrew worthy of his office?" None of the candidates for the post of Prime Minister dares to answer.
The only one who can do it is at the head of this family which is nicknamed "the firm". And for the Queen of England, no one is above the crown. Not even her favorite son. "Charles simply asked for Andrew's excommunication," says Marc Roche. Elizabeth did not protest. The queen has changed.
Her eldest son speaks, it's the future king she hears. Charles has always had the gift of exasperating his parents with his quirky ideas, his open-mindedness, his ecumenism. Forty years that it tires them with the protection of the environment. But at the twilight of her life, the queen wants to be reconciled with him at all costs. “In her mind, what matters is her, Charles and William. What matters is the throne.
Wednesday, November 20, three days after his "suicide interview" on the BBC, an official statement announced that Prince Andrew is withdrawing from public life. No more grandiose marriage plans for her daughter Beatrice this summer; canceled, the birthday party for its 60 years. It is not only the Epstein affair that has just caught up with Andrew, but fate. One day soon, he will no longer have to bow to his mother, but will face his brother.
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