It would be “very foolhardy” for Prince Andrew to try to find his way back into public life, a royal expert has warned.
Royal Editor Russell Myers believes the UK has no appetite for the Duke of York’s return as a working member of the royal family after his catastrophic fall from grace.
The scandal-scarred royal, 63, who was famously stripped of his royal and military honors by his late mother, has been keeping a low profile ever since his reputation suffered a brutal blow.
“We look back to the moment of the Queen having passed away as not only a monarch leaving this world, but also a family that was grieving as well and we had to be particularly sensitive to that,” Myers told Sky News Australia.
“And this was a private memorial, this was a man who had lost his mother and the family’s still coming to terms with that.”
“If Prince Andrew is to try and find a way back into public life, I think that that would be very foolhardy,” he said, adding, “I don’t think people would appreciate it.”
A strong rebrand is desperately needed for the duke after a string of controversies plagued his reputation.
The disgraced royal, who was barred from using his HRH (“His Royal Highness”) moniker following his alleged friendship with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, also lost his patronages last year.
While he is still a Royal Knight of the Garter and a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, he was told face-to-face by his mother that he would no longer be known as His Royal Highness.
The late monarch, who was 96 when she died in September 2022, broke the news to the father of two at Windsor Castle in January last year.
The retraction of Andrew’s official royal labels came amid his sexual assault case filed by Virginia Giuffre, who has long claimed that Epstein made her have “disgusting” sex with the royal three times, starting in 2001 when she was just 17.
Andrew’s lawyers said he “unequivocally denies Giuffre’s false allegations against him.” He settled the case out of court for an undisclosed sum last February.
