Prince Andrew Scandals: How They Affect His Relationship With Prince Philip And The Queen

A royal expert claimed that Prince Andrew has brought great shame to the royal family, and it has a lot to do with the major decisions he made in the past. Prince Andrew is the third child of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip and is currently the eighth in line to the throne.

Just last month, Prince Andrew made headlines when he left his family in Balmoral to go to his good friend, Jeffrey Epstein, who had just committed suicide inside his cell in New York City. When Epstein was still alive, many royal followers questioned Prince Andrew’s decision to stay close to him, considering that he’s a convicted sex offender.

According to royal expert Richard Fitzwilliam, the shame that Prince Andrew has brought to the royal family isn’t limited to the fact that he befriended a criminal. Even before he met Epstein, Prince Andrew had already brought great shame to his family through his past romances with Koo Stark and Sarah Ferguson.

“It remains a great shame that his romance with Koo Stark foundered and that his choice of Sarah Ferguson was so disastrous,” said Fitzwilliam. “Though they remain very close, she was totally irresponsible both as a royal and also has often been after their divorce,” he added.

Prince Andrew met the beautiful and intelligent Stark in 1981, when he was only 24. The two got close for around two years before and after his active service in the Falklands War. Although Prince Andrew was so in love with Stark and Queen Elizabeth liked her too, Stark decided to split from Prince Andrew due to pressure from the press and the Palace.

In 1986, Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson, and they went on to have two daughters. Two years after their wedding, Stark graced an interview with World Weekly Magazine and revealed that her past relationship with Prince Andrew was a nightmare.

“The amount of attention and pressure on me became unbearable,” she said. “It was a nightmare.”

It’s no secret that even Prince Andrew’s marriage to Fergie didn’t work as well. Despite the huge infidelity scandal that Fergie got involved in during her marriage to Prince Andrew, the Duke of York had chosen to remain close to his ex-wife. This, according to Fitzwilliam, is the reason Prince Philip is still not on good terms with Prince Andrew.

“He recognizes the damage she did when she was a member of the royal family and the way she has behaved in subsequent years has done nothing to give him any confidence in her judgment,” he said.

Despite all the scandals that Prince Andrew has been involved in, he’s fortunate enough to have a mother like Queen Elizabeth. According to Fitzwilliam, the Queen still spends much more time with Prince Andrew than with her other children because she’s more at ease with him.