It started with an email. Despite Andrew claiming he had cut all ties with disgraced Jeffrey Epstein in 2010, he reportedly wrote again to Epstein the following year, telling the convicted sex offender, “We’ll play some more soon.”
It was the final straw for King Charles and Prince William, who has urged his father throughout to take tough action against the Yorks.
In an unprecedented move Andrew and ex-wife Sarah will no longer use their Duke and Duchess of York titles, nor his Order of the Garter honour.
I think it was inevitable as the evidence piled up, but more is certain to come, with victims of Epstein bringing out books and about to testify in the US.
So what now for Andrew, 65, and plain Sarah Ferguson, 66?
Andrew is determined to stay in his mansion at Windsor, Royal Lodge, and has a cast iron lease, but friends say he is running out of cash to pay for it.
He will spend his days golfing, riding and doting on his grandchildren.
But his fall from grace is like something out of a Greek tragedy.
In the early 1980s he returned from the Falklands conflict a war hero, and was a feted as a Robert Redford lookalike heart-throb.
He is now grey-haired, podgy and washed up, a man who fears travelling to America in case he is arrested.
As for Fergie, I’m told she has been on the edge of a nervous breakdown, and I can reveal her older sister Jane has recently flow over from Australia to comfort her in the UK.
“Sarah is in a bad way and it’s hardly surprising” a friend told me.
“She needed support and Jane has been there for her when she needed it.
“She and Andrew know they are to blame but they still feel they are now being kicked mercilessly when they are down.
“It’s difficult to see what the future holds.”
The only saving grace for the couple is that they have always been good parents, and there is public sympathy for Princesses Bea and Eugenie.
The King likes them and they retain their titles and status within the royal family.
They are both happily married mothers and their parents must take credit for that.
But Andrew’s biggest mistake has been not to show enough sympathy for the girls who were exploited by Epstein – and him.
No-one now believes Andrew’s story that he never met Virginia Giuffre, who tragically took her own life.
And her words through her recent book accusing him of having sex with her on three occasions with a “sense of entitlement” will haunt him for the rest of his life.
Prince William – no fan of his uncle – would have acted ruthlessly against him when he becomes King, so he will be glad that Charles has dealt with the matter now.
As for Andrew I can’t help feeling he would be better off starting a new life in exile, maybe in the Middle East where he has friends, or Portugal where daughter Eugenie lives much of the year.
Sarah would probably join him as there is nothing left for either of them in the UK.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
.png?resize=380%2C285)
