Prince Andrew proves blood is thicker than water
Is the disgraced Duke a royal family blind spot?
2024 didn't get off to the best start for Prince Andrew, with the unsealing of 900 pages of court documents in the US that exposed even further his friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
You may be forgiven for not remembering those headlines from just three months ago given that King Charles and Princess Kate's health news quickly overshadowed the Andrew/Epstein royal news cycle.
But the Duke of York is back in the spotlight with the release of last week's Scoop. The Netflix film, which stars Rufus Sewell as the disgraced Duke, retells the car-crash Newsnight interview that Andrew took part in in 2019 that subsequently led to him stepping down from public duties.
HELLO!'s TV and Film Editor, Emmy Griffiths, has written a review for you all which you can read below if you were planning to watch it. By the way, if you do, prepare to be absolutely stunned by Rufus Sewell's transformation into Prince Andrew.
Stepping back from public life
Shortly after that excruciating interview, conducted so brilliantly by Emily Maitlis, Andrew released a statement announcing that he "unequivocally regretted" his "ill-judged association with Jeffrey Epstein," and that it was becoming very apparent that his TV appearance was disrupting the royal family's work and the work of his charities and other organisations.
"Therefore, I have asked Her Majesty if I may step back from public duties for the foreseeable future, and she has given her permission," he wrote.
Andrew was stripped of his royal duties and military titles, his charities and patronages quickly disassociated themselves from him, and he kept a low-profile, scaling back his public appearances. He has retained his HRH title, although he isn't allowed to use it in an official capacity.
In a second statement in January 2022, Andrew confirmed that he had returned his military affiliations and royal patronages to his late mother the Queen, to be redistributed among other family members. And that he was defending his case against Virginia Giuffre as a private citizen. One month later, the Duke ended his case with Ms Giuffre with an out-of-court financial settlement, to avoid having to give a deposition the following month.
Too many sightings in 2024
Fast forward two years and while we're normally only subjected to a handful of sightings of Andrew on an annual basis, it feels like we've seen him far too often in 2024.