Prince Charles extended a job offer to his younger brother, Prince Andrew, in 2001. The Duke of York was supposed to work as the Prince of Wales' aide when he left the Royal Navy that year.
However, Prince Andrew rejected his older brother's offer because he did not want to be the "one family member that Prince Charles relied on," according to reports. So, instead of working for his brother, who would be the King of England one day, Prince Andrew accepted the offer to work as the international trade emissary from senior Labour MP Peter Mandelson.
According to royal correspondent Robert Jobson, Prince Charles was not pleased with Prince Andrew taking on the job as an envoy. The Duke of York, who is 12 years younger than Prince Charles, stepped down from his post in 2011.
For years, the British press has been reporting the friction between Prince Charles and Prince Andrew. Reports have stated that the two siblings don't get along quite well due to their age gap. There have also been stories highlighting the fact that the Prince of Wales allegedly resented Prince Andrew because he is Queen Elizabeth's favorite child.
But Prince Andrew's association with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein reportedly disappointed the Queen. As a result, the Duke of York resigned from his royal duties "for the foreseeable future" because of the sex scandal and the fallout of his disastrous interview with BBC the previous week.
Organizations working with the royal family expressed that they might withdraw support if Prince Andrew were to stay on as patron. His interview received tremendous backlash from the public because he only clarified his association and activities with Epstein, but he did not show remorse nor sympathy for the sex offender's victims.
According to reports, Queen Elizabeth consulted with Prince Charles and Prince William about what to do with the Duke of York when the interview worsened his public image. Prince Charles was on his royal tour in India and New Zealand at that time, but he was kept on the loop and updated on the developments regarding his brother's controversy.
The Prince of Wales returned to London on Tuesday, Nov. 26, and headed straight to Queen Elizabeth's estate in Sandringham, according to the Telegraph. Though there were reports that he will be summoning Prince Andrew to speak with him face-to-face, his aides confirmed that there's no meeting scheduled between the brothers in their diary so far.
