All hopes of Prince Andrew resuming his royal duties might have been dashed, months after he announced his temporary resignation from public life. A new report revealed that the Duke of York may be permanently in retirement.
According to The Sunday Times, it's becoming clearer and clearer that Prince Andrew will "not resume official duties." The report cited that those hopes of coming back "have disappeared" as the royal family apparently do not have any plans of revisiting and reviewing Prince Andrew's position.
Prince Andrew announced in November 2019 that he will step back from his royal roles in the wake of his controversial BBC interview, where he was supposed to clarify his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. The man is at the center of a human trafficking and sex trafficking scandal in the U.S. courts.
Epstein, an influential billionaire, was previously convicted of the crimes stemming from a different case but more and more victims have come forward to share their story. One of those victims was Virginia Roberts (now Giuffre), who said that Epstein prodded her to have sexual relations with Prince Andrew. The royal denied having met Giuffre in the BBC interview.
The ongoing case has met a roadblock following Epstein's suicide while in prison. Now, prosecutors and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) are hoping Prince Andrew could cooperate and shed light on the cases against his friend. Reports cited that the royal refused to do so, upon his legal team's advice.
Meanwhile, a former butler working for Epstein said that Prince Andrew "may have something to hide" after refusing to talk to the FBI. Juan Alessi, who was employed under Epstein from 1991 to 2006, told Mirror that Prince Andrew was a regular guest at Epstein's parties and was often seen getting massages from the young women who were part of Epstein's harem.
The butler claimed he saw Prince Andrew up close at the massage tables personally. However, Alessi said he has no idea what happened after the massages and never saw Prince Andrew being sexually inappropriate. Nonetheless, he is in the opinion that Prince Andrew should talk to the FBI.
Alessi gave a sworn statement to the police in 2005, following the criminal investigations against Epstein. He mentioned in that statement that Prince Andrew spent a time at Epstein's Palm Beach residence, where he slept in the main guest room.
