King Charles III and Prince Andrew reportedly held a meeting to discuss the latter's plan to return as a working senior royal at Birkhall, Balmoral, days before Queen Elizabeth II passed. However, the monarch reportedly refused his younger brother's request, leaving the Duke of York in tears.
Prince Andrew has backed from his royal life after being involved in the huge scandal of the criminal sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. When the issue gradually subsides, rumors have it that he wants to return to this royal life, though the public never forgets.
A royal source told the Mail on Sunday, via Express, that His Majesty's refusal made his brother "totally blindsided and utterly bereft." He strongly believes that he can make his way back.
In fact, knowing he had a very close relationship with the late Queen, some even dubbed him the favorite son, he tried to raise the issues of his return to public life several times with her. Though it may sound naïve, the insider revealed that Prince Andrew had always had high hopes to return to his position and become a senior royal again.
So at the meeting, King Charles allegedly advised him to go off and have a good and nice life but stressed that his public life was really at its end. "You have to accept this," the king allegedly told his sibling.
Aside from being blindsided, Prince Andrew was also said to be "completely lost and very depressed." He was reportedly told that he had been permanently banished from public life, "making him emotional and fraught."
He was strongly convinced that he could "still be of value" as a senior working royal despite being linked to Epstein. In fact, when Queen Elizabeth was still alive, a source revealed he had negotiated the possibility of him returning to the royal fold.
However, an insider explained that his mother would often say "mildly conciliatory things" to change the subject immediately. That way, they could avoid talking about the matter.
For starters, Sarah Ferguson's former husband stepped back from his royal duties in 2019 after being scrutinized due to his relationship with the convicted pedophile Epstein. This resulted in Queen Elizabeth stripping off his military titles and royal patronages after his alleged victim, Virginia Giuffre, filed sexual abuse case against him.
Giuffre accused Prince Andrew of sexually assaulting her when she was just a minor. She also claimed that Epstein trafficked her.
The duke has vehemently denied the allegations and stressed that he never remembered meeting Giuffre ever. He reached a multi-million-pound settlement to stop the case from being taken to a civil trial.
