After making the decision to forego the royal Christmas celebrations in Sandringham, Prince Andrew has been seen spending time with his ex-wife.
According to Mirror, recently, the disgraced royal did not attend church with the other members of the royal family. During his departure from the Royal Lodge, Prince Andrew was observed accompanied by Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York.
After becoming engaged in a scandal concerning an alleged Chinese spy, it was announced the previous week that the Duke of York had made the decision to abstain from attending the celebrations in order to prevent further embarrassing the King for the reasons stated above. Rather than spending Christmas alone, Prince Andrew has been spending the holiday with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, who continues to reside with him at Royal Lodge, his residence in Windsor.
During the previous Christmas season, Prince Andrew was spotted strolling to and from church on Christmas Day, as well as interacting with local royal admirers. He also spent the holiday with the royal family at the King's Norfolk estate. This year's Christmas is going to be rather different for him because he will be spending it with his ex-wife Fergie. The Christmas celebrations at Sandringham are being attended by his eldest daughter, Princess Beatrice, who is currently expecting her second child. On the other hand, Princess Eugenie, the younger daughter, will be spending Christmas with the other members of her husband Jack Brooksbank's family for the very first time.
The latest nightmare for the Duke of York was brought to light when an alleged Chinese spy who had lodged an appeal against being prevented from entering the United Kingdom was unsuccessful many weeks ago. The guy, who has been identified as Yang Tengbo and is referred to as "H6" in court records, filed the lawsuit after being forbidden from conducting business in March 2023 on the grounds of national security, despite the fact that he had become a close acquaintance of the Duke.
A Chinese businessman who has asserted that he has "done nothing wrong or unlawful" made two trips to Buckingham Palace, as well as visits to St. James's Palace and Windsor Castle, as a guest of Andrew, who is 64 years old. In addition, Mr. Tengbo stated in a statement that the "widespread description of me as a'spy' is entirely untrue."
Additionally, Mr. Yang was invited to attend Prince Andrew's birthday party in the year 2020. A royal adviser named Dominic Hampshire informed Mr. Yang that he may act on behalf of the duke when negotiating with possible investors in China, as was reported by a tribunal in July of this year. Per the Sun, after receiving a warning from the security services, the Duke issued a statement on Friday indicating that he had severed all communication with the individual who was suspected of being a spy.
He said, "Nothing of a sensitive nature was ever discussed."
On the other hand, it was reported that the King and other senior royals were "exasperated" on account of Prince Andrew's actions, which brought additional shame upon the monarchy. The announcement that Prince Andrew had "done the right thing" by withdrawing from the Christmas celebration was confirmed by insiders within the royal family.
A royal source previously said: "The King and other members of the family are as exasperated as can be with the Duke with this latest issue. It is of grave embarrassment to him and the institution."
Since rising to the throne, the King had made an effort to pull his brother in from the cold, despite the fact that he had cut him off financially and refused to pay the annual expense of his private protection, which was the equivalent of three million pounds.
Business Times has reached out to Sarah Ferguson for comments.
