{"id":619163,"date":"2026-04-20T12:47:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T12:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/619163\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T12:47:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T12:47:14","slug":"andrew-mountbatten-windsor-scandal-royal-expert-reveals-two-things-that-made-the-former-prince-different","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/619163\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor scandal: Royal expert reveals two things that made the former prince \u2018different\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">A royal expert has revealed the two things that made Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor \u201cdifferent\u201d from the rest of the royal family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">In a new book titled Elizabeth II: In Private, In Public \u2013 The Inside Story, royal author Robert Hardman has opened up about his encounters with the royal family, and in particular, the things that made the disgraced former prince stand out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cPhilip was fascinating and sharp \u2014 you really had to keep your wits about you. Ditto Charles. The Princess Royal is fabulous \u2014 I\u2019ve followed her around and could barely keep up. William and Harry can effortlessly work a room, charming everyone and putting them at ease,\u201d Hardman told <a class=\"css-hwy1qg-StyledTextLink ezegcyi0\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/2026\/04\/19\/robert-hardman-interview-elizabeth-andrew-meghan\/\">The Telegraph<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-3mk41m-StyledText eze0guv9\">Sign up to The Nightly&#8217;s newsletters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1r9pdr5-StyledSubText eze0guv8\">Get the first look at the digital newspaper, curated daily stories and breaking headlines delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p>By continuing you agree to our <a href=\"https:\/\/thenightly.com.au\/subscription-terms\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Terms<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/sevenwestmedia.com.au\/privacy-policies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cBut Andrew just isn\u2019t as intelligent or as articulate as the others,\u201d he revealed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cAs trade envoy, he was forever saying disobliging things and putting his foot in it. He\u2019d be at a telecoms conference and suddenly come out with the line, \u2018What is Orange?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">In his new book, Hardman also claims that the former UK Prime Minister David Cameron had to gently push the disgraced former prince to stand down as trade envoy due to his close ties with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cI think I was responsible for gently saying to Her Majesty that he had to stand down as a trade envoy,\u201d Lord Cameron says in the book. \u201cIt was all pretty much fixed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cBut I was just to reference it for the official log. The Queen was worried about him but she could see the logic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">However, Lord Cameron said it wasn\u2019t just the former prince\u2019s relationship with Epstein that was causing problems.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cIt had been getting embarrassing,\u201d he said. \u201cAndrew kept turning up to things and making terrible remarks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cI\u2019d seen it myself at Davos where he was going to his receptions and was just a bit crass. He had his way of doing things and it wasn\u2019t what you wanted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cHe was very good with all the tyrants but he started being opinionated saying we were too squeamish about dealing with these people. His speeches would always just have three or four inappropriate things.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">It\u2019s not yet clear what \u201cinappropriate things\u201d Mr Mountbatten-Windsor was saying exactly, but he\u2019s been no stranger to controversy over the past few months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">On February 19, Mr Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested on the suspicion of misconduct in public office. The arrest coincided with his 66th birthday and shocked the world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">He worked as trade envoy from 2001 until 2011, during which time he was also in communication with Epstein. As the US Department of Justice continued to release files in 2026, fresh accusations that Mr Mountbatten-Windsor had shared sensitive information with Epstein arose.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The former prince was held for questioning for 11 hours before he was released. Though he was not charged, investigations continue, and he is being held under bail-like conditions on account of his brother King Charles, not the police.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A royal expert has revealed the two things that made Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor \u201cdifferent\u201d from the rest of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134,13935,1720],"class_list":{"0":"post-619163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-royals","12":"tag-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}