{"id":458053,"date":"2026-06-03T01:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T01:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/458053\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T01:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T01:50:14","slug":"teddy-bears-sex-and-excess-new-book-sheds-more-light-on-former-prince-andrews-downfall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/458053\/","title":{"rendered":"Teddy bears, sex and excess: New book sheds more light on former Prince Andrew\u2019s downfall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aside from the sex scandals and his links to Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>, \u201cAndrew bullied underlings\u201d, the new material states.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe then Prince Andrew photographed with Virginia Giuffre when she was a teenager.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to one member of staff at Sunninghill, \u2018If he passed you in the corridor, you had to stop mid-walk and curtsey, and if he thought it was insufficient he\u2019d stand over you saying \u2018lower\u2019 and make you repeat the curtsey until he was satisfied\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n

In a New Zealand exclusive interview, Lownie told the Herald every allegation<\/a> in the book had been confirmed by multiple sources and tested by his publisher HarperCollins\u2019 lawyers.<\/p>\n

The book alleges the former prince kicked his dog in front of guests during a shooting weekend, and that he kept the widows of police officers who had been murdered in Belfast waiting for an hour to meet him \u2013 so he could play golf.<\/p>\n

Lownie also claims that in the first-class section of a British Airways flight to New York, the former prince was offered a bottle of water he said was too cold, and when the stewardess apologised and said all the water was in the chiller, \u201che undid his flies, shoved the bottle down his trousers and said, \u2018This will warm it up\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"AndrewAndrew Mountbatten-Windsor being driven away from a police station after his arrest on suspicion of misconduct in a public office. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

After several years of research, Lownie describes the now 66-year-old Mountbatten-Windsor as pompous and a bully.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe used [a regular] chat-up line while dancing: \u2018What\u2019s it like to have a royal cock rub up against your leg?\u2019\u201d Lownie wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m slightly sort of embarrassed for him because he\u2019s just a sort of dinosaur with these attitudes and behaviour,\u201d he told the Herald. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd also, I felt slightly angry that women were being put through this who couldn\u2019t really respond … outrage really that he should think he could behave in the way he did. He should have had more slapped faces.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BritishBritish author Andrew Lownie’s book Entitled details the former Prince Andrew and his former wife Sarah Ferguson’s financial scandals, extravagant lifestyles and connections to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n

Lownie has also turned the microscope on the late Queen, who died in 2022 aged 96.<\/p>\n

He alleges she enabled some of her son\u2019s behaviour by letting him disrespect women with few consequences in his early years.<\/p>\n

More specifically, he is highly critical of how the Queen privately provided an estimated $15.8 million towards an out-of-court settlement for a civil sexual assault lawsuit taken by Virginia Giuffre.<\/p>\n

The American had claimed Mountbatten-Windsor had sexually abused her three times when she was a teen. The former royal vehemently denied those allegations.<\/p>\n

The financial settlement to Giuffre \u2013 said to total $36m \u2013 was paid in March 2022. Thirteen months later she took her life, aged 41.<\/p>\n

Lownie told the Herald: \u201cIt does worry me that [the Queen] was prepared to protect Andrew knowing all the things he had done.<\/p>\n

\"AuthorAuthor Andrew Lownie says he has so far released only about 10% of the details he has discovered about the former royal.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo pay hush money to a girl … that must change our view of the Queen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first edition of Entitled was a global bestseller, with sales in Commonwealth nations alone topping the 250,000 mark.<\/p>\n

Sales soared by 466% after Mountbatten-Windsor\u2019s arrest on his 66th birthday on February 19 on suspicion of misconduct in public office<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But Entitled has also made Lownie some enemies, namely those close to the royal family and others who stand by Mountbatten-Windsor and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.<\/p>\n

\"AuthorAuthor Andrew Lownie claims Queen Elizabeth II enabled some of her controversial son’s behaviours. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

He said the \u201cestablishment\u201d had tried to paint him as a class traitor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are lots of people who have benefited from this system of patronage and don\u2019t like it being challenged and don\u2019t like them being exposed,\u201d Lownie told the Herald.<\/p>\n

Some journalists whose job it is to cover the royals, and who Lownie believes ignored some of Mountbatten-Windsor\u2019s conduct when they should have reported on it, have tried to \u201cdismiss me as just a gossipmonger\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope this changes the sort of royal writing so that people are a little bit more rigorous rather than just giving the sort of handouts from the palace,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for Lownie and publishers HarperCollins went through extensive legal discussions over content in the book.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been very careful; I don\u2019t want to be sued,\u201d Lownie said.<\/p>\n

\"AA selection of British papers after the ex-prince’s arrest in February this year. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

He told the Herald that Entitled probably featured only about 10% of what he had dug up so far, and he is now writing a follow-up book, Untitled: Epstein and the Fall of the House of Windsor.<\/p>\n

Mountbatten-Windsor\u2019s life pre-scandal included a 22-year stint in the Navy. He served in active duty in the Falklands War, flying a helicopter as well as later commanding a minehunter ship. <\/p>\n

Twenty-five years after he left the Navy \u2013 and now stripped of his military honours \u2013 he is still fascinated by war, according to Lownie.<\/p>\n

Writing in Entitled, he says: \u201cA royal source said Andrew spends hour after hour playing video games and watching golf on a super-sized TV. It\u2019s not uncommon for him to stay up all night playing Call of Duty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hanging over the former prince\u2019s head now is whether he will be charged after his arrest. British media have previously reported a decision could be as far away as the start of next year.<\/p>\n

Neil Reid<\/a> is a Napier-based senior reporter who covers general news, features and sport. He joined the Herald in 2014 and has 34 years of newsroom experience.<\/p>\n

Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aside from the sex scandals and his links to Jeffrey Epstein, \u201cAndrew bullied underlings\u201d, the new material states.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1443,95,20251,62032,13916,117724,13851,36031,44183,63144,2108,2562,1359,38471,90934,20427,156,6440,21662,2740,8454,6804,232677,6287,130,3025,11788,117,111,139,69,90,4940,11789,232676,9855,7680,50423,51794,223,1865,1533,80],"class_list":["post-458053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-about","tag-and","tag-andrew","tag-andrews","tag-asked","tag-astonishing","tag-author","tag-bears","tag-behaviour","tag-biography","tag-book","tag-claims","tag-described","tag-devastating","tag-disturbing","tag-downfall","tag-entertainment","tag-ever","tag-excess","tag-former","tag-including","tag-light","tag-lownie","tag-material","tag-more","tag-most","tag-neil","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-prince","tag-reid","tag-reissued","tag-royal","tag-sex","tag-sheds","tag-teddy","tag-the","tag-today","tag-will","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}