Palace officials have insisted publicly that the family, including William, all support the King’s leadership on the crisis
The King’s decision to strip his brother Andrew of his royal titles and home has sparked tension in rival camps over whether Prince William was really the driving force behind it.
One former senior royal aide said: “Knowing William, I can imagine he can’t stand to be in the same company as Andrew… It’s a lot easier to be hard on your uncle than it is on your brother.”
Palace officials have insisted publicly that the family, including William, all support the King’s leadership on the Andrew crisis. They stress that it was the 76-year-old monarch, not his heir, who made the final call after consulting the wider family.
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But other insiders suggest that Prince William is an increasingly influential force, who was deeply unhappy that Andrew had been allowed to cling on to his remaining royal privileges.
William, 43, is said to be frustrated that action is only now being taken against his uncle, three years into his father’s reign.
William looked ‘furious’ with Andrew
“I can’t help thinking back to when William was pictured outside the Duchess of Kent’s funeral [in September],” said royal commentator Victoria Murphy, “when Andrew was talking to him and, in contrast to the King, how obviously furious he looked.”
Those pictures at the funeral, along with leaks to certain media, helped forge the impression William was the one pushing his father to be tougher. Catherine Mayer, a leading biographer of Charles, has heard supporters of the King and William each claim credit for Andrew’s final humiliation.
William was pictured alongside his uncle at the Duchess of Kent’s funeral in September (Photo: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing via Getty)
“When the institution is under pressure it doesn’t always play the same tune,” she said. “At this point, all it does is highlight how overdue this is.”
Describing the current situation as “crisis management”, Mayer said the institution had allowed the scandal to fester. For too long, she added, there had been too little thought for Jeffrey Epstein’s victims.
“This is a genuinely shameful situation that has been allowed to continue, not just in recent years, but for a very long time.”
‘It never sat easy with Charles’
Friends of the monarch dispute the narrative this is all about William, insisting that if Charles had got his way Andrew would have been forced into relative exile years before. But his mother, they say, indulged Andrew and was often easily influenced by him.
One senior royal source said: “This has never sat easy with [Charles]… He has had to pick up the pieces. He would never want to disrespect his dear mama… but those are the facts.”
But behind the scenes some sources have given the impression that William was unhappy with his father’s initial decision to persuade Andrew to stop using his duke of York title and honours.
“William was unhappy but so was Charles,” the source said, adding that there was shared recognition of the need to spend time these past weeks consulting legal and constitutional experts on the best way forward.
Queen Camilla’s role
Others have a slightly different perspective. Robert Jobson, who has written biographies of both William and Charles, noted that the statement issued by Buckingham Palace on Thursday evening contained a reference to Queen Camilla, who like her sister-in-law Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, has championed the victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence.
“I thought it was interesting that the statement came from the King and Queen, given the Queen’s work on domestic abuse and sexual violence,” he said.
But he also detected the hand of William and the tectonic plates shifting. “At the moment, there is a shift with the future of the monarchy in view. The King has cancer and William must be saying, ‘I want this matter resolved. I don’t want this matter to come up on my watch’.”
King Charles recently travelled to the Vatican to meet Pope Leo XIV. The two made history when they prayed together in the Sistine Chapel (Photo: Vatican Media/AFP)
Palace officials have said the King’s cancer is a managed condition and his treatment is moving in a positive direction.
‘The Palace has got it right’
The tipping point for the Royal Family, according to several sources, was an email published three weeks ago that seemed to contradict what Andrew had said in his 2019 BBC Newsnight interview about cutting off his friendship with Epstein after visiting him in New York in 2010.
The email showed that in February 2011 he had told Epstein to keep in touch and added: “We’ll play some more soon.”
This coupled with further allegations that Andrew had asked his Scotland Yard protection officer to dig up dirt on Virginia Giuffre, the woman who said she was trafficked to have sex with him when she was 17 – an allegation the former duke strongly denies.
The publication of Giuffre’s posthumous memoir only added to the sense inside the Palace that it was time to act.
Lauren Beeching, a crisis PR expert, said the royals had for too long clung to the late Queen’s mantra of never complain, never explain. But she praised the King’s decisive action this week, which means the former prince will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.
“I think they’ve got it right and, for once, the Palace is ahead of the polls and headlines,” she said.
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