{"id":424466,"date":"2026-02-14T00:17:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T00:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/424466\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T00:17:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T00:17:09","slug":"prince-william-urged-king-charles-to-act-on-andrew-after-newsnight-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/424466\/","title":{"rendered":"Prince William urged King Charles to act on Andrew after Newsnight interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Royal Family biography says Prince William asked his father for immediate action after the Duke’s infamous 2019 Newsnight interview<\/p>\n

Oliver Radcliffe Live News Reporter<\/p>\n

19:02, 13 Feb 2026Updated 19:03, 13 Feb 2026<\/p>\n

\"Prince<\/p>\n

Bombshell new claims suggest Prince William has long battled with his uncle(Image: WPA Pool\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

New bombshell claims suggest that Prince William<\/a> pleaded with the King to cast out Andrew after the bombshell Newsnight interview and Epstein links<\/p>\n

In William and Catherine: The Intimate Inside Story,<\/a> a new biography penned by the Mirror’s<\/a> royal correspondent Russell Myers, The Mirror<\/a> has lifted the lids on the turbulent relationship between the Prince of Wales and his uncle Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.<\/a><\/p>\n

The book suggests that in the wake of the programme and the catastrophic it had on the Windosor’s reputation, William contacted his father urging him and the Queen to act swiftly, worried about both his own prospects and the public’s reaction.<\/p>\n

A source revealed<\/a> : “Once you understand the fact that everything that happens in the here and now, affects everything in the future, William’s future, it is very easy to put yourself in his shoes. He never much liked his uncle and wanted him out of the picture immediately before the rot further set in.<\/p>\n

“William’s view was that he [Andrew] got himself into the whole mess, so he should be left to his own devices to sort it out away from the family.”<\/p>\n

William rowed with Charles over banishing Andrew at Sandringham Christmas, leading Charles to “put him in his place”<\/p>\n

In a clear sign of his wish for further harmony in his family, Charles invited his former sister-in-law, Sarah, Duchess of York, to join the royal family and walk alongside her ex-husband Prince Andrew to church at Sandringham.<\/p>\n

It would be the first time she had participated in this tradition in 32 years. The King\u2019s decision to bring his brother back into the family fold was an issue William fundamentally disagreed with, to such a degree that he challenged Charles directly.<\/p>\n

A source with knowledge of the conversation said that William was \u201cvery much put in his place\u201d, and that while he did not agree with the view that Andrew\u2019s exile should be limited, he did not provoke his father further. William\u2019s negative view of his uncle Andrew had predated the Duke of York\u2019s fall from grace. For years the Prince of Wales had questioned what benefit his uncle was to the wider operation. \u201cLong before he was embroiled in the scandal [involving Virginia Giuffre], he\u2019d always thought his uncle was a bit of an ignoramus\u201d, a palace source revealed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would question \u2018what does he actually do?\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"Prince<\/p>\n

Prince William, Prince of Wales and Catherine, Princess of Wales have both been campaigning for action against Andrew(Image: Chris Jackson\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

“But it was more than that. He\u2019d seen how Andrew behaved in front of staff, ordering people about, the aggressive or dismissive manner, they\u2019d never seen eye to eye.<\/p>\n

\u201cWilliam has a relationship with his cousins [Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie] \u2026 so he takes no umbrage with them, but there\u2019s no love lost for Andrew or Sarah.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn an alternate dimension Andrew probably thought there would be a way back into public life if the scandal or the headlines died down, but it would have always had to be while his brother was King. William didn\u2019t think either of them [Andrew or Sarah] should be anywhere near the family, publicly or otherwise, but he was overruled by his father.\u201d<\/p>\n

William said Andrew’s presence “was a stain on all the family”<\/p>\n

William and Catherine joined the family at Sandringham alongside the King and Queen. Here, for the first time, in an arrangement familiar to many blended families across the country, Camilla\u2019s children and grandchildren were present for the extended festivities.<\/p>\n

The harmonious scenes were to last only slightly longer than the Christmas<\/a> leftovers. As soon as the new year had begun, Andrew was once again in the spotlight, facing a raft of lurid allegations. His fate was sealed following the release of court documents related to a New York defamation case brought in 2015 by Andrew\u2019s accuser Virginia Giuffre, against Ghislaine Maxwell, the duke\u2019s former friend who procured underage girls for Jeffrey Epstein to abuse. Details in the legal papers suggested the Duke of York had indulged in \u201cdaily massages\u201d during frequent visits to the late paedophile\u2019s Florida mansion, had committed \u2018acts of sexual abuse\u2019 and took part in an \u201cunderage orgy\u201d.<\/p>\n

William again implored the King to act: to strip Andrew of his titles and banish him from the family for good in order to protect the reputation of the institution.<\/p>\n

While Andrew had always vehemently denied the allegations, both publicly and privately to his family, one palace source close to William said: \u201cThe Prince of Wales was adamant the whole episode would never go away and, despite how others may have felt, there was absolutely no upside in Andrew being protected. His view was crystal clear, Andrew shouldn\u2019t be anywhere near the family under any circumstances, not by association, not at family functions, anywhere. Every single time there was a new revelation, which no one knew when it was coming or what the next one would be, it was a stain on all of the family.\u201d<\/p>\n

William and Catherine always united in banishing Andrew<\/p>\n

William and Catherine\u2019s personal view has been that their best option is to keep their distance from the source of the problem. They knew that the disturbing claims of sexual abuse that have pursued Andrew for more than a decade, allegations he has always vehemently denied, had permanently damaged him in the public\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n

And his now famous BBC Newsnight interview, where he failed to apologise for his connection to Epstein, or acknowledge the victims of sexual abuse, was, for William and Catherine, terminal for their relationship with him.<\/p>\n

The late Queen sought to protect her son from complete banishment, clinging to the hope that he would one day be exonerated. Similarly, while acknowledging that his brother could never return to public duties, Charles attempted to honour his mother\u2019s wishes and for a long time stopped short of pushing for Andrew\u2019s complete banishment. By contrast, William made it clear that once he became king there would be no such mercy.<\/p>\n

Since 2019 the ever more depressing drip of information relating to Andrew and Epstein has presented a serious challenge to the institution. Buckingham Palace has not acted for the prince since he stepped down from public duties, suggesting he was a private individual, and in doing so sought to further distance itself from him. But with every Balmoral meet-up or Christmas walkabout that came around, questions were raised as to how close to the King, or William, Andrew actually was. Did the royal family think this would all blow over if they kept quiet, or kept him close? William and Catherine have never seen it that way.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A new biography William and Catherine: The Intimate Inside Story , by The Mirror’s royal editor Russell Myers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Royal Family biography says Prince William asked his father for immediate action after the Duke’s infamous 2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[99770,6491,96,120,43149,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-424466","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-andrew-mountbatten-windsor","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-prince-william","12":"tag-the-royal-family","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}