Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor seemed to think he was above protocol long before his arrest.

During Queen Elizabeth II’s 93rd birthday celebrations in 2019, the former Duke of York and Princess Beatrice were the only royals who did not curtsey before the late monarch.

According to body language expert Judi James, the father and daughter’s dismissal of the sign of respect was “deliberate” so Andrew could “gloat about his legendary role as the late Queen’s favorite son.”

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Queen Elizabeth II attend Trooping the Colour in 2018. By: MEGA

“Beatrice clearly shuns the act of respectfully greeting the other royal women so studiously and emphatically and stands upright and stares as her grandmother passes and walks into the church,” James told Daily Mail about the footage obtained by the outlet. “It gives the impression that Andrew is performing some status-leap frogging to define his own ‘special role’ in the family with a spot of non-verbal power play.”

“He [Andrew] makes a beeline for the spot nearest the door so he and Beatrice can dart in right behind the Queen, leaving Princess Anne lingering to one side and his brother Prince Edward right at the back of the royal line,” she pointed out.

James noted that the 66-year-old’s interaction with Elizabeth was “deliberately casual.”

Besides Andrew and his eldest child, Kate Middleton, Zara Tindall and Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, were also seen greeting the matriarch with a curtsey as they entered St. George’s Chapel.

Princess Beatrice attends Easter service at St. George’s Chapel on Queen Elizabeth II’s 93rd birthday in 2019. By: MEGA

Andrew’s arrogant behavior came back to haunt him. In 2025, King Charles III stripped him of his titles and evicted him from Royal Lodge over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

The following year, the U.K.’s former trade envoy was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office for allegedly giving information to the late criminal while working for the government.

While Andrew brought scandal to The Firm, his mother did have a soft spot for him over her other children.

“From the very earliest, Andrew seems to have imbibed a sense of his own importance that outweighed that of any of his siblings, partly, no doubt, this was simply innate, but perhaps too it was the extra attention he received from his mother,” author Tom Quinn wrote in his book Gilded Youth via Daily Express.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Queen Elizabeth II attend Royal Ascot in 2013. By: MEGA

A former Buckingham Palace staffer told the writer that Andrew was unkind toward those working for the family.

“I knew Andrew when he was out of the nursery but still fairly young,” they claimed to Quinn. “It’s very difficult to be fair to him because he was so horrible. He treated the staff as if they were dirt.”