Here's How the Royal Family Is Handling the Andrew Situation on Philip's Birthday

The Windsors have reportedly found yet another creative bandaid to put over over the gaping reputational wound that is Prince Andrew, whose association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein continues to be a huge problem. A source has told the Sun that Andrew will be “airbrushed” out of all celebrations surrounding his father Prince Philip’s 100th birthday next summer. Their “insider” told the tabloid, “There is a warning from up high to play down Andrew. He will be included as little as possible,” adding that “it will not make a big deal of his relationship with the Duke of Edinburgh over the years… This is obviously proving difficult because he is his son and it’s playing down his role in the family.” No shit.

Andrew was also conspicuously absent from official photos of the July wedding of his daughter Princess Beatrice. You’d think barring him from attending these events would be a much simpler solution, but as the source said: the royal family isn’t trying to leave him out “entirely,” so they’re not “whitewashing history.” Sure.

On July 30, 2020, documents in a defamation suit between Ghislaine Maxwell and Virginia Giuffre, who alleges that she was trafficked by Maxwell and Epstein when she was a teenager, were unsealed, revealing a slew of accusations against Prince Andrew: sexual encounters between Giuffre and the royal in London, New York, and Santa Fe, New Mexico, at a mansion owned by Epstein. Other women claimed to have been groped by Andrew. Giuffre wrote in her unpublished memoir that, “My job was to entertain him endlessly,” including performing sex, erotic massages and allowing him to lick between her toes. “He loved my feet.”

Andrew has denied all accusations of sexual misconduct. Every opportunity he’s had to set the record straight, he’s totally blown, including one interview with The BBC in November 2019 that was so disastrous, he essentially lost his “job” as a royal, “stepping back” from his public duties. If the worst outcome here for Andrew is getting left out of the public family photos, he’s very, very lucky.