It’s the Queen’s fault that Andrew turned out the way he has, argues legendary journalist, Tina Brown.
Brown, who has published two books on the Royal Family, told The New York Times podcast The Interview that the late British monarch bears responsibility for the behavior of her now-blacklisted son.
“The fact is that she has quite a lot to answer for with Andrew, is the truth,” Brown told Lulu Garcia-Navarro. “Because the Queen enabled Andrew in a really terrible way.”
Andrew—formerly “Prince,” “Mountbatten-Windsor”—was stripped of his royal titles and evicted from Royal Lodge by his brother, King Charles, at the start of the month.
The 65-year-old former prince has long battled accusations that he sexually assaulted Virginia Giuffre when she was a teenager during his friendship with the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
“He was her favorite,” Brown said of Andrew’s relationship to Queen Elizabeth II. “She protected him and mummy was his only client, essentially.”
“She was the one who protected him so, unfortunately, it made him worse,” she continued.
While Andrew has repeatedly denied the allegations—including in one infamous BBC interview where he claimed he was unable to sweat—the ongoing reputational damage to the Royal Family appeared to reach a tipping point for Buckingham Palace.
Brown was editor-in-chief of The New Yorker and Vanity Fair before co-founding the Daily Beast in 2008.
Her two books, The Diana Chronicles and The Palace Papers, draw on her extensive experience covering the Royal Family, but she acknowledged that most Royal commentators don’t dare to link the late queen with Andrew’s controversies.
“The Queen was there for 70 years, right? The hagiography around the Queen is intense, you know? I mean, you’re not allowed to ever criticize the queen,” she said.
Speaking about the sweeping changes that Prince William is “just dying” to implement when he takes the throne, Brown noted that she expects serious reform to avoid any further Andrew-like situations in the future.
“I think he’s just dying to clean house, actually. Some of the palaces probably have to be turned over to the public. I mean, how much over housing do you need in that family?” she said.
While Andrew has officially been removed from his previous residence, he has been relocated to the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, England.
The 20,000-acre estate has a number of royal homes, and his accommodations will be privately funded by Charles.
Although the move is seen as decisive, royal commentators say it is unlikely to end public scrutiny of Andrew and his relationship with Epstein.
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