Andrew's Scandal In The House Of York - UK Royal Documentary

one of the oldest titles in the british royal family is the duke of york traditionally given to the second son of the ruling monarch being the youngest son being the spare is a really difficult role there is no job spec throughout its 600 year history the house of york has had more than its fair share of scandal dukes of york are ripe for a scandal there are always going to be pitfalls of course you have all the perks and privileges of being royal and to none of the responsibilities some very formidable characters in our island history have been dukes of york there's the infamous story of the princes in the tower who were allegedly murdered by their uncle richard iii but now the current duke of york prince andrew is facing scrutiny as the second son andrew spent his childhood and of course his adult life he has spent in the shadow of his older brother a bit naive but then his judgment has always been a bit naive did you have to go by private jet to newcastle yeah because there was no other way of getting there and back a naval officer and celebrated war hero when there are missiles and things flying around at that precise moment you are on your own i don't call it escapism at all um james bond is escapism and i'm not a commander yet a playboy prince once second in line to the throne i think he was always the scene as prince charles said he's the handsome one a bit of a favorite of the queen he had a good life he had all the privilege with none of the responsibilities now caught up in a story that has shocked the world i think it's fair to say that this is a scandal of an entirely different nature this is by far the most damaging of allegations poor old prince andrew he rarely seems to be out of the papers these days are you going to resign [Music] what impact will the current duke of york have on the future of the monarchy he's never been far away from controversy but his connection with epstein that ill-fated friendship has inflicted the greatest damage on his reputation as a member of the royal family what will this latest scandal mean for the house of york [Music] [Applause] within the royal house of windsor there are several different titles traditionally bestowed by the monarch wales cambridge sussex and york the duke of york it's a very noble title is tradition and he's now at the center of a media frenzy following the suicide disgraced financier jeffrey epstein there is an old saying out there that says tell me who your friends are i'll tell you who you are prince andrew certainly isn't the first duke of york to be at the center of controversy when one looks at second sons of monarchs that they are sort of they're a heartbeat away if you like from the top role the top job dukes of york have over the course of history being rather colorful characters the title duke of york goes back to the creation of the house of york in 1385 by edmund of langley for over 80 years the title was passed down through the male heirs until the house of york became a royal household in 1461 during the war of the roses edward duke of york seized the british throne and became king edward iv of england he gave the title duke of york to his second son richard a tradition that has continued to this day the first second son uh to have that title was uh richard's duke of york and richard duke of york was right bang in the middle of the wars of the roses that time when the houses of york and lancaster both which had claims to the throne were basically fighting for the throne but richard's life would be a short one after he disappeared in mysterious and macabre circumstances there's the infamous story of the princes in the tower who were allegedly murdered by their uncle richard iii the king in the car park as many people know him and allegedly he killed his nephew in the tower because he wanted to be king himself the story goes that the nine-year-old duke of york richard and his older brother edward were locked away in the tower of london as part of a villainous scheme to claim the throne their bodies were found history holds that you know their bones are there in the tower of london with no male heir the duke of york title went into extinction with nine-year-old richard's death but just over a decade later after a shift in the monarchy the title was given to the next second son in line to the throne a certain henry tudor infamous henry viii of course was also a second son he was the second son of henry vii he wasn't supposed to be king but when his mother prince arthur died he not only married his former brother's wife but he uh also became king arguably one of the most notable duke of york's to become king is prince andrew's grandfather some very formidable characters in our island history have been dukes of yusik the queen's much-loved father on whom she pretty much has based her entire reign so she holds that position extremely dear to her the new conductors of york with their little daughters arrive in the first carriage and princess elizabeth lingers on the steps to take stock of the sea [Music] the abdication of edward in 1936 paved the way for albert the queen's father to give up his title as the duke of york and become king george vi when the duke of york realized he was going to have to become king he broke down and cried because he said i i don't know anything about it i haven't trained to do this job and you certainly do need training to do that job to be placed in the position of having to choose between love and the throne is one of life's most tragic dilemmas even if the dilemma isn't the king's own making it's one of the most pivotal moments in the history of the british monarchy princess elizabeth as the daughter of the duke of york yes she probably would have been a working royal but her whole destiny was changed and in fact the history of the british royal family was changed over time the duke of york roll has become known as the spare air being the youngest son being a spare is a really difficult role there is no job spec for it there are always going to be pitfalls of course you have all the perks and privileges of being royal and to none of the responsibility the dukes of york are really ripe for drama and almost inevitably going to be problematic as they try and find a role for themselves when they don't actually have in their sights the big job which of course is the crown one of those titles that goes through the ages um and you try not to live up to a previous one but eventually something comes up and smacks you in the face prince andrew would not receive his official title of duke of york until his marriage in 1986 [Music] but from birth he was in the headlines being the first child born to a reigning monarch for 103 years prince andrew had a very happy childhood he came 12 years after the prince of wales was born and of course a little bit after princess anne was born the third of four children it was rumored that he was the queen's favorite i suppose some might say that andrew was spoiled far more than charles was um i think family friends have certainly told me that he was um he was the favored son and she she had more time for andrew and he was her golden haired little angel it said this perceived favoritism led to andrew developing certain characteristics he was quite cocky he had a reputation as as he grew up at school for being a little bit self-entitled certainly very aware of who he was a sense of self-importance i think he was always seen as prince charles said as the handsome one a bit of a favorite of the queen they had a good life he had really all the privilege with none other responsibility in 1979 prince andrew would find a role for himself when he joined the royal navy as a helicopter pilot master is on fcs trips set lights on he wanted to make the navy really his career for life and he was a diligent uh young officer with one or two exceptions i mean he is famously set of remarked to one senior very senior naval officer that a senior officer could call him h being short for hrh and uh the senior officer said and you can call me sir and uh again it gives you an idea of what uh the young andrew was like basically what i'm here for is to work the ship up into into aviation and also myself back into the deck and actually getting back on the deck on a dark knight is is quite exciting he was a good naval officer uh diligent hard-working three years later prince andrew was deployed into the heart of the falklands war despite prime minister margaret thatcher having doubts over a young high-profile royal going into battle he wasn't there as some sort of figurehead being tucked away from the action he was in the middle of the action flying royal navy helicopters as decoys sometimes so very very important and clearly a very important moment in his life the ruling monarch's second son fighting on the front line captured the headlines at the time you know the the queen's second son to be involved in the military service in his high-profile uh war the falklands war that you know was something that the whole country were very much blew to their television screens i mean this really was quite something really for a royal to be involved in this way when the war ended in 1982 prince andrew returned to portsmouth aboard hms invincible and it was to a hero's welcome i don't think anyone will forget the images of the war hero prince coming back from the falklands you know the golden boy of the royal family with the rose between his teeth and being very much hailed a national hero when you lie down on the deck and that moment when there are missiles and things flying around at that precise moment you're on your own and that's all that's all there is at that point his reputation was probably at its absolute peak that was you know that that was andrew's all-time high and this was this was absolutely amazing and it really was after falklands war you know he was the golden boy of the british monarchy upon his return the prince's love life would make front page news andrew was blessed with uh the best looks of the young windsors and he liked girls and girls seemed to like him most famously he dated and beautiful brunette actress koo stark this was all quite titillating and exciting and in terms of who andrew was dating and i think fueled that image of him being a bit of a playboy prince for a long time people thought they were incredibly well matched she was a very sexy girl she shared many interests that andrew had and she was sparky but she knew how to behave if you like it in royal circles andrew whisked coo away to the caribbean island steep under the alias mr and mrs cambridge she was even given the royal seal of approval their relationship was so close that andrew introduced her to his mother well of course that sparked a frenzy of speculation in the press that an engagement announcement was just around the corner the royal romance soon turned to scandal unfortunately for andrew and and but particularly for coup she had a past it turned out that you know not only was she an actress but she actually appeared in some pretty risque movies um which really were the death knell of the relationship we just embarked on on on the diana years attitudes towards the royal family were changing they were incredibly popular they didn't want to do anything that might jeopardize this reach they had with the public advisers around the royal family felt that she was an unsuitable figure for andrew to be seen with which was a great shame because i think um they might they might have been a very successful team andrew and coo eventually split up and the prince went on to have a string of high-profile relationships he definitely had a penchant for pretty women i don't think it necessarily mattered uh whether they were brunette or blonde the girls fell for him quite a number of girls fell for him and he had a succession of girlfriends and in those days there weren't many royals around to write about and andrew was ripe for being written about the media dubbed him randy mandy i think the playboy image was rather good for the royal family i think it gave them a dose of hollywood glamour um that they were lacking and it was quite exciting to some extent the reputation and the sort of playboy prince was deserved but you know in the same way that you know young royal princes will be young royal princes the press loved this you could see that this was you know andrew at his prime by the mid-1980s despite a reported playboy lifestyle and front page headlines the future duke of york was a popular member of the royal family i think he was brought up to believe that he was terrible despite being despair to the heir he was going to make a success of this how then did he become embroiled in one of the royal family's biggest scandals i think prince andrew's friendship with jeffrey epstein has been one of the most damaging things to happen to the royal family within the last 30 or 40 years [Music] [Applause] members of the royal family are often given titles upon marriage and prince andrew was no different [Applause] after marrying sarah ferguson in 1986 his mother the queen bestowed on him the title duke of york [Applause] with the dukedom came a royal salary of around three hundred thousand pounds a year a royal duke of york coat of arms with an emblem made up of an english lion a scottish unicorn and anchor [Music] and a brand new family home sunny hill park a 12-bedroom mansion in surrey being the duke of york of course a role that comes with all the perks and privileges life in a palace a valid butler um you know his every whim catered for i mean andrew had all of that a life of luxury a life of privilege connected by title rather than blood prince andrew was now part of a house and lineage dating back over 600 years [Applause] but his chapter as the duke of york would not be free from scandal in 1999 prince andrew was introduced to jeffrey epstein this acquaintance would go on to result in one of the house of york's biggest controversies jeffrey epstein was a multi-millionaire american hedge fund manager who socialized in the company of rich powerful men and beautiful women i think they became friends very quickly andrew has always been attracted to rich men and money and epstein was by all accounts a charismatic fellow there's one thing in america that trump's cash its royalty exxon had the cash andrew had the cachet and of course actually was a real life prince americans love british royalty in 2008 jeffrey epstein was found guilty of procuring a person under the age of 18 for prostitution and went on to serve 13 months in prison prince andrew's past meetings with epstein before he was convicted were now under intense media scrutiny andrew would invite him to balmoral you know the queen's private home balmoral invited him shooting at sandringham the queen's private and you know it was really kind of invited into the heart of british society many assumed that with epstein having spent time behind bars the duke of york would cut all contact what was so staggering was in 2011 after epstein had been released from jail andrew was photographed walking with him it was an extraordinary image and the whole story and the scandal if you like about andrew and his questionable tastes in friends really springs from that photograph andrew felt that he could uh still remain on amiable terms with epstein a bit naive but then his judgment has always been a bit naive it was around the time of epstein's release that a photo of the duke of york and virginia roberts now jeffrey appeared in the world's press although some close to the prince claimed it was a fake and the story went quiet four years later things went from bad to worse for the duke of york when virginia roberts implicated him in the growing sex scandal virginia roberts claimed she'd been essentially recruited as a very young girl by epstein and prince andrew had slept with her three times prince andrews strenuously denied all allegations and the accusations were later thrown out of court after the judge ruled them immaterial and impertinent [Music] at the moment these are allegations nothing has been proven in this country you are innocent until proven guilty nonetheless allegations of this nature are incredibly damaging in 2015 with questions still looming over the duke of york he was forced to address the accusations during a royal engagement firstly i think i must want for the record to refer to the events that have taken place in the last few weeks and i just wish to reiterate and to reaffirm the statements which have already been made on my behalf by buckingham palace this was one scandal that would not go away in july of 2019 jeffrey epstein was charged with further counts of sex trafficking he committed suicide in his cell whilst awaiting trial with the eyes of the press back on epstein and his associates prince andrew once again became front page news this time it was a video from 2010 and like the photo in central park it showed the duke of york spending time with epstein after the latter's conviction a video of andrew at epstein's town house in manhattan um you know with lots of coming going on the duke of york strongly denied any wrongdoing but the press continued to ask serious questions of him members of the royal family have to be really careful about the company they keep and i think that the main charge against andrew is the company he has kept he's guilty one thing and that's poor judgment of going to see epstein after he was convicted the ultimate lack of judgment is having a friendship with epstein at all he sounds like an evil you know dreadful [Music] pedophile prince andrew's accusers were turning up heat in explosive scenes captured outside a new york courtroom in the summer of 2019 virginia roberts continued to accuse the duke of york on the steps of the court virginia roberts said and this is incendiary he said andrew knows what he has done he knows exactly what he's done and i hope he comes clean about it thank you that's what forced prince andrew into issuing his latest statement the duke of york chose to clarify the facts around relationship with epstein by issuing a statement as well as being appalled by the alleged crimes prince andrew claimed that he only saw epstein once or twice a year and that he did not see witness or suspect any behavior of the sort that subsequently led to his arrest and conviction i think he was trying to apologize it just prolonged the story made everything worse and it raised a lot more questions it does beg the question well why has it taken him nine years to respond in the way he has a photograph has been around in the allegations since before 2010 why on earth didn't he say something then in spite of the negativity in the press her majesty the queen has continued to stick by her son he assured her of this the first time around in 2011 and he assured his mother then that that she had nothing to worry about i was told by a source very close to the family he has her full support and after this news had broken the queen was pictured being driven to church in scotland with her second son smiling broadly for the camera what better way i suppose to send out um a very clear signal and show of support the queen was once again standing by her son it certainly isn't the first time that the queen's second son has had questions asked of him by the world's media i think in in royal circles there's a bit of a despairing and ringing of their hands because you know this wasn't just a one-off there has been so many questionable decisions that andrew has uh made and there's a sense of for goodness sake you know when were you going to wise up the comments that are made about an extravagant lifestyle and so forth is that that is an extravagant lifestyle traveling by in 2019 the duke of york prince andrew hit the headlines following the suicide of convicted pedophile jeffrey epstein his association with epstein was another controversy to add to the growing list that is playing to the house of york prince andrew is not the first duke of york to be mired in controversy but i certainly think the epstein allegations are perhaps some of the more serious in the history of dukes of york but this latest scandal isn't prince andrew's first brush with the press in 2001 prince andrew stepped down from his military position in the navy to take on a parliamentary role as the british trade ambassador there was always the question of what's next for the duke um and this ticked all of the boxes andrew was determined to make a success of being trade envoy and i think as an ambassador for for great britain certainly in those early days of that role i think he did quite a good job i mean he certainly had pulling power you would hear mp saying that he was the greatest asset for britain in terms of trade and industry because frankly you get a call saying would you like to meet prince andrew the duke of york yes prince andrew's royal profile opened many doors for british trade pretty impressive six thousand jobs and a billion pounds worth of investment i mean that's not something to be sniffed at is it it isn't um and what's really encouraging about that is that is that that's gone into about 931 um starting and scaling businesses and 97 of those 931 are still operating today and they're still growing but some also feel that the duke of york's new job came with other perks every june every royal correspondent goes to buckingham palace to look through the royal accounts and we all go straight to the travel document because that's the one we all understand how much the royal train costs how much those private flights are costing and year after year he will be at the top of the list [Music] we're in what used to be known as a queen's flight aircraft and he'd do the business on behalf of british trade international and then he'd go off and get the golf clubs out the boot of the plane and go off and play golf the duke of york's frequent travel and mode of transport quickly guarded him yet another nickname air miles andy um was a nickname that which refused to shift for many many years he was stung by the nickname because he thought it was slightly insulting to him um as so he was just sort of gallivanting around the world um having fun whereas his argument was look he's there on official business he's doing what the government asked him to do one year in particular prince andrew cost the british taxpayer over half a million pounds this was seen as not on and quite frankly it wasn't on it's not the sort of things you do if you go out and you're there doing a job of work on behalf of uk plc you do the job work you come home you want to go and play golf and you make your own arrangements get on an airplane and pay for the fare yourself and fly off and unfortunately he didn't do that the duke of york agreed to a one-to-one television interview i am not doing this as it were for my own good i am not getting any return for this this is all done on behalf of the uk it's not done on my behalf if i was doing it i wouldn't i wouldn't as it were allocate my time in this way can i ask you as i inevitably must about the criticism that is sometimes even often leveled at you in this job the comments that are made about an extravagant lifestyle and so forth is an extravagant lifestyle traveling by private jet using helicopters when you could take a train but it is it is again it is the maximization of my time for the uh best value for money and that's the way that that and i'm not the one that makes those decisions in truth um it became quite a problematic role for andrew i think he frequently found himself having to defend himself having to defend the flights that he was racking up that became an issue that became more of the story than andrew representing britain overseas and that was a problem did you have to go by private jet to newcastle yeah because there was no other way of getting there and back bearing in mind from what i was doing before and what i was doing afterwards on top of the alleged travel perks andrew continued to be in the headlines once again it was because of the company he was keeping it was the meeting with gaddafi's where i think eyebrows were raised he entertained the ousted former president of uh of tunisia at buckian palace the fact that andrew went out to foster these questionable relationships and offshore billions was incredibly appealing to andrew he's not good at picking picking his associates he's not good at picking his um i won't say friends but acquaintances bottom line he's grown up in palaces and castles he's the son of the queen he is used to a certain sort of lifestyle so guess what he mixes with people who have that similar sort of jet set lifestyle andrew has perhaps been rather naive and not really perhaps understood the kind of at least the optics of some of what he has done i think andrew felt that he had this official role as trade envoy for the uk government and was doing a great job he's very thin-skinned and he takes any kind of criticism extremely personally and and angrily in fact the press continued to question the duke's suitability for the trade envoy role i think the press became less supportive over the years i think um he was on the receiving end of quite a lot of criticism um was it unfair i i would argue not because i think some of the decisions andrew made were bad decisions some of the um business affiliations were not clever it was at this moment with huge pressure mounting on prince andrew's job that the photo with jeffrey epstein central park was released sealing the trade ambassador's fate he mixed business with pleasure and if you're going to mix business with pleasure be very careful about the pleasure that you that you mix with and he wasn't there was mps who had described andrew as the most glittering asset for britain overseas that was when those mps then turned on the duke and said he's got to go this is untenable in 2011 prince andrew stepped down from his role as trade ambassador i think that actually he felt it wasn't guilty of anything but it was undermining his position as a trade ambassador and embarrassing the queen and the queen's government and i think he felt it would be best if he just stepped aside at that time and i think that it probably stopped the continual onslaught in the media and that's probably what was needed within the royal house of york it's not just the duke who has received negative publicity by his side for many years was the duchess of york sarah ferguson who was no stranger herself to scandal and controversy sarah um has a very contagious personality um andrew was very much drawn to her it was the ultimate royal fairy tale in many ways and then it all came unstuck [Music] [Music] prince andrew has spent most playboy prints and a much talked about trade ambassador he received his official title from the queen and became the 11th duke of york upon marriage [Applause] fergie and diana were very good friends and diana was always trying to find a boyfriend for fergie and um she came up with the idea of andrew sarah ferguson was typical jolly hockey sticks uh daughter an army officer a polo player skiing uh all over the alps in the winter she was always going to be an interesting addition to the royal family and on top of that she and diana got on really well every june when attending royal ascot the queen has a house party at windsor castle and on this occasion diana invited fergie as she was known with her freckles and hair and outgoing bubbly humor and she and andrew apparently got on extremely well so much so that they were feeding each other uh profiteroles from the dining room table was at lunch wasn't it yes we were made to sit next door to each other at lunch at ascot listen you made me chocolate profit rose which i didn't want to eat at all i then didn't have it so i got hit the queen was delighted she has always really enjoyed fergie's company fergie's a horse woman she loves dogs she loves country life and she's fun she's she's she's a really special girl and the queen absolutely adored her before long the couple had announced their engagement could i ask you to miss ferguson do you remember what he said absolutely but i'm not telling you there would have been a sigh of relief that randy andy's days of hitting the nightclubs were over i mean this was really the height of popularity for the royal family the wedding of charles and diana william and harry being born and then it was andy fergie the press were hugely interested in andrew and and sarah they they were tactile they were loving they were everything that charles and diana weren't they were a great story in 1986 just five months after becoming engaged the pair married at westminster abbey prince andrew and sarah ferguson became the duke and duchess of york i think what was so exciting for the press during this period of those royal marriages was that for the first time they had the original fab four you know you had andrew and fergie charles and dye these two very glamorous women they were out there on the world stage and i think at that period you know the future was very sunny and very bright for the royal family the couple were whisked away on royal tours of canada and north america where the duchess made quite an impression what i remember about that in particular was a whole tour letting my darling husband of a year and a day do all the public speaking so we agreed for once that i should have the last word tonight i think andrew was very proud of her i mean she complimented him if you like in a way she rubbed off some of his rougher edges i mean he was still an a slightly abrasive character she was good for him yeah one of the royal couple's stops was hollywood [Music] i was on the royal tour when they were in los angeles and they were a huge success everybody loved them at last i have the turn to talk all these men around here i love you i'll see you later fergie appeared in different little outfits and had different bows in her hair and it was all quite over the top i'm so amazed by los angeles and the welcome that you've given us and me but i never forget that the only reason i'm here is because i'm married to the duke of york there was a big reception and all the sort of la crowd and fergie and andrew really did well then by 1990 the couple had welcomed two children beatrice and eugenie but cracks were beginning to fall in marriage was finding life at the palace extremely difficult she was being criticized hugely at this stage of her life she didn't have prince andrew at her side because he was away doing his naval duties so things just really started to break down captain good evening as well as the royal tours prince andrew was still serving as a naval officer spending more and more time away from his family captain roger yes thank you very much as a commanding officer you can on occasions get extremely lonely and isolated if you're not careful it's it's terrible i mean it it i mean you're going away and leaving what you love behind it's a fantastic job all three cents is a fantastic job for a single man it's getting less and less so for a married man i don't call it escapism at all james bond is escapism and i'm not a commander yet [Music] sarah was basically a single mother at home with raising two children and it put a huge strain on the relationship the couple's marriage was under intense media scrutiny rumors of affairs began to circulate in the press fergie was already taught that the marriage was in great difficulty she felt neglected by her own husband she was being given a really hard time by the press i think she was incredibly vulnerable speculation continued for months until the duke and duchess of york were forced to make an announcement when andrew and sarah announced their um separation in early 1992 very rapidly she was seen to be involved with a man who was euphemistically described as her financial advisor a royal separation was only the start of the controversy for the duke purchase of york after now infamous photos of sarah ferguson were released in the media i was with john brown the night the pictures appeared in in one of the tabloid newspapers and i'd gone to his flat with the daily mirror and he phoned fergie and i could hear him talking to her and you know he's saying it's bad it's worse than we thought they've managed to get pictures of her on a sunbed and she was having her toes sucked by her financial advisor these pictures were compromising they were embarrassing you know shameful for fergie things quickly worse for the duchess of york [Music] poor fergie the following day she had to go down to breakfast at balmoral castle where all the papers were all laid out as they always are every day on a sideboard and she had to sit there and so the humiliation must have been awful for her she fled balmoral in tears and she didn't return a very long time sarah ferguson was really cast to the the outer darkness it was the final nail in the coffin for andrew and sarah the duke and duchess of york's relationship troubles were publicized the world over [Music] combined with other royal scandals 1992 would prove to be a year that would haunt the queen it has turned out to be an annus horribilis i expect that i'm not alone in thinking it's so the 1990s was a series of disasters 1992 being uh the worst year in terms of royal breakups uh three royal marriages uh three of the queen's children uh separated in 1992. princess anne divorced andrew and fergie separated charles and dylan separated not only were her children's marriages deteriorating but they were being played out in the press in the most lavish spectacular fashion it culminated in that famous speech that she gave in which she described 1992 as her anus her ribolus a horrible year worst year if you like four years later sarah ferguson and prince andrew finally divorced although no longer considered a royal she was allowed to retain her title as the end to the media frenzy circulating the house of york you know diana took millions from her divorce with charles fergie took pretty much nothing so fergie is constantly chasing her tail and running out of money and so she goes to more and more desperate means she became a bit of a liability to prince andrew and therefore i think he realized and certainly the royal family would have realized that you know while she still had these debts she was a massive liability despite her divorce from prince andrew in the late 1990s sarah ferguson the duchess of york embarked on an unofficial trip to the united states she got involved with weight watchers she seemed to be basically doing anything she could to earn a living make some money she had huge debts she would spill uh her thoughts or her emotions in front of anybody who would listen to her she became kind of darling on the oprah winfrey kind of circuit in america and it this was exactly what a royal even a sort of ex-royal should not be doing and she really did cause embarrassment to the royal family prince andrew also found himself back in the headlines after he sold the marital home at sunny hill park in surrey [Music] the 12 bedroom country residents have been a gift from her majesty the queen he wanted to get it off his hands and it was on the market and wasn't selling and then lo and behold it was bought by one of the contacts he'd made through his travels the son-in-law of the then president of kazakhstan and this generous individual not only bought the house but he bought it for three million pounds more than asking price it provoked many questions as to why the answer has never satisfactorily been given at the time a spokesman for prince andrew said there was never any arrangement or impropriety and that 12 million pounds was a guide price not an asking price [Music] in 2010 rumors of bankruptcy for sarah ferguson began circulating in the press and the duchess of york became part of a huge sting from the news of the world as seen here in a secret video recording if we want to do a big deal the fake shake for the news the world got lots of exclusives filming people agreeing to stuff or taking money and the the cash for access story with fergie was incredibly damaging it was another black mark against her in the video she is seen talking to the now discredited fake shake offering access to prince andrew for half a million pounds no one was surprised when she found herself a victim of a pretty unpleasant newspaper sting and they got her on film boasting that she could get access irishing once again for the royals the duchess of york has said she was devastated by the news of the world sting and that it was a serious lapse in judgment she also later added that she felt tricked [Music] sarah ferguson's reported financial difficulties would see a return of jeffrey epstein [Music] in 2011 the duchess of york admitted to accepting 15 000 pounds from epstein to help pay off her debts one of the other complications to the story of epstein and andrew is the fact that the duchess of york herself was acquainted with epstein and indeed he lent her money for the the infamous debts that she had after her divorce to andrew epstein was among a number of rich men who helped to bail her out a bad choice and um i think the duchess has since recognized that she should not have accepted money from him sarah ferguson later said she had made a gigantic error of judgment it all just is very very very unfortunate and it's again this kind of lingering bad taste that epstein has brought to the royal family's reputation in regard to both andrew and sarah despite all the controversy over the years prince andrew and the duchess of york remained close what i find remarkable is that despite all of the scandal you know the the debt the controversies andrew and sarah have remained the best of friends with the whole epstein affair fergie has absolutely kind of stood by her man i think she's been the one who's been in scrapes before and andrew's always stood by her he's never thrown to the wolves he's always looked after her financially emotionally and i think this time she felt able to repay a lot of that with the epstein scandal showing no signs of disappearing and prince charles set to one day take the throne what does the future hold for the duke of york and his family [Music] over the years the house of york has been embroiled in damaging scandals none more so than the association with disgraced financier jeffrey epstein i think that andrew's judgment is probably clouded partly by the life he's led his upbringing he's been protected from the world and royal insiders say that the whole affair has impacted andrew's relationship with his older brother charles who is future king will have ultimate say over the future of the british monarchy and andrew's role [Music] my understanding from a source very photographed walking in central park his advice to his brother was to leave that relationship well alone it was a relationship that i think had worried charles from quite an early stage but that picture was um was really the nail in the coffin for charles it was when he said to his brother stay away from this but of course that advice came a little too late could the scandals of prince andrew lead to the marginalization of the house of york there is a battle going on right now behind the railings of royal palaces about the future size of the british monarchy about slimming it down about getting rid of the minor royals from the public funding and so on [Applause] there was a glimpse of the new potential slim down monarchy at the queen's diamond jubilee in 2012. the duke talk and his two daughters princesses beatrice and eugenie were noticeably absent further fueling speculation that prince charles was beginning to sideline the house of york andrew and his family not being invited to appear on the balcony at buckingham palace for the queen's jubilee was really significant because it was a real statement of intent by prince charles this was the future of the royal family william harry kate charles camilla the queen andrew and usually beatrice were nowhere to be seen and andrew very much felt the snob but charles was proclaiming it very publicly by saying this is the current monarch this is the future and this is the future of the royal family in a very very public way and it was like no andrew it's the magnificent seven as they then were that's charles's vision of a modern monarchy it's not a balcony stuff full of 20 or 30 people andrew's not stupid he's noticed that and he is absolutely campaigning for a future role a bigger role for usually and beatrice now this has provoked an enormous conflict largely between prince andrew and his brother prince charles it's charles who's driving this idea of a slim down monarchy and it has been from charles's side of of the argument that beatrice and usually should perhaps be pushed out of the limelight as well as criticism leveled at the duke and duchess of york their daughters princesses beatrice and eugenie have also over the years been criticized by the press in particular their cost to the taxpayer as royal princesses they'd had full-time wrap-around royal protection royal protection on police officers is a very expensive business it's a necessity for frontline members of the royal family but where the public began to question the costs involved in security were particularly about beatrice hold on exotic holidays why should we pay police protection which is quite right it's like well why are we paying for this when she's not going to be a future working royal and so andrew under a lot of public scrutiny was forced to pay for it himself [Music] he was not very happy [Music] money was stopped in 2011 to pay for all these police protection officers for both girls and then they lost the sovereign grant which meant they would not get money paid out of the sovereign's purse because they weren't going to do raw duties it was decided that the working most of the royal family would be limited to the four children of the queen and then charles's children the heirs children because it was decided that we didn't want to have too big rain on on the suffering grant but andrew wanted both his daughters to be working royals i think he wanted the status for them look at the princess royal she's got two children peter phillips and zara tyndall both of them without titles have made their way in life quite admirably without any handouts from anybody without any titles and it's worked for them and if it's worked for them then it should work for beatrice and usually [Applause] in 2018 princess eugenie married her long-term boyfriend jack brooksbank amid all the pumpkin ceremony of a royal wedding the scale of which many believed was prince andrew's way of putting his family back into the royal limelight there was criticism over eugenie's wedding it was paid for privately and yet you know there was still questions asked over whether it was absolutely necessary to have two wedding dresses three days of parties and i think for the yorks it's hard for them to escape that sort of controversy because they have been known for their exuberance spending over the years it's andrew he becomes very grand and royal and he makes things happen you want to get married in st george's chapel you'll get married against the children's chapel if you want the biggest party the world has ever seen in my back garden you'll have it andrew was at pains to point out that this was a bigger wedding than harry and meghan's and then they'd invited more people to the two phils and george's chapel of course that was the same place that harry megan got married a couple of months earlier because jackie usually had so many friends so more people had to come we usually had three days of parties there's almost andrew saying yeah megan and harry whatever you can do i could do better and with beatrice's recent engagement to italian property tycoon eduardo mapeli motzi speculation regarding and it was rumored in the press that prince andrew was keen for his daughter's husbands to have royal titles something the duke of york denied [Music] it's very interesting the way that princess usually is still styled because her husband hasn't got a title officially she should now be mrs jack brooksbank and in the court circular and in correspondence because that's her very archaic official title but it's very interesting that she has styled princess eugenie mrs jackson brooks frank so i think that was very much a sign from prince andrew that his daughter should be remembered that she's still a princess despite prince andrew's best efforts to keep the house of york front and center what will the epstein scandal mean for the duke of york [Music] [Music] in the summer of 2019 fresh revelations in the epstein scandal emerged once again threatening to engulf the duke of york he's never been far away from controversy but his connection with epstein that ill-fated friendship the epstein connection has inflicted the greatest damage on his reputation as a member of the royal family in july federal prosecutors filed new charges and once again arrested jeffrey epstein prince andrew's continued friendship with epstein was once more called into question previously unseen footage of prince andrew in epstein's manhattan townhouse appeared in the media although he had sort of slept dormant for four or five years it burst on the scene again and they showed a video of andrew at epstein's towers in manhattan you know with lots of comings and goings with young women so the world is saying how could he not have known what was going on this has been a very turbulent summer for the royal family buckingham palace has gone into firefighting mode they're defending the duke of york against the most serious allegations to plague him in his royal career there are questions that many believe the duke hasn't completely answered epstein's suicide whilst in custody meant he never stood trial for the new allegations epstein uh killed himself shortly before going on trial again and so his accusers feel that they have been cheated of their their day in court footage captured on the steps of a new york courthouse showed virginia roberts now jeffrey renewing her accusations against the duke of york he knows of course the wider allegation of what he knew about what epstein was doing did he really see nothing as of course he has strenuously insisted is the case now that epstein is dead and he's not going to have his day in court it's hard to see how andrew can properly and conclusively shut these allegations down [Music] the case against epstein was dropped after his suicide but there have been calls to investigate some of his associates with the duke of york named in court papers in 2015 neil roberts's lawyers have asked for prince andrew to come forward and be interviewed under oath despite a judge ruling comments about him be struck from the court record for being immaterial and impertinent andrew has never been spoken to by american law enforcement agencies buckingham palace has been at pains to stress that if people want to talk to andrew they can i mean of course they would say that wouldn't they whether that would actually happen it's a different matter if the duke of york were to testify it would be the first time in history that a member of the british royal family has appeared in a u.s court andrew clearly in his statements repeatedly has said i didn't do anything wrong i didn't know anything wrong was going on the statement hasn't appeased the various epstein victims in america and in particular one has said that andrew knows what he has done and the lawyer is calling for andrew to go to the u.s to testify virginia roberts gave a televised interview to american television program dateline for nbc it was a program watched by millions in which she further detailed her alleged interactions with prince andrew the first time in london i was so young keelan woke me up in the morning and said you're going to meet a prince today i didn't know at that point that i was going to be trafficked this is not a trial by the media it is an investigation and it's not up to newspapers to point fingers it's not up to newspapers to put him on trial it is up to the americans as and when they have a case will he be a hostile witness to the fbi inquiry will he be dragged into some court case in america that seems less likely but surely someone is going to want some answers to very many questions about his connection to jeffrey epstein to the girls and to all those stories which have been buffeting the royal family throughout the summer months [Music] despite his protestations of innocence we don't really know what happened and therein lies the problem and i think that this will continue to dog him this affair yet to be seen the royal family are by their very nature loyal to one another and they close ranks and support each other but prince andrew is testing that policy and that loyalty and you know family ties absolutely to the limit royal family over the centuries have been involved in all sorts of allegations innuendo scandals and they have survived they've survived for over a thousand years and they will continue to survive individual members of the royal family are not involved in this only prince andrew [Music] as prince andrew's future is discussed and speculated upon in every quarter the title duke of york is itself facing an unknown future prince andrew has no male heirs the title is due to end but andrew has only two daughters and as things stand at the moment as i understand it the title will go into obeying or die with him if you like and then it'll be up to another monarch prince william who has two sons and he could give his son louis the title duke of york when he comes to the throne [Music] currently eighth in line to the throne questions remain over prince andrew's future and that of the royal house of york his diary is having to be cleared because of the continued speculation and it's really unsure and uncertain quite what's going to happen next in terms of how andrew's going to rebuild what is now a very tarnished reputation he's never going to get rid of this stigma but it doesn't mean he can't live with it it doesn't mean he can't go on but it will always be there now there is talk that he might withdraw completely from royal life but he can't disappear completely he's a he's a member of the royal family he cannot resign from the royal family he is still prince charles's brother and the queen's favorite son this is very damaging for the reputation of the duke of york uh he would say at worst he's been too loyal to a friend and he shouldn't have continued the friendship but you know when you have people on the steps of a court in new york saying he knows what he has done i don't think anybody thinks this is the end of the story [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] i think he was always seen as prince charles said was the handsome one a bit of a favorite of the queen he had a good life he had all the privilege with none other responsibility now caught up in a story that has shocked the world i think it's fair to say that this is a scandal of an entirely different nature this is by far the most damaging of allegations poor old prince andrew he rarely seems to be out of the papers these days are you going to resign [Music] what impact will the current duke of york have on the future of the monarchy he's never been far away from controversy but his connection with epstein that ill-fated friendship has inflicted the greatest damage on his reputation as a member of the royal family what will this latest scandal mean for the house of york [Music] [Applause] within the royal house of windsor there are several different titles traditionally bestowed by the monarch wales cambridge sussex and york the duke of york it's a very noble title is tradition and he's now at the center of a

Channel: UK Documentary

Views: 63,980

Keywords: Queen, PrinceCharles, PrincessDiana, PrinceWilliam, Kate, PrinceHarry, MeghanMarkle

Id: GFcE5xsXtyU

Length: 64min 26sec (3866 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 15 2021