Ever since Prince Andrew was first publicly accused in 2011 of having sex with Virginia Roberts Giuffre, one of Jeffrey Epstein’s underaged “sex slaves,” he has reassured his mother that there is nothing to the allegations.
For years, Queen Elizabeth has taken her second and reportedly favorite son at his word. But concerns about Andrew’s ties to Epstein were revived after the financier’s arrest on new sex trafficking charges in July. The convicted pedophile’s reported suicide in August also brought an onslaught of new questions and a stream of embarrassing headlines about Andrew.
The 92-year-old monarch failed to reassure the public of her son’s good nature and value to the royal family by riding with him in a car to churchnear her Balmoral estate the day after Epstein’s death. Andrew also was roasted online last weekend after he returned from his luxury Spanish golf vacation and was photographed resuming his royal duties at the Royal Regatta in Devon, the Sunday Times reported.
There are “increasing signs of alarm at Buckingham Palace over what one royal source complained had become a public relations ‘fiasco,’” the Sunday Times added. Another source close to Elizabeth said she is “concerned and distressed by all this.”
The queen overall is worried that “the Epstein affair is bringing a more lasting whiff of scandal to the monarchy,” the Sunday Times added.
Giuffre told the media outside of a federal court in Manhattan last week that Andrew “knows exactly what he’s done, and I hope he comes clean about it.” More negative headlines could come if Andrew resists talking to the FBI in its ongoing investigation of Epstein’s alleged crimes — even though one report said Andrew was willing to be questioned. – READ MORE