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Prince Charles ‘sees no way back to public life for Andrew’

Prince Charles reportedly sees "no way back" for Prince Andrew to resume any kind of public royal life, as his links to disgraced financier Jeffery Epstein will only continue to "damage" the reputation of the monarchy.

A source close to Charles has claimed the Prince of Wales has concluded it's an "unsolvable problem", after Virginia Roberts Giuffre filed a civil lawsuit against Andrew, alleging that he sexually assaulted her when she was 17, a minor under US law.

queen and andrew
Prince Andrew stepped back from royal duties in 2019. Photo: Getty

"The prince loves his brother and has the ability to have sympathy for the slings and arrows that his brother endures, whatever the reasons may be," the source told The Times.

"His ability to support and feel for those having a tough time is well known.

"However, this will be unwelcome reputational damage to the institution. He has long ago concluded that it is probably an unsolvable problem.

"This will probably further strengthen in the prince’s mind that a way back for the duke is demonstrably not possible, because the spectre of this accusation raises its head with hideous regularity."

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Andrew officially stepped down from his royal duties in 2019 following his controversial BBC interview on his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, in which he denied any wrongdoing. He later said the controversy had become a “major disruption” to the work of the royal family.

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and Prince Charles, Prince of Wales
Prince Charles sees 'no way back' for Andrew. Photo: Getty

According to reports, Andrew is currently at Balmoral with the Queen, his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, and his lawyers as they work on a strategy to fight the lawsuit.

This week, Giuffre’s lawyer, David Boies, said the duke’s legal team have failed to engage with them for the past five years and “totally stonewalled us”.

“We’ve reached out to Prince Andrew’s legal team, a number of times over the last five years, we’ve made an attempt to engage with him to give him an opportunity to tell his side of the story, to provide an explanation or context, that he might have for his actions to try to resolve this without the necessity of litigation," he told Sky News.

“Every such effort has been rebuffed. They have totally stonewalled us just like they’ve stonewalled the criminal prosecutors in the United States.

“As a result, we’ve not been able to have a dialogue with him. They have been totally uncooperative, not only with us, but with all of the lawyers representing victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking.”

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