Royal family decides Prince Andrew will never return to public duties

The royal family has "no plans to review" Prince Andrew's retirement from public life after he stepped back from his duties "for the foreseeable future" in late 2019.

While The Queen is still working at the age of 94, it's all over for Andrew at 60, reports The Sunday Times.

The news that Andrew would take a step back came after his infamous interview with Newsnight about his friendship with the late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

In the interview, Andrew was attempting to "set the record straight" following damning allegations by Virginia Giuffre that he had sex with her when she was 17 and had been trafficked by Epstein. He strongly denies the claims.

Following the interview, he was accused of lacking empathy for Epstein’s victims and failing to show regret over his friendship with the disgraced financier.

Earlier this month, Andrew faced more controversy after a payment of over $650,000 was made to his private secretary and called an "unauthorised trustee benefit".

Amanda Thirsk, Andrew's secretary, who resigned soon after the Epstein interview aired last year, was given the money as payment for her work as trustee of the Prince Andrew Charitable Trust.

If that wasn't enough, Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson are currently involved in a dispute over an $11 million debt for their $33 million ski chalet in Switzerland.

Now, Air Mail reports that The Queen is set to pay the debt after a court case was threatened by Isabelle de Rouvre, who sold the Duke and Duchess of York the ski chalet.

Earlier this year, it was reported that the Epstein scandal was "greatly upsetting" to the Queen.

“This latest scandal involving Andrew, which is not going to go away any time soon, is greatly upsetting for the Queen and it’s also quite damaging for the institution of the monarchy,” Joe Little, editor of Majesty magazine, told Yahoo News UK.

“It’s not something she would want to have associated with the royal family, so for them and for Buckingham Palace it’s an uneasy time.”

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