Prince Andrew’s mental health has deteriorated in the four years since his terrible BBC Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis, which forced him to resign from royal life.
Since then, the King’s brother, 63, has been largely excluded from the Royal Family, being barred from attending major ceremonies such as Garter Day and barred from joining the Firm at photocalls on the Buckingham Palace balcony.
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He has, however, been able to attend private family gatherings such as Christmas and Easter church services.
Andrew has suffered greatly as a result of losing his employment, and then his military titles and HRH status, but he is slowly beginning to recover.
According to a person close to Andrew, he’s gone “from damaged goods to a better place,” and the “emotional turmoil” he’s been through has helped him become stronger.
They said: “He has several trusted confidants who provided Andrew with emotional support. His family have also helped him.”
According to the insider, Andrew understands his role today and recognizes that he will never be a full-time working royal again, but he still wants to be active.
This is a stance that King Charles is supposed to support, though his son and heir, Prince William, remains skeptical.
Earlier this year, a royal expert said Andrew was struggling to accept the idea that he would no longer be allowed to take part in yearly festivities such as the Order of the Garter procession and Trooping the Colour.
“Remember, he’s never known anything else except military and royal, and he’s not adaptable, he’s not popular, and therefore he hasn’t been able to find anything else in his life so far as we know,” Ingrid Seward, Editor-in-Chief of Majesty Magazine, said earlier this year.
“I think he’s completely lost and I’m sure he’s probably very, very depressed, especially seeing all his family riding at the Trooping when only a few years before he was doing the same thing.”
But the help of close friends and family in recent months has put him in a better place.
Andrew was compelled to resign as a working member of the Royal Family in 2019 due to his association with convicted child molester Jeffrey Epstein and claims of sex with Virginia Roberts Giuffre.
The allegations, which he has categorically rejected, were revealed in Florida court filings in April 2015. They said Ms. Giuffre was compelled to have sex with the royal while she was 17 – under Florida law’s consent age – and a guest of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
The decision to step down from public life came shortly after his infamous BBC Newsnight interview, in which he claimed he could not have had sex with Ms. Giuffre. He was at home after a family visit to Pizza Express in Woking, and her description of his dancing with her beforehand could not be true because he was unable to sweat, and he had “no recollection of ever meeting” her.
Andrew’s military titles and royal patronages were returned to the Queen in January 2022, and he was stripped of his HRH designation.
The decision was made because he was facing a civil suit in the United States over sexual assault charges. Ms. Giuffre said the duke assaulted her three times, twice in the UK and once in the US when she was a minor under US law.
A month later, Andrew agreed to an out-of-court settlement with Ms Giuffre, with no admission of guilt.
