The queen has reportedly told insiders she wants prince Andrew Windsor to remain as colonel of the Grenadier Guards.
Sexual assault allegations
According to the Sunday Times, the monarch has conveyed her wish that her son – who is facing allegations of sexual assault, which he denies – keeps the honorary role that he took over from his father in 2017.
The paper quoted a senior military source as saying:
The Queen has let it be known to the regiment that she wants the Duke of York to remain as colonel, and the feeling is that nobody wants to do anything that could cause upset to the colonel-in-chief.
It is a very difficult, unsatisfactory situation.
The source added that Windsor’s honorary position is “not tenable or viable” and the regiment feels it is “not appropriate to retain him”.
Windsor’s convicted paedophile friend
Windsor, 61, stepped back from public duties in 2019 amid the fallout from his relationship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said:
The Grenadiers and all the Duke’s military appointments are in abeyance after he stepped back from royal duties for the foreseeable future in November 2019.
This remains the situation.
At the time he stepped back, the duke said he continued to “unequivocally regret my ill-judged association with Jeffrey Epstein” and promised to “help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations”. Said authorities have since accused of Windsor of offering “zero cooperation”.
Virginia Giuffre is currently suing the queen’s son for allegedly sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager, and her lawyers have claimed Windsor’s legal team “refuse to engage in any discussions”.
Guiffre claims she was trafficked by Epstein to have sex with the prince when she was 17 and a minor under US law. Windsor has denied the allegations.
