King Charles has cancelled Christmas for his brother, Prince Andrew and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, as the fallout from their relationship with convicted paedophile and sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein continues to haunt the royal family.
The King is reportedly raging after the Duchess’ emails, in which she apologised to Epstein for publicly disowning him, were exposed in the Daily Mail.
The Duke and Duchess of York have been told they are not invited to the royals’ Christmas celebrations amid the fresh scandal involving Epstein, sources claim.
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Prince Andrew and his former wife, both aged 65, continue to live together in the Royal Lodge on the Windsor Castle grounds after divorcing in 1996.
The pair have been bunkered down in the property after being told to “make themselves invisible”, according to a royal insider.
King Charles, 76, is imposing the ban on Prince Andrew for the second year in succession.
It was revealed that Charles asked Sarah to convince Andrew to “do the decent thing” and avoid last year’s Christmas gathering, after allegations surfaced he had a relationship with alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo.
“You can’t sack someone from being your brother,” a source close to the King told the Daily Mail.
“But this year, if the duke and duchess were both to be as honourable (as last year), it would be very much for the best and the family would not be disappointed, not least to avoid the King having to make any more difficult decisions.”
The Duke and Duchess spent last year’s Christmas together in the Royal Lodge but were not joined by their daughters, princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.
Although their presence at events is a continued source of embarrassment for the royal family, the Yorks were front and centre at the the Duchess of Kent’s funeral at Westminster Cathedral earlier this month.
Prince Andrew was seen laughing after the service and trying to spark up a conversation with Prince William, who offered no reply to his uncle’s advances.
King Charles is “not of the mind to banish someone but he would hope the Yorks can find a more discreet way of attending these events”, a source told the Daily Mail.
“In the Duke of York’s case, he seems to relish the prospect of not being low-key about it.”
Sarah Ferguson was welcomed back to the royal family’s Christmas gatherings in 2022 and 2023 after three decades in the wilderness and joined the family’s walk from Sandringham house to church alongside Andrew, Beatrice and Eugenie in 2023.
Andrew stepped down as a working royal over the Epstein scandal in 2019 following a Newsnight expose about his relationship with Epstein and questions over his relationship with Virginia Giuffre who claimed she was sexually assaulted by the Duke three times when she was 17.
Prince Andrew, denied the allegations but agreed to an out-of-court settlement with Ms Giuffre, believed to be worth around $AU24 million.
Ms Giuffre took her own life at her West Australian farm in April aged 41.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source thenightly.com.au ’
