Andrew wanted to take over King Charles’s ‘legacy’ as royal environmental campaigner just months before car-crash Newsnight interview, leaked emails claim

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor wanted to take over King Charles ‘legacy’ as an eco-warrior months before having to step back from royal duties over his ties to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, new reports claim.

The disgraced ex-Duke, 66, allegedly tried to ‘take up the mantle of conservation’ from his brother  just months before his car-crash Newsnight interview.

Donors were said to have been approached about a plan for a non-profit known as The Royal Conservancy, which would be helmed by Andrew.

Potential investors from across the world were said to have gathered at Buckingham Palace in 2019, in attempts to ‘draw up a three-year business plan’ but it never came to fruition due to lack of funding and official sign-off.

According to leaked emails seen by The Telegraph, Libby Ferguson, who had managed Andrew’s old firm Urramoor Limited, wrote to business associates about drawing up a strategy in March of that year – at the request of ‘the Duke’.

One week later, she said she and Andrew had a ‘good call’ about the plans, with the documents sent for approval shortly after.

Further emails from Ms Ferguson stressed the importance of getting everything, including the budget, approved in a timely manner, with a potential ‘pan-European Royal board of Patrons’ mentioned.

It is understood that Andrew planned to take over the reins on the issue from his brother when he would become King, and even ‘wanted to recruit the support of people in the farming industry who understood conservation’.

Charles has for decades been known for his passionate stances on environmental causes, a topic he still talks about to this day. Just a few months ago, he said he wants to improve the planet before he dies – after revealing he was ‘haunted’ by the criticism he faced over an interview in which he claimed he talked to plants. 

Finding Harmony: A King’s Vision – a documentary being released on Prime Video next month – looks back at Charles’ Harmony philosophy and lifelong commitment to green issues.

In the 90-minute film, made in collaboration with his charity The King’s Foundation for Amazon MGM Studios, the monarch said the situation is ‘rapidly going backwards’ – with mankind ‘actually destroying our means to survival’.

But he expressed his hope that ‘by the time I shuffle off this mortal coil’ there might be more awareness of the ‘need to bring things back together again’.

Meanwhile just months after the leaked emails were written about Andrew’s plans for a conservation project – in November 2019 – the ex Duke took a step back from public duties and was stripped of his patronages and military titles.

In 2024, Andrew’s disastrous interview – which included claims of being in a Pizza Express in Woking and having a medical condition that left him unable to sweat – was recently the subject of a Netflix movie, Scoop, which followed the process by which the BBC secured an interview with him.

In 2024, Andrew’s disastrous interview – which included claims of being in a Pizza Express in Woking and having a medical condition that left him unable to sweat – was recently the subject of a Netflix movie, Scoop, which followed the process by which the BBC secured an interview with him

Emily Maitlis, who took the interview, admitted recently that she thought she was going to be sacked after it was aired.

She said: ‘You don’t go into an interview with the royal family without thinking you could lose your job.

‘But you know, that’s almost a very real possibility – the stakes are high.

‘We knew that if the tone had been wrong, if the facts had been wrong, if the questioning had been wrong – that would have been the end of me and the team at the BBC.

‘As it turned out, the ramifications were different. But we were highly aware of it.’

She also revealed that Andrew actually wanted to spend even more time talking about sweating and Pizza Express.

Of Prince Andrew’s request, she said: ‘Once we’d finished the interview, I said as a courtesy, “Is there anything that didn’t get included that you wanted to discuss?’ and Prince Andrew said, ‘Well actually, there were a couple of things. You didn’t include my alibi”.

‘He wanted to talk about the fact that he’d been at Pizza Express on the night in question.

‘And it was a very complicated moment for us because, on the one hand, I knew that if he included some of the stuff that he wanted to talk about, for example the sweating and the Pizza Express alibi, it was not going to help his case, in fact, it was actually going to make it look worse.’

Emily added: ‘I felt kind of a responsibility to not let him walk into that, but on the other hand, I also felt a responsibility to include the things that he had said were important to him to say.’

It comes during a turbulent time for the Royal Family, with Andrew being arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office in February.

The former prince, who recently turned 66, was detained by officers during an 8am raid on his new home at Wood Farm. He became the first senior royal to be arrested since King Charles I nearly 400 years ago.

Thames Valley Police confirmed the disgraced former prince had been taken into custody just after 10am on February 19, marking one of the worst days for the family in recent history.

In a statement put out just minutes after Andrew’s departure, Thames Valley Police said ‘a man in his sixties’ has been released under investigation – as images showed how the royal seemed to be trying to evade photographers following his bruising day in the cells. 

Wide-eyed and with his hands clasped in front of him, Andrew cut a lonely figure as he ditched his traditional suit and tie attire in favour of a shirt and cardigan.

Police added that searches being conducted in Norfolk, relating to Andrew’s new residence at Wood Farm have concluded. 

It is understood Andrew was arrested in relation to allegations that he passed sensitive information to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein while acting as a trade envoy for the British government.

The King issued an unprecedented statement confirming his ‘wholehearted support and co-operation’ with the investigation into Andrew just hours after he was detained, with Buckingham Palace understood not to have known the former duke would be arrested. 

The statement said: ‘I have learned with the deepest concern the news about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and suspicion of misconduct in public office.

‘What now follows is the full, fair and proper process by which this issue is investigated in the appropriate manner and by the appropriate authorities. In this, as I have said before, they have our full and wholehearted support and co-operation.

‘Let me state clearly: the law must take its course.’

Buckingham Palace did not offer comment.