{"id":2126773,"date":"2025-10-31T12:01:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T12:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2126773"},"modified":"2025-10-31T12:01:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T12:01:17","slug":"royals-acted-from-position-of-fear-not-strength-former-royal-correspondent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/royals-acted-from-position-of-fear-not-strength-former-royal-correspondent\/","title":{"rendered":"Royals acted from \u2018position of fear, not strength\u2019 \u2013 former royal correspondent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div data-article-body=\"true\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The royal family is fearful about the possibility of further disclosures about Andrew\u2019s relationship with convicted paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, a former royal correspondent has said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The King\u2019s younger brother, whose friendship with Epstein led to his downfall, will effectively have the status of a commoner and be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Andrew had tainted the reputation of the royal family with his association with Epstein and, for many years, was dogged by allegations he sexually abused Virginia Giuffre, who took her own life in April, after she was trafficked by the financier.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"relative mb-4\">\n<div class=\"relative\"><button aria-label=\"View larger image\" class=\"group absolute bottom-3 right-3 size-10 md:size-[50px] lg:inset-0 lg:size-full lg:bg-transparent\" data-ylk=\"elm:expand;itc:1;sec:image-lightbox;slk:lightbox-open;\"><span class=\"absolute bottom-0 right-0 rounded-full bg-white p-3 opacity-100 shadow-elevation-3 transition-opacity duration-300 group-hover:block group-hover:opacity-100 md:p-[17px] lg:bottom-6 lg:right-6 lg:bg-white\/90 lg:p-5 lg:opacity-0 lg:shadow-none\"><svg viewbox=\"0 0 22 22\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"size-4 lg:size-6\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\"><path d=\"M12.372.92c0-.506.41-.916.915-.916L21 0l-.004 7.712a.917.917 0 0 1-1.832 0V3.183l-6.827 6.828-1.349-1.348 6.828-6.828h-4.529a.915.915 0 0 1-.915-.915M1.835 17.816l6.828-6.828 1.349 1.349-6.829 6.827h4.529a.915.915 0 0 1 0 1.831L0 21l.004-7.713a.916.916 0 0 1 1.831 0z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/button><dialog aria-label=\"Modal dialogue\" aria-modal=\"true\" class=\"fixed inset-0 z-4 size-full max-h-none max-w-none bg-white hidden\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"relative text-sm mt-1 pr-2.5\">\n<p>The former duke of York leaving Westminster Abbey after the King\u2019s Coronation (Toby Melville\/PA)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Andrew has strenuously denied the allegations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The family of Ms Giuffre said after Charles\u2019 decision that she had \u201cbrought down a prince\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Former BBC royal correspondent Peter Hunt told the PA news agency: \u201cSenior royals acted from a position of fear, not strength.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThey fear further revelations about Epstein\u2019s relationship with Andrew and they are fearful of remaining out of step with public opinion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThey remain vulnerable to MPs and journalists continuing to ask questions about what they knew, when. Why didn\u2019t they act sooner, and how did Andrew fund his settlement with Virginia Giuffre?<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cAs they attempt to restore credibility and trust in an ancient institution, they desperately want to avoid questions about royal finances, including ones about the amount of rent they pay for their various properties.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Mr Hunt said the palace will be \u201cmindful\u201d about the impact this \u201cbrutal\u201d development will have on Andrew and his family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThey will be mindful and very on alert to the impact their brutal actions will have had on someone who is their blood relative, and who has only ever been a prince, never a commoner, on his daughters and on his ex-wife, who is recovering from cancer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source uk.news.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The royal family is fearful about the possibility of further disclosures about Andrew\u2019s relationship with convicted paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, a former royal correspondent has said. The King\u2019s younger brother, whose friendship with Epstein led to his downfall, will effectively have the status of a commoner and be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. Andrew had [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2126774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[403835,22942,404128,22535,354937,24515,335202],"class_list":["post-2126773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-andrew-mountbatten-windsor","tag-jeffrey-epstein","tag-peter-hunt","tag-relationship","tag-royal-correspondent","tag-the-royal-family","tag-virginia-giuffre"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Royals-acted-from-\u2018position-of-fear-not-strength-\u2013-former.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2126773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2126773"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2126773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2126775,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2126773\/revisions\/2126775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2126774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2126773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2126773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2126773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}