From entitled to untitled: how his besotted mother protected Andrew for years

Royal author Nigel Cawthorne examines how a childhood of privilege for the late monarch's favourite son led to his sense of entitlement, which made him feel untouchable for decades

- Nigel Cawthorne

The announcement that King Charles is stripping his brother Andrew of his remaining titles has a special poignancy. One thing that nobody denies about Mr Mountbatten Windsor is his sense of entitlement. In her posthumous biography Nobody's Girl, his accuser, Virginia Giuffre, said of their encounter in Ghislaine Maxwell's Belgravia home in 2001: "He was friendly enough, but still entitled - as if he believed having sex with me was his birthright." While Andrew Mountbatten Windsor says he "vigorously" denies the accusations against him, many people have already made up their own minds. The news that the Metropolitan Police are now reviewing allegations that, in 2011, he asked one of his taxpayer-funded protection officers to dig up damaging information about Giuffre has not helped his case. Nor has the email revealed by The Mail on Sunday, in which Andrew promised to "play more soon!!" with Epstein, exposing the lie that he had cut off all contact with the sex offender after he had been convicted.

Watching replays of the now-infamous Emily Maitlis interview has left many wondering what made him think he could get away with such audacious falsehoods. But an upbringing in which are addressed as "Your Royal Highness" as soon as you can toddle breeds an overweening sense of entitlement. Andrew has self-worth in spades - instilled largely by his mother and great protector, the late Queen Elizabeth II. She is no longer here to shield him, and it was only a matter of time before his elder brother, King Charles, meted out a punishment that many felt was long overdue and well deserved.