'The biggest scandal to rock the institution for 70 years'

THE Royal Family could have avoided the catastrophic publicity of the recent scandal involving Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's relationship with sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein if they had been more nimble when the accusations first came to light, says David Dimbleby.

- BY JANE ODDY

The veteran royal commentator, who fronts a new BBC documentary series, What Is The Monarchy For?, believes conflicted family loyalty lies at the heart of the problem.

"It's been very difficult for Charles's reign for various reasons," he tells the Sunday Express. "The first difficulty is the conflict between the Royal Family as a real family with brothers and uncles, and the Royal Family as an institution, and the two are clearly in conflict with each other.

"It dragged on and on but I sort of understand it because it must be incredibly difficult to reconcile the institutional demands with family loyalties."

In his new three-part series, Dimbleby, 87, examines how the monarchy works and delivers a fresh appraisal of an old institution since the coronation of King Charles III in May 2023.

But the question of Andrew, he feels, is a tale as old as time.

"Many families have problems and difficult relations but they handle it privately. But to have to handle a thing like this in public when actually you have to decide between what you might do as a family and what you feel you have to do as an institution is very difficult and takes time to resolve.

"The Queen's instinct seems to have been to protect Andrew, so it took 14 years after the allegations about Virginia Giuffre [which he denies] came out for him to be finally stripped of his titles and turn him back into a citizen and not a prince.

"That long process was damaging because it just drew more attention to the issue than, say, if in year one or two, he had given up everything. But it didn't go like that.

"He first of all said he wouldn't be using his titles and then it moved on with the Queen stripping him of his regimental duties, then the charities kicked him out but he still remained. He remained a Knight of the Garter for instance.