Royals Fear ‘Unexploded Bomb s’ Around Andrew and Epstein

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Andrew more of “long-term problem” than Harry and Meghan

King Charles does not want shamed brother Prince Andrew “to come out of the freezer,” aides have told the Sunday Times. This would appear to scotch Andrew’s hopes of a way back to public life following both his disastrous TV interview telling all on his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein—and his out-of-court settlement with Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who said Andrew had sexually assaulted her on three occasions when she was a minor and being trafficked by Epstein. Andrew has always denied the accusations.

However, the plan to eject Andrew from Royal Lodge in Windsor seems to have been nixed, the paper reports today. A royal source said, “Andrew is more of a long-term problem than Harry and Meghan. It feels like more stuff is going to come out on Epstein and there are still unexploded bombs there.”

The Sunday Times also reports that Charles feels “reassured” that the public have come down on the royals’ side after son Prince Harry’s attacks on him and the rest of the family in TV interviews and his explosive memoir Spare. A friend to whom the King turned for advice told the Times: “He has done the right thing to rise above it and carry on with the work of the monarchy, which provides a welcome and stark contrast to what happens on the west coast of America. It’s all very sad, but it also mirrors what happens in a lot of families, so it humanizes him. What’s clear is the side the public has come down on, and that’s reassuring to him.”

The Times’ report is an extensively reported scorecard on Charles’ first year as king. There is apparently “quiet satisfaction” in Charles’ court that he hasn’t found the job too “demanding” and “suffocating” as Princess Diana said he might in her Panorama interview of almost 30 years ago. However, he has been “surprised at the increased workload”—which also shows that Diana was also kind of right.

A close friend told the paper of Charles: “He seems very content and happy, having mourned the loss of his mother, he is settled. His destiny has arrived and he has embraced it.”

Charles has decided to be a “steady-as-she-goes” monarch, and not a radical as some expected, given his active involvement in the world of politics predating his ascending to the throne.

“He seems really happy and comfortable in his own skin, which hasn’t always been the case,” a friend told the Sunday Times. “There was understandable caution in terms of how the public would receive him. Would he enjoy the role; would it hinder him in what he wants to do? Even though there were times in his life when he’s wanted more media attention, he had no idea how he’d cope when he had the full blast of it—but the more he sees of the public and the more he sees the public turning out to cheer him and the queen, he sees there is a will for him to succeed. They are always cheered to be cheered, particularly with the reputational challenges they’ve had over the years.”

Queen Camilla is “integral” to Charles’ positive state of mind, a source close to the king told the paper. “I think the red boxes and [extra] duties have come as an unexpected burden on his time. The queen is absolutely integral. Without her you’d be looking at a very different person, in terms of his happiness, which is vital to the success of the whole mission. He’s got the queen by his side who can make him laugh like nobody else, who can reassure him things are going well, who can humanize him, particularly at a time of immense stress and strain when he lost his mother and was suddenly sovereign, red boxes overflowing. To have the companion in whom you have complete faith and trust makes that burden a bit lighter.”

However, Charles is “impatient” over the “checks and balances” he faces as monarch, which he sees as impediments to getting things done. But an aide says there is caution in case of a “misstep” which could “set the whole narrative off on the wrong course.”

A source close to Charles told the Sunday Times: “Climate, community and culture are at the heart of what he wants to be seen leading on now—with climate the most important to him. The goal is to be a world leader in those areas, without breaking his constitutional role.”

One friend though said this intentionally restrained reign means Charles “needs to be careful he doesn’t end up being just a caretaker king.” His first big personal project as monarch will be a national initiative tackling food waste.

A source added: “When he was younger, he would have been quite a reforming king but he’s taken it on at a fractious time for the nation, with political divisions, economic hardships and uncertain times ahead. The country is struggling on so many fronts and big changes within the monarchy might not chime well with the times. I think Charles realizes that the main changemaker will be William, who will have more license to do it [as monarch] and Charles has decided to be the ‘steady-as-we-go’ monarch, providing the stability and continuity the country needs now.”

An aide said Charles’ definition of a successful mission, one year since taking on the number one job: “To make the nations and the Commonwealth proud of the King and to make the King proud of himself. To uphold the best of tradition reflecting the Britain of today, he knows that not everything can stay the same forever.”

Which all sounds vague and imprecise—and perhaps exceedingly tone-deaf when some Commonwealth countries have made clear their desire to leave the grouping, jettison the British monarch as their head of state, while also wanting the royal family to address the monarchy’s historic connections to racism, slavery, and colonialism.

Big game

A relative of the king has been drawn into a financial scandal after it emerged that she arranged a luxury safari holiday for sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.

The Sunday Times reports that the trip was put together by New York resident Alexandra “Lexi” Bowes-Lyon; the surname will be familiar to royal watchers as the maiden name of the late Queen Mother (the current king’s grandmother).

Her father is the king’s third cousin. Bowes-Lyon moved to the US in September 2011 to work for auction house Christie’s.

The paper says she “hosted a retreat for the billionaire” at a “pristine and private” ranch in Northern Kenya in February 2021, adding that she did so “as the philanthropic director at Space for Giants (SFG) USA, the American branch of a British-registered elephant charity.” The charity’s backers include Prince William.

The paper says Deripaska’s trip was part of its “Journeys for Giants” initiative which it says gives “elite donors” bespoke experiences. The Times says Deripaska “was personally welcomed by Bowes-Lyon, 37, and Dr Max Graham, the charity’s founder and chief executive.”

The Times says that SFG admits receiving money from Deripaska while he was subject to US sanctions but argued “the funds were deposited in its U.K. rather than American operation.”

SFG has since been questioned by the FBI about its ties with Deripaska, who was under US sanctions at the time of the trip, and subsequently self-reported a “serious incident” to the Charities Commission in the U.K.

The plot thickens with the revelation that one of the aircraft that Deripaska an aluminum baron, flew on was “leased by the charity and owned by Michael Spencer, the billionaire former Conservative Party treasurer who sits in the House of Lords as Lord Spencer of Alresford.” However, Spencer told The Sunday Times he had no idea who was flying in his aircraft as it was rented out via a third party.

Other well-connected names crop up in the course of the fascinating story: SFG is said to have the support of Evgeny Lebedev, the Russian media baron who founded a club within the SFG organization which the Times says “brings together ultra-wealthy donors and heads of state in sub-Saharan Africa to discuss poaching.” Lebedev has now stepped away from the charity in the wake of the revelations.

The Times traces Deripaska’s relationship with SFG back to a 2018 $50,000-a-head black-tie dinner at the London home of Greek shipping heir Spiros Latsis.

The Times says: “Prince William, then Duke of Cambridge, was the guest of honor and Deripaska sat near to Miguel Heard, William’s then private secretary. William sat across the table from Lebedev and Louise Linton, the Scottish actress married to Steve Mnuchin…Other guests included Anders Holch Povlsen, a Danish billionaire ranked as the UK’s biggest private landowner; Zhu Qin, the deputy head of mission at the Chinese embassy; and Bader al-Asaker, the right-hand man of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia.”

In a statement, Graham, the founder, said: “We are not in a position to confirm or deny that Space for Giants has or has not breached US sanctions in relation to the 2021 safari given that no competent authority has ever ruled on this. What we can say is that no Space for Giants entity, Lexi Bowes-Lyon nor myself have ever knowingly or deliberately breached sanctions.”

A spokesman for Deripaska issued a statement saying: “Mr. Deripaska finds it utterly disgusting how journalists put immense efforts into cooking up sensational garbage from thin air, all while genuine tragedies continue to unfold in Ukraine.”

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Gleaming jewels

A dazzling recollection of life as a favored royal jeweler by Geoffrey Munn graces the pages of the Mail on Sunday today. In his autobiography, A Touch of Gold, he describes many marvelous moments, including a visit to his shop by three “dark-haired and handsome” men who “wore cashmere coats and expensive shoes.”

He writes, “The four of us went down to the showroom below and on the way, I began the patter I had recently learned. ‘Do you collect Fabergé?’ I enquired. ‘Not really,’ came the reply. ‘I inherited a number of pieces from my grandfather, and it is the cigarette cases that I like best.’

‘Do you have any animal carvings or flowers?’ I asked.

‘No, but my father had a collection of them which were sold at Sotheby’s in the 1950s.’

“On the strength of this I thought it was the moment to identify the elegant and mysterious visitor: ‘May I ask your name, sir?’

‘Why yes, I am the King of Greece.’”

King of American hearts

The head scratching around the recent Gallup poll that pronounced Prince William as America’s most unifying newsmaker continues with a piece in the Telegraph pondering how the prince captured American hearts—when we all thought that was going to be his brother and Meghan’s special power.

The paper’s royal correspondent Hannah Furness argues that it matters how William is seen in the States because the royals are the focus of “Brand Britain,” and cites a report which calculated the royals will deliver a $100 million benefit to the UK this year, largely via tourism.

She also cites sources described as “close to Prince William” saying his office “has no different strategy for the U.S. as it does for the Commonwealth and the rest of the world…William himself has been determined to focus on the long term rather than the immediate drama of the past few turbulent years.”

A source says: “If you look at the US, there’s huge interest in the Royal family as people…But their long-term role is to stay out of the world of celebrity culture and, even more importantly, party-political culture. That’s incredibly important in the US because it is so polarized. It’s not a surprise that people have noticed that over time. There is a sense of calm consistency and service. There is no talk here of ‘conquering America’…the engagements the Prince and Princess have done in the US are the bread and butter of what they do in the U.K. It’s very much taking their approach overseas and letting it translate there.”

It’s all good news for William ahead of a trip to New York in September to promote his Earthshot prize for environmentally-focused technological innovation.

This week in royal history

Queen Elizabeth’s sister, Princess Margaret, was born on August 21, 1930. Had she lived, she would have turned 93 on Monday.

Unanswered questions

Is King Charles really happy to keep it “steady-as-she-goes,” or will he attempt anything more radical? How will Andrew respond to the news his brother wants to keep him in the royal “freezer”?