“I think Andrew is an absolute disgrace – we live among the royals and everyone is very respectful of that,” one jogger near the shamed ex-Duke’s new Marsh Farm home told the Express last week. Her angry view was not an outlier – most residents in the sleepy Norfolk village of Wolferton were seething when we visited to ask their views on their soon-to-be-new resident.
This could make for awkward silences in the nearby King’s Lynn Co-op superstore as – having lost all his staff from Royal Lodge in Windsor – he may have to sort his own weekly shop. But this strong feeling against Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor will not be unique to Norfolk, where Sandringham is based and support for King Charles and Prince William will be at its peak.
I would imagine that anywhere across the UK will currently have strong feelings about him popping up in their market town or village after his series of lamentable blunders in his friendship with vile paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
So what is King Charles’ solution? Negative headlines and reaction to Andrew have an impact on him – he is family after all, and his brother. Villagers ranting about “unwanted royals” would be very awkward reading for the monarch.
On Friday night the US justice department released more than three million more pages of documents related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
One of the latest tranche of email exchanges dated 27 September 2010 was between Jeffrey Epstein and an account titled “The Duke”. The address itself is redacted.
Epstein writes that he is in London, adding: “What time woudl [sic] you like me and [redacted], we will also need/have private time”.
“The Duke” replies: “I am just departing Scotland should be down by 1800. I’ll ring you when I get down if you can give me a number to ring. Alternatively we could have dinner at Buckingham Palace and lots of privacy. A”
Epstein replies: “bp pleease [sic].” The emails do not indicate any wrongdoing.
But just having Epstein and Andrew’s names together in the world press is an ongoing headache for the Royal Family.
arsh Farm in Wolferton on the Sandringham Estate
Marsh Farm in Wolferton, on the Sandringham Estate (Image: Getty)
Recent reports have suggested Abu Dhabi could offer Andrew a more private life away from UK scrutiny.
If Charles could reach out to UAE royals and financially support a move to the Emirates, would that not be the perfect solution for all?
Andrew could live like a real prince again, fine-dine to his heart’s content and still ride horses – while it puts him ‘out of sight and out of mind’ for William and Charles.
Crucially it avoids swathes of negative headlines as he gets into a neighbour fence dispute with a local farmer about who owns the boggy land with the broken sewage pipe – or rows about Andrew buying the last saddle in the middle aisle of Aldi in King’s Lynn.
Either way, you cannot see Andrew sticking it out at cold, dilapidated Marsh Farm – and he’s not dubbed ‘Air Miles Andy’ for nothing!
