The Prince of Wales is rumoured to have long had frosty relations with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and his ex wife Sarah Ferguson, reportedly referring to his uncle as a ‘tosser’ even before the disgraced Duke’s recent arrest amidst the latest tranche of the Epstein files.
And the historic tensions could go back as far as childhood, with Andrew making ‘disrespectful’ remarks about William’s mother Diana shortly after her death; while her once-friend Sarah betrayed the late royal’s wishes in a tell-all memoir just months before her passing.
While Andrew and Diana knew each other from when they were children, towards her later years, the Princess appeared to distance herself from the ex-Duke and Duchess.
In 2019, presenter Denise Welch recounted how she had ‘never liked’ the King’s younger brother after meeting him at a royal gala event because of comments he had made about King Charles’s ex-wife.
The broadcaster said she attended the dinner with her ex-husband Tim Healy and several others, including an unnamed actress and a cricketer.
‘Myself and this cricketer, who I won’t name, had made a decision not to mention Princess Diana because she had only recently died,’ she told the Loose Women programme.
‘I have never met Diana but loved her so much and was mortified when she died, like a lot of people. Anyway, Prince Andrew was very keen to talk about her and he brought it up.
‘He began to say things that really upset me and to me were very disrespectful to someone he shouldn’t have been sharing this information with.’
It is not clear exactly what was said, but Denise was left ‘very, very cross’ and told Andrew as much.
She continued: ‘Back in the day I enjoyed a vodka or two… by the time he got up to leave he put his hand on my husband’s shoulder and said “rather you than me sir”.’
