The Real Reason Prince Andrew "Lobbied Hard" for Queen to Stop Charles From Becoming King, Claims Royal Insider
The two brothers had a difficult relationship.
The British royal family has never been short on drama, and new tales continue to emerge. One is that Prince Andrew, the Queen's second son, attempted to block then-Prince Charles from the throne in the '90s, after Charles and Princess Diana were divorced. The Telegraph recently published an excerpt from the new book Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall: From Outcast to Queen Consort, which details Andrew's alleged plot, and the real reason why he "lobbied hard" for the Queen to stop Charles from ever becoming king.
Angela Levin reports that according to a "senior insider," Queen Elizabeth had sought Prince Andrew's advice about Charles marrying Camilla, his former mistress whom he began publicly dating in 1999. Andrew tried to persuade the Queen to block Charles from marrying Camilla by being quite poisonous, mean, unhelpful, and very nasty about Camilla," this person said. He argued that Camilla was "insufficiently aristocratic" and untrustworthy.
This insider said that "when Diana was alive, through her friendship with Andrew's wife Sarah, [Duchess of York] she plotted with Andrew to try to push Prince Charles aside so Prince Andrew could become Regent to Prince William, who was then a teenager." A regent is the person appointed to govern a kingdom because the monarch isn't able to rule for some reason—in this case, William was a minor.
One potential reason: The two brothers had a difficult relationship; before Prince William was born, Andrew, as Charles's younger brother, was the "spare" son in line to the throne.
"Andrew lobbied very hard with the hope that Charles would not become king when his mother died, and that William would wear the crown," the insider said. "His behavior was very, very negative and extremely unpleasant to Queen [Elizabeth], who disagreed. I was told it was one of the rare occasions he didn't get his way. "
The insider said Andrew was "apparently very angry that he couldn't rule the country in some way." His hostility toward Camilla continued, and "it's doubtful it has ever been forgiven."
That aligns with a recent report that King Charles is considering a plan to remove Prince Andrew as a "counselor of state" who could stand in for Charles on official visits if the king is unavailable or indisposed. Of course, the history between the brothers isn't the only reason—In May 2020, Andrew was forced to step back from royal duties when he became embroiled in the scandal surrounding financier Jeffrey Epstein. In January 2022, Queen Elizabeth officially removed his patronages and honorary military titles.
In a curious development in the less-than-storybook lives of their generation of the royal family, Prince Andrew and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, live together. Their residence is the 31-bedroom Royal Lodge on the Windsor estate. Andrew has a 75-year lease on the property, which belongs to the Crown; if the royal real-estate portfolio is re-evaluated, he could be asked to leave. According to recent reports, the pair offered to adopt two of the Corgis the Queen left behind and raise them on the grounds.
