As hard as it may seem to believe now, Prince Andrew was once a popular figure. Handsome and with an appetite for the opposite sex that earned him the nickname Randy Andy, he came to prominence when he served as a helicopter pilot during the Falklands War.
When he and Sarah Ferguson first married, its informality seemed like a refreshing change from the congestion associated with the royal family.
Over time, however, informality turned to rudeness, and when his marriage fell apart and his naval career came to an end, he became a man with limited horizons whose interests seldom strayed beyond golf, video. and the women.
In 2001 he was appointed government trade envoy, a position he held for ten years until his friendship with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was revealed and he was forced to resign.
However, when he first took on the role, even those who privately criticize him say he put in a lot of effort.
Many of those who used to work for the prince remain surprisingly loyal to him.
“It often felt like it was us against the world,” said one.
As hard as it may seem to believe now, Prince Andrew was once a popular figure. Pictured: Andrew is greeted by the Queen as she returns from the Falklands War.
Andrew flew as a helicopter pilot during the Falklands War in the 1980s.
All the critical coverage, about his dubious friends, his fondness for private jets, ‘failed to grasp the work he did and the good he did. It was very difficult to change the idea that people had of him.’
There were letters from CEOs “of companies thanking you for helping unlock a deal that had been stalled in Qatar or Central Asia for years.”
He was, they say, a good team leader, who took care of his staff. But he could be clumsy, and worse. Much worse.
While some ambassadors appreciated Andrew’s presence, others did not. Sir Ivor Roberts, a former ambassador to Rome, said the duke was sometimes “blunt to the point of rudeness”.
Simon Wilson, Britain’s former deputy chief of mission in Bahrain, once delivered a scathing assessment of Andrew’s efforts as official trade envoy. He was known, he said, as HBH (His Jester Highness of him) and ignored advice, made inappropriate jokes and regularly refused to comply with the agreed schedule.
Inside Buckingham Palace, Andrew made little effort to be nice to family members. One member of staff said: “He was just terrible, so happy to pick up the phone and yell at whoever answered it.”
Prince Andrew was seen in public for the first time since the queen’s funeral in Windsor last week.
One high courtier recalled: ‘He was not easy to deal with as an adviser. He was very arrogant indeed. That arrogance could have stemmed from a lack of self-confidence. He is not bright at all.
“The fact that he lashed out and was very rude to advisers like me was due to a complete lack of self-confidence, and [an awareness] that she could always run to her mother and say, “Everyone is being mean to me.”
On one occasion, that is exactly what he did. Just before an engagement in Richmond Park involving the Queen and the Duke of York, it began to rain heavily and attendees realized that no one had remembered to bring an umbrella for the Queen.
With half an hour to go before his arrival, his press secretary, James Roscoe, came out to meet a group of Army officers who were there to meet Her Majesty.
He approached the youngest, a captain, and said: ‘I know this is ridiculous, but would you mind trying to find an umbrella for the Queen, and ideally someone who can hold it and walk alongside her?’
At that moment, Prince Andrew walked up to them, pointed his finger at Roscoe’s face and said, ‘Who the hell are you to ask these men to find you a bloody umbrella? Go and find your own damn umbrella.
He walked away, and Roscoe, somewhat shaken, said to the officer, ‘Look, can you find me an umbrella?’ He did.
About a week later, Roscoe was talking to the Queen about something else and she said, “In Richmond, did you ask the Duke of York to bring you an umbrella?”
Andrew had apparently thought that cursing at his mother’s press secretary didn’t look good, and decided to give his side of the story first, in case Roscoe complained about his behavior.
Roscoe said to the Queen: ‘What do you think, ma’am? Do you think I asked the Duke of York to bring an umbrella? That was the end of the matter.
This wasn’t the only time Andrew was incredibly rude. On one occasion, the prince’s aide, Amanda Thirsk, asked a high courtier if she could help dissuade him from a particular course of action he was trying to pursue.
When they tentatively broached the issue with Andrew, his response was immediate and spectacular. ‘Fuck off my office,’ she said, ‘and fuck off my life.’
