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The Duke of York is said to be “completely lost and very depressed” after he was told by King Charles III that he would never return to public duties.
Prince Andrew was reportedly told that he had been permanently banished from public life as a working royal during a private meeting with his eldest brother, days before the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Sources close to Andrew were quoted as saying that he emerged from the meeting “emotional and fraught” as his hopes to resume his former roles were dashed.
Andrew stepped back from royal duties in 2019 amid scrutiny of his relationship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The late Queen stripped the duke of his military titles and royal patronages over the civil sexual abuse case brought against him by Virginia Giuffre.
Giuffre accused Andrew of sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager, and claimed she was trafficked by Epstein.
The duke strenuously denied the allegations and has repeatedly claimed he does not remember ever meeting Giuffre. In February this year, he reached a multi-million-pound settlement to stop the case from proceeding to a civil trial.
According to The Mail on Sunday, the meeting between Andrew and the King was held at the latter’s Birkhall estate in Aberdeenshire.
The duke had believed he could “still be of value” as a working royal in spite of his links with Epstein, a source said. Andrew had previously lobbied the Queen when she was still alive to bring him back into the fold of the royal family.
The source told the newspaper that the Queen “would say mildly conciliatory things” but often “changed the subject immediately to avoid talking about it”.
However, he was “totally blindsided” and left “utterly bereft” by the outcome of the meeting with King Charles.
“At the meeting, Charles told him that he can go off and have a good life, a nice life, but that his public life as a royal is at an end. He was told, ‘You have to accept this’,” the source was quoted as saying.
Andrew was said to have come out of the meeting “shaken” and “is still in shock”.
“He is completely lost and depressed,” the source added.
The duke was not allowed to wear a military uniform at most ceremonial events during the period of mourning for the Queen after she died on 8 September.
As non-working members of the royal family, both he and the Duke of Sussex wore morning suits during the funeral procession that took the Queen’s coffin to Westminster Abbey on 19 September.
The Mail on Sunday reported that Andrew was “reduced to tears” after being told he was barred from wearing a military uniform at the funeral.
The source added that the duke has become “a virtual recluse” and has “no idea what the future holds and has no real plans”.
“He is struggling to accept this is the end of the road for him as a royal. It is all he has ever known,” they said.
Buckingham Palace and a spokesperson for Andrew declined to comment.
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