The House of Windsor has an ostrich-like habit of ignoring things that are unpleasant in the belief that if they don’t look at trouble, then trouble won’t come and get them.
The current management of the troubled Duke of York is a fine example of this tactic. Since his disastrous attempt to “clear the air” over the Jeffrey Epstein allegations in his BBC Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis, he has “stepped back” from royal duties and is nowadays rarely seen in public, and heard from still less. It is the modern equivalent of when they used to lock away members of the family they felt were an embarrassment, or even pretend they were dead.
This quarantining of Prince Andrew has worked, up to a point. After the storm of allegations and that excruciating attempt to explain himself, the row died down and the media moved on. Other stories, such as the death of Prince Philip and the never-ending soap opera of the Sussexes, even Sarah Ferguson’s stab at an historical novel, garnered the attention of a royal-obsessed public. There was also a general election, as well as Brexit and the Covid crisis to distract the public from Prince Andrew.
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