During the past six weeks of drama around the degenerate formerly known as Prince Andrew, we learned some interesting stuff about all of the times Andrew and the institution lied. Back in 2019, Buckingham Palace swore up and down that they had brutally punished Andrew for his BBC interview, that he was no longer a working royal and he was forced into giving up all of his patronages. All lies. QEII allowed Andrew to keep several of his military patronages, which we only learned later, after the various military branches protested. Then, in 2022, there was another round of “this time we’re really punishing Andrew, we’re taking away everything from him!” Turns out, Andrew was still, magically, allowed to keep his honorary vice admiralty in the Royal Navy – he’s had that position this whole time. And it’s only now that it’s being taken away. But don’t worry, they’re not taking away the medals Andrew won in the Falklands.
Following King Charles’ decision to strip his younger brother, the former Prince Andrew, of his royal titles and residence, it has been determined that he will also lose his honorary rank as vice admiral in the Royal Navy. However, he will be allowed to keep his medals earned in service.
Defense Secretary John Healey confirmed the removal of Andrew’s “last remaining title” to The Telegraph on Sunday, Nov. 2, but he said the government was following the King’s lead when it came to his medals. On Nov. 5, Buckingham Palace confirmed the decision to allow Andrew to keep them.
The palace first announced that Andrew, 65, was officially being stripped of all of his titles, including prince, on Thursday, Oct. 30. He will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.
The move is the culmination of the fallout from multiple scandals, the most prominent being the former prince’s relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Despite Andrew’s repeated denial of claims of sexual assault made against him, PEOPLE understands that the King’s decision came from the belief that his brother had serious lapses in judgment.
However, as Andrew served 22 years in the Navy and fought in the Falklands War, public opinion was divided on stripping him of his military honors.
“We need to get hold of our moral compass,” Simon Weston, a Falklands veteran who was severely burned when his troop was attacked during the conflict, told The Telegraph. “Andrew has been stripped of every bit of dignity and honour bestowed on him by his family and country. He has been stripped of being a prince, which was his birthright. Those were things given to him and inherited. But this is something that he earned from his own duty and action. That’s a line in the sand,” Weston added.
Another veteran of the conflict who spoke with the publication anonymously agreed that taking Andrew’s Falklands medal back would be an overreach by the government. “Instinctively, if one does something brave, it seems extraordinary to then go and say someone hasn’t done something brave,” they said.
The question of the medals Andrew earned in combat is obscuring the larger criticism of why Andrew was allowed to retain his honorary Naval position ALL THIS TIME. For six years, a time period in which the palace continued to swear that they removed all of Andrew’s military patronages. Keep in mind, Prince Harry was stripped of ALL of his military patronages in 2021 for the high crime of “moving to California and giving an interview to Oprah.” Not only was Harry stripped of every military patronage, the palace smeared him the entire way and claimed that Harry refused to do his duty and that he was letting down the military. That whole time, Andrew was still a Vice Admiral of the Royal Navy. As for the medals… what’s shocking is that the king should have absolutely no say in whether or not a soldier is stripped of medals earned in combat, in service to the country.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Photo Pool/Anwar Hussein Collection/Wenn/Avalon, Photoshot/Avalon.
