Honestly, ever since Prince Andrew was arrested last Thursday, I’ve been bracing myself for an uptick in attacks on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. If the past is prologue, you know? That has traditionally been the cycle for much of the past decade. Step 1: a terrible story about Prince Andrew’s arrogance, depravity and criminal behavior breaks. Step 2: manufacture outrage over something Prince Harry and Meghan did, said, wore or made. The British media can’t be expected to dig into Andrew’s crimes when Meghan is selling jam or shutting her own car door, you know? All of which to say, I’ve been surprised by how few people are pulling the old Sussex-deflection game. Finally, at long last, they’re just keeping the focus on Andrew and the wider left-behind royals. So why is that? Is it because in the wake of Andrew’s arrest, there’s an institutional refusal to acknowledge that the Sussexes were never the villains? Tessa Dunlop wrote about this in a new i Newspaper column, “In the shadow of Andrew, Prince Harry’s exile just became more shameful.” An excerpt:
Among the “unprecedented” straplines and historic searches for royal ne’er do wells, mentions of one man and his missus were striking for their absence. Harry and Meghan scarcely got a look in during the extensive coverage of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest. The optics were striking: when asked to hunt in the drawer of royal sinners, commentators went as far back as Charles I (so inflexible and near Catholicism he ultimately lost his head), but very few hit upon the Duke of Sussex, for the obvious reason he hasn’t really done anything wrong.
It was an uncomfortable reminder that Harry’s exodus and his subsequent memoir and Netflix series unleashed a disproportionate tidal wave of establishment wrath, when all the while, Andrew had been hiding in plain sight.
The “Prince” was photographed strolling around Central Park with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein in 2010 – and continued as a working royal until his infamous BBC interview with Emily Maitlis on 2019. Those were nine long years of privilege, protection and a platform from which he trolled Virginia Giuffre (the woman who accused him of sexual assault and with whom he reached a financial settlement with in 2022, and has always denied any wrongdoing) and told a series of bare-faced lies about his relationship with Jeffery Epstein. Throughout this period, Andrew was a fully paid-up member of the firm, enjoying a luxury life in a giant mansion alongside his half-in-royalty-half-out ex-wife Fergie, last seen attending an official event at Buckingham Palace as recently as May 2025.
No such luck for poor old Harry and Meghan, who have been chafing in exile ever since they were unequivocally told that their own half-in-half-out royal model was not an option.
Andrew’s position within that gilded royal cage had started to come unstuck from 2019, but compared with Harry – cut off financially, booted out of Frogmore Cottage and ghosted by his family – the former Duke of York’s removal has been glacial. The implicit messaging is clear: the royal family find it easier to turn a blind eye to the (potentially illegal) misdemeanours of a prince than handle public criticism from a prince.
Compounding Harry’s isolation was his suggestion the British media were part of royalty’s problem. How dare he call out the cosy relationship between monarchy and the fourth estate! The UK press gorged on Duke of Sussex; the universal whipping boy for “woke” culture, he became their despised turncoat, a spoilt brat who failed to realise how lucky he was. The myopic hate and attention levelled at Harry and Meghan was wholly misplaced given the pair were no longer part of the royal machine, and therefore not accountable to the British taxpayer.
Yet it conveniently took the pressure off the monarchy, an unreformed, insanely rich institution that waded through a series of top-heavy, expensive public ceremonies – a jubilee, two funerals and a coronation – like an ostrich with its head in the sand.
Given the Andrew story will get worse before it gets better, the Windsors would be wise to consider reaching out to Harry and Meghan, a conciliatory gesture that might just shore up support among the younger generations who have been so repelled by recent events. Meanwhile, if the establishment media want to save the institution they make so much money writing about, a focus on increased royal transparency in all political and financial matters would be a good start. Never has it been more important to throw back the curtain and let in daylight.
I’ve been waiting for this as well – “the Windsors would be wise to consider reaching out to Harry and Meghan…” Like, in the midst of this Andrew situation, you’ve got to think that several courtiers are brainstorming a way to bring the Sussexes into the conversation by any means possible. Perhaps a tip-off to the Times that King Charles called Harry, or a big announcement about Harry and Meghan’s royal protection? Recognize it when you see it! As for the rest of Dunlop’s column… she’s been one of the few people to say this stuff consistently, that the Sussexes were poorly treated and scapegoated by the monarchy and the press. It is what it is – Andrew was the one those institutions chose to protect, so don’t come crying about the Sussexes now.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
