This past April saw another Kensington Palace-led campaign. Prince William and his team decided to remind everyone that when William is king, he’ll do everything in his power to “strip” the Duke and Duchess of Sussex of their “royal titles.” This was conflated by some to mean that Harry and Meghan would eventually have to stop using their Sussex ducal title, but if you read the fine print, William’s “title-stripping” tantrum was about Harry and Meghan’s HRHs (technically a royal style, not title). This whole title-stripping issue was brought up again this week regarding Prince Andrew and all of his sleazy history. The Telegraph ran a story (after being extensively briefed by various royal courts) that “King William” will press the issue of removing all of Andrew’s titles. Well, I’m not sure how much stock to put into this, but NewsNation’s Paula Froelich had this exclusive:
There is a lot of talk these days of King Charles or Prince William (when he succeeds Charles) pulling Prince Andrew and Prince Harry’s “Duke” titles due to their respective bad behaviors (to be fair: Prince Andrew’s behavior has been demonstrably worse than Harry’s but both are on the bottom of the public opinion totem pole in the U.K.). But I wouldn’t hold my breath.
”There is no way Charles would do it,” a well-placed insider told me.
“Everyone keeps saying William will take away Andrew and Harry’s titles when he becomes king, but he literally can’t do that without an act of Parliament,” my insider explained. “There is absolutely no way William would do that as it would bring even more attention to the issues with them both.”
Instead, Andrew will be relegated to royal Siberia (even more so than he is now), and “not be invited to any family gatherings.” As of now, Andrew is still invited to Sandringham for Christmas and walks with the family to church. However, after King Charles dies and William is in charge, “there is no way Andrew will be invited to anything anymore.”
As for Harry, unless there is a serious breakthrough in the coming years, he will likely get the same treatment from William — silence.
”King Charles has to invite his brother to family events,” my insider said. “William doesn’t.”
And while King Charles may want to revive contact with Harry, and perhaps see his grandchildren Lilibet and Archie, one last time before he dies, William is “done” with his brother. As an insider told me earlier this year, there’s “no way would Kate or William allow them a private audience,” my source said. “They haven’t spoken to them (since Harry’s tell-all memoir “Spare” — in which he talked about both Kate and William — came out early last year) and don’t want to. It would be a PR opportunity and they’d likely blab everything to Gayle King a day later.”
William and Kate are said to have washed their hands of Harry and Meghan and are “not interested in any drama” that a visit (or renewing of relations) might bring.
”King Charles has to invite his brother to family events. William doesn’t.” Keep in mind, when QEII celebrated her Jubbly, she repeatedly insisted that Harry and Meghan should be included and invited. It’s not that I’m defending Andrew at all – if anything, he should have been stripped of all of his titles and thrown onto an ice floe years ago – but I don’t begrudge the Windsors for including Andrew in “family events.” Anyway, when William becomes king, we’ll see how all of this plays out. It’s the big unknown, whether William’s fundamentally lazy nature means that he won’t follow through on any of his most wrathful desires to “punish” his brother and his uncle.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
