This week, the Sun had a fascinating cover story about then-Prince Andrew’s financial settlement with Virginia Giuffre in 2022. Virginia sued Andrew in American civil court, and just days before the trial was set to begin, Andrew paid £12 million to Virginia in exchange for her dropping the case and signing a one-year gag order. We knew all of that back in 2022. What the Sun revealed was that Andrew “borrowed” the sum from QEII, then-Prince Charles, and the late Prince Philip’s estate, and the Sun also claimed that Andrew had not paid back one cent. Well, the girls are fighting, if by “girls” we mean “King Charles and his heir, facilitated by their courtiers briefing the British media.” Buckingham Palace got huffy with the Times of London, telling them that of course King Charles did not contribute to the settlement money.
King Charles did not contribute to the £12 million payout made by Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to settle a case brought against him by one of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, a source close to the King confirmed last night.
The palace moved to distance Charles from the payout, denying reports he contributed £1.5 million of the total payout to Virginia Giuffre, who accused the former duke of having sex with her, aged 17, after she was trafficked to London by Epstein.
Andrew has denied wrongdoing and said that he did not remember meeting her but paid an undisclosed sum, understood to be $15 million (then worth around £12 million), to settle a civil sexual assault lawsuit in 2022.
According to The Sun around £7 million came from the late Queen as a “loan”, with a further £3 million from the estate of his father Prince Philip. A further £1.5 million was reportedly contributed by other members of the royal family. It is understood, however, that the King did not contribute.
It is understood that private funds from the royal family were paid to help Andrew with the payout because they believed he was innocent of all the accusations. He has always denied wrongdoing. He would also have had to find a substantial sum on top of the settlement to cover his legal bills.
Details of the figure paid and how Andrew funded the settlement have never been revealed by the palace.
Last night courtiers also refused to confirm whether or not an internal Buckingham Palace inquiry had begun into Andrew’s friendship with the convicted paedophile for fear of prejudicing a potential police inquiry.
Until last year, the King was giving Andrew a multimillion-pound allowance to help fund his lifestyle and the estimated annual security bill of £3 million required after his police protection was removed by the Home Office. When Andrew refused to move out of Royal Lodge last year, however, the King cut Andrew off financially.
For what it’s worth, I would believe either story – it sounds reasonable to me that Charles would have contributed a few million pounds to the settlement, just as it sounds reasonable that QEII would have simply given Andrew the money from her Duchy of Lancaster funds. What’s going unsaid – and I cannot believe that the British press refuses to point this out – is that Charles “got” something for signing off on Andrew’s settlement. There was a clear quid pro quo involved between Charles, QEII and Andrew: Andrew no longer had the court case around his neck, and Charles got QEII’s sign-off on “Queen Consort Camilla” at long last. Even if Charles didn’t directly contribute to the settlement, he still had to sign off on it, and that was his price: QEII declaring that Camilla should be called “queen” instead of “princess consort.” Still, the real question is… who dropped that story to the Sun?
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- 166873, Charles, Prince of Wales and Duke of York at the funeral of Countess Mountbatten of Burma at St.Paul’s church in Knightsbridge. London, United Kingdom – Tuesday June 27, 2017. UK, FRANCE, AUS, NZ, CHINA, HONG KONG, TAIWAN, SPAIN & ITALY OUT Photograph: © Stephen Lock, i-Images, PacificCoastNews. Los Angeles Office (PCN): +1 310.822.0419 UK Office (Avalon): +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 sales@pacificcoastnews.com FEE MUST BE AGREED PRIOR TO USAGE,Image: 533054254, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: i-Images, PacificCoastNews / Avalon
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- Britain’s King Charles III (front R), Britain’s Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and Britain’s Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex arrive to mount a vigil around the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard with the Imperial State Crown and the Sovereign’s orb and sceptre, lying in state on the catafalque in Westminster Hall, at the Palace of Westminster in London on September 16, 2022, ahead of her funeral on Monday. – Queen Elizabeth II will lie in state in Westminster Hall inside the Palace of Westminster, until 0530 GMT on September 19, a few hours before her funeral, with huge queues expected to file past her coffin to pay their respects.,Image: 723508432, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: DANIEL LEAL / Avalon
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- King Charles III, Prince Harry, Camilla Queen Consort, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward and Sophie Countess of Wessex The State Funeral of Her Majesty The Queen, Gun Carriage Procession, Wellington Roundabout, London, UK – 19 Sep 2022,Image: 724207123, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Anthony Harvey/Shutterstock / Avalon
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- King Charles , The Queen Consort, Princess Anne and Prince Andrew attend the Easter Sunday Service in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.,Image: 768362206, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: -, Model Release: no, Credit line: David Dyson / Avalon
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- King Charles III during a reception at St James’s Palace in London, to celebrate the return of HMS Prince of Wales from an eight-month deployment with the Carrier Strike Group (CSG25), known as Operation Highmast. Picture date: Thursday December 18, 2025.,Image: 1060230416, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Aaron Chown/Avalon
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- Death Of HM Queen Elizabeth II: Procession Of Queen Elizabeth’s Coffin To St Giles Cathedral King Charles III, the Princess Royal and the Duke of York walk behind Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin during the procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh. Featuring: King Charles III, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew Where: Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom When: 12 Sep 2022 Credit: Phil Noble/PA Images/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images **North America Rights Only**
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- Royals head to Easter Mattins Service at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. Featuring: Camilla Queen Consort, King Charles III, Anne, Princess Royal, Prince Andrew, Duke of York Where: Windsor, Berkshire, United Kingdom When: 09 Apr 2023 Credit: Yui Mok/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Members of the British Royal family attend the Easter Mattins Service at Windsor Castlle Featuring: Camilla, Queen Consort, King Charles III and Prince Andrew, Duke of York Where: Windsor, United Kingdom When: 09 Apr 2023 Credit: Cover Images
I think they should go back to being silent. someone obviously thought it was a good idea to try and show Andrew up as being a liar and not paying his debts, but by saying they had a whip round and even went as far as grave robbing no one came out looking good lol
Andrew has no legitimate way to raise funds. No one expected him to pay back the “loan.”
There needs to be a Parliamentary Inquiry. Other countries are conducting inquiries. Britain is the only western country with senior establishment officials named in the Epstein files that is evading a Parliamentary Inquiry to investigate Prince Andrew’s conduct and the impact of his involvement on British institutions. 🤷🏽♀️
The Monarchy and the Royal institution are publicly funded. They should be accountable to the public but more and more we are witnessing them cover up and protect Prince Andrew. They have been doing it for years. Where did the £12m come from? Leaking contradictions in tabloid newspapers makes them look even more suspicious and raises more questions than provide answers.
While Congress is trying to investigate, the Trump administration is actively working to cover up Epstein’s connections to Trump and other high ranking government officials.
It was fairly obvious that the mistress turned wife’s title upgrade was tied into the payout and court settlement.. so he was involved even if the funds didn’t come from his account. He isn’t some innocent bystander.
For me the “quid pro quo involved between Charles, QEII and Andrew” wasn’t about Camilla but about Andrew keeping his silence for everything he knows….they are always afraid of someone spilling the beans.. that’s the reason Charles paid for Andrew’s security , while he refused everything to Harry for telling the truth (mild truth, I’m sure there are much more he could write but he didn’t by respect to the late Queen).
Yeah, same, the bigger issue to me, is that, whether he helped with the settlement or not, he gave Andrew a yearly allowance up until last year. Plus 3m a year in security!!! Meanwhile he cut Harry off right away, putting Archie and Meghan and the whole family in danger. So he could give the accused pedophile security for years but couldn’t stick to the agreement to help his kid with security for just the first year. It’s a bad bad look.
And this is exactly why the public is now asking for blood when it comes to Andrew, it’s because they treated Harry so badly. The chickens are coming home to roost 🙁
“Source close to the king” eh? What is it with the British royals and the persistent need to have plausible deniability in communications? They all HAVE official communications officers, PR people, private secretaries. And YET, unlike the communications staff of other royal households (in other countries), we seldom hear directly from them, with their names and titles attached. Even when they DO communicate with reporters (and let’s face it, they do that to provide talking points every single day), they insist on being called something, anything other than what they are. Didn’t the NYT once out William and Kate’s spokesman when he was insisting on being credited as a source instead of as their staff?
H pointed out quite shrewdly how the game is played, that reporters tended to write articles then claim at the bottom that BP or KP “declined to comment” when “the entire article was the palace commenting”. Similarly, all these “sources close to-” are either the principals themselves or their secretaries or their heads of communications. Why take a job as communications person, yet hide your name when you are actually doing what you are paid to do: communicate on behalf of your boss(es), in this case, to “correct the record”??? Madness.
Yes, the NYT named their spokesperson which is standard after the spokesperson briefed the press about the Hussey incident prior to the Boston Earthshot, and outed them for having insisted that they not be properly identified.
Whether he did or didn’t he was still supporting him with money and security and protecting him from investigations. Do I believe he got the Queen to let him call Horsilla Queen consort? Yes he did whether by contribution to the payoff or just signing off on the deal.
It was probably Angry Bill who gave the story to the Sun and oh boy those two really hate each other. The royalist media can’t even be bothered to focus on Harry and Meghan these days when the battle between the KC and his heir is so vicious.
Looking at how this is worded – I wonder if Charles didn’t pay towards the settlement but covered the legal fees. And maybe that was part of the deal with his mother – you pay the settlement, I’ll pay the legal fees, and Camilla is Queen.
Also I think I think we need to remember that the monarch doesn’t just have money from the duchy of Lancaster. The Panama papers reminded us that there are accounts which are off shore and untraceable. I suspect Charles has something similar outside of the duchy of Cornwall.
At the end of the day I doubt any of the numbers in the Sun article are real because no one is writing this down to document how a legal settlement is funded. We don’t even really know the ultimate amount because that settlement is confidential, as most settlements tend to be.
William’s crisis manager was trying to divert attention for that torture loving sultan providing funds directly to Earthshot. Charles has now fired back.
But there is Camilla somewhere and she may use her knowledge of what really went on in late 2023 early 2024.
This perhaps also explains why, despite all indications, Charles suddenly and unexpectedly created William Prince of Wales immediately after the queen’s death, instead of making him wait to… earn it? I know that an argument could be made that he was trying to stymie Welsh efforts to abolish the title, but that would have been best served by waiting for a bit until sentiments had died down (and William proved himself to be a deserving candidate considering Charles’s work record) before “elevating” William even more, as it were. Those backstabbing, backroom-dealing courtiers have indeed been busy. Very busy.
This could get messy – William apparently didn’t enjoy his big trip to Saudi Arabia being criticized and his pet project being outed as a corrupt green washing machine funded by Epstein associates. So, in a classic “whataboutism” he is trying to redirect some ire back on his father and other senior royals who paid for Andrew’s settlement. A bold strategy – let’s see how it pans out for him!
I don’t believe this. Yes the Royal Family uses the Times to deny reports but their denials are not always truthful. I believe Charles did help with the settlement.
You would think that Parliament would want to ensure that none of the money came from the public purse.
But then I live in the United States and no one here is being held accountable for Epstein associations. It’s maddening as hell that I’m hoping Trump and Co. get outed by a foreign government’s investigation.
The palace says Mr. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor [formerly Prince Andrew] must now help the Police with this dreadful business.
Also the royal family says:
All OUR documents of Prince Andrew’s flights, finances, PR strategies, advice, records of visits, emails, reports of royal protection bodyguards WILL BE KEPT SECRET FOREVER.
The British public is being hoodwinked. 😏
If they are planning to keep those documents hidden it just means that the BRF is a huge part of the Epstein trafficking and espionage operation. They need to keep their crimes hidden and I’m sure more BRF members than just AMW are involved.
I thought when this was first reported before the jubilee that Charles was contributing to the payout. I’ve always thought Charles gave Andrew money for this.
“It is understood “ that this “correction “ is a load of crap