Prince William’s three-day trip to Saudi Arabia has drawn mixed reactions, even from William’s loyalists and the royalist press. He had royal reporters traveling with him for the trip, and they sounded bored as hell. The Times even asked “William of Arabia?” and there was some mild criticism (for British standards) of William’s meetings with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, aka Prince Bonesaw. It didn’t help that during William’s Saudi trip, his multiple connections to Jeffrey Epstein were front and center. MBS was tight with Jeffrey Epstein, and William is also close to an Emirate sultan who sent a torture video to Epstein. The sultan’s company, DP World, is a founding partner and contributor to William’s busywork project, Earthshot. Still, British royalists have mostly pulled their punches. But the Daily Mail’s Jan Moir just ripped into William in a new column. Someone’s about to get a furious call from Kensington Palace!

What the hell was Prince William doing in Saudi Arabia, scruffy in his suede boots and open-necked shirt, his lemon-faced presence giving legitimacy to one of the most repressive regimes on the planet? He loped about at the side of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman like a puppy, despite being aware that he was with a leader known for his authoritarianism and suppression of women’s rights activists, a man who is no stranger to controversy. It is no secret that MBS was implicated in the murder of exiled Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 but he – in the words of the phrase we have come to know so well in these scabrous times – denies any wrongdoing.

You can hardly blame William. He was there at the request of the British government, acting as a soft power ambassador to strengthen UK ties with one of our key allies in the Middle East. Such royal visits are the realpolitik of the diplomatic world and at least prove that the Windsors still have a value and purpose on the world stage – but for how much longer?

Speaking of shams, during his three-day visit to Saudi the Prince of Wales ignored repeated questions from reporters about the allegations surrounding Jeffrey Epstein and his links to William’s fetid uncle, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

However, he won’t be able to keep up his trademark irritated silence for much longer, given that he has now been dragged into the Epstein abyss himself.

For it has come to light that Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem – another generous benefactor, a man who donated over £1million to William’s Earthshot Prize charity in 2022 – is also implicated in the Epstein scandal. The Emirati billionaire and chief executive of DP World – a company which controls 10 per cent of global container traffic – was a big pal of Epstein’s. In April 2009 the men were in cosy email contact when Epstein was still serving his 18-month sentence in a Palm Beach jail but allowed out on ‘work release’. This is how it went. Jeffrey emails his pal Ahmed: ‘Where are you? Are you ok, I loved the torture video.’ The torture video! How sickening. Both men also shared sex messages.

Is this just another example of the Royal Family not asking too many questions when delicious, fat cheques are waved under their noses? Or does it illustrate the incredible reach and stealthy influence of Epstein’s carefully cultivated web of rich and powerful contacts, the depth of which is only just becoming evident?

What is undeniable is that despite his ongoing diffidence, Prince William now has questions to answer about what he knew about Andrew and Epstein and what he knew about Sulayem and Epstein. It is a development that highlights the great Windsor faultline, the fracture at the heart of the monarchy which is the Royal Family and their abusive relationship with money – other people’s money.

[From The Daily Mail]

Well well how the turntables!! As I’ve said before, William falling face first into the Epstein scandal wasn’t anything I could have predicted. There’s a sense of “if I go down, I’m taking you down with me” in the Windsor clan these days, right? There’s a steady drumbeat of terrible news and pressing questions about and for King Charles and Prince Andrew, and they’re making sure that the dipsh-t heir is in it too. It’s also sort of hysterical to think that this Saudi trip was supposed to be yet another setpiece in William’s “I wanna be a global statesman, king of handshakes” keenery. And just like everything else, it’s blown up in his face.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.