Prince Andrew was forced to step down as a working Royal in May 2020 after the sexual abuse case was filed against him by Virginia Guiffre. He was stripped of his royal patronages and his honorary military affiliations.
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Since then, Royal experts believe that the disgraced Duke is trying to make a comeback. It is believed that the late Queen Elizabeth wanted her son to take on charity work to help repair his image.
Now that Charles is King, it is he who gets to decide whether or not his brother can come back to public life. However, King Charles seems set to keep Andrew away from the public, going so far as to allegedly kick him out of Royal Lodge.
Prince Andrew may be trying to make a comeback
Russel Myers, host of Pod Save The King podcast, explained that the Duke of York tried to take a central role in the Royal Family outing at Easter. Indeed according to Myers, Andrew was making himself seen as he walked right behind King Charles and Queen Camilla:
[He] got himself up the chain of people walking to church — which he wasn't necessarily doing when the late Queen was here — but certainly, he was striding behind the King and Queen Consort, alongside his sister
He suggested that this could mean that the Duke of York might make his presence at the coronation more known. Prince Andrew will attend his brother’s coronation alongside his two daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie. However, as none of them are working Royals, they will not appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace.
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Is Prince Andrew reworking his image?
On the podcast, Myers also noted that Prince Andrew’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, has been mentioning the Duke a lot during her interviews promoting her latest book.
Sarah Ferguson has released a new book and has been doing a ‘big PR round for her book’ and on several occasions, she has mentioned her ex-husband, who she still lives with. During one of the interviews, Fergie called Prince Andrew a ‘good man’ and ‘an honest person’.
Myers believes this is an attempt to rehabilitate Prince Andrew’s image.
He [Andrew] does see himself as a young man who has a lot of life to live. He’s only 63. And certainly, he doesn't want to retire and even if he does retire, what's he going to do?
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Sources used:
Express: ‘Prince Andrew 'will take opportunity at Coronation' as Duke wants to make comeback’