The photograph of Prince Andrew with his arm around Virginia Giuffre, while Ghislaine Maxwell stands grinning in the background, has become one of the most consequential images of a royal family member. Taken at a party at Maxwell's London home in 2001, it made Giuffre's allegations of being trafficked as a teenager to have sex with the prince impossible to deny convincingly.
Andrew's behaviour has long been marked by entitlement, from extravagant spending—such as taking a helicopter from Buckingham Palace to an Oxfordshire golf course and back for lunch, earning him the nickname 'Airmiles Andy'—to demanding deference in his presence. Despite Queen Elizabeth stripping him of public duties after his disastrous 2019 Newsnight interview, which he thought had gone well, he continued to appear at public events, including the Duchess of Kent's funeral in September, where he attempted to converse with a visibly uncomfortable Prince William.
Recent publications, including Andrew Lownie's book 'Entitled' and Giuffre's posthumous memoir 'Nobody's Girl', have provided further grim details of his conduct and his association with convicted sex offenders Jeffrey Epstein and Maxwell. The palace's response—ceasing use of his titles without formally removing them and without acknowledging fault—has proved insufficient.
The scandal, which has unfolded over 15 years, has left Andrew isolated, with no public figures willing to defend him. The monarchy now faces the imperative of passing on intact and untarnished, a challenge compounded by Andrew's unrelenting sense of entitlement.
