Prince William and his father are at odds over whether to banish Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew over their friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, a royal source has told the Daily Mail.
King Charles doesn’t want to completely disown the Duchess of York and his brother because both are loyal to him and the Crown – unlike Harry and Meghan.
The monarch is facing huge pressure to expunge Fergie over the grovelling messages she sent to her ‘supreme friend’ Jeffrey Epstein.
So far seven charities publicly severed their partnerships with the Duchess of York in 24 hours, with others still reviewing their positions.
However, for now, Charles is said to not want to cut all ties to reflect their loyalty, ensure his sister-in-law doesn’t go rogue like the Sussexes and respect the wishes of his late mother the Queen.
But the more hardline Prince of Wales considers his uncle and aunt to be ‘pair of chancers’ and had enough of them long before the Duchess of York’s latest scandal.
‘His face as he stood next to Andrew at the Duchess of Kent’s funeral said it all’, an insider said.
‘William feels even more strongly than the King that Andrew and Fergie are an embarrassment and will be urging his father to act’, the source claimed.
‘The optics of that pair of chancers guffawing away [at events] look terrible’.
Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, has been engulfed by scandal again with the King under huge pressure to expunge her for good like so many charities have over Epstein and her calling him her ‘supreme friend’
Charles and William are said to have differing views on how to handle to Prince Andrew and his ex-wife with the Prince of Wales likely to be ‘urging’ his father to take the chance to cut them loose (pictured together at the funeral of the Duchess of Kent last week
Charles will likely immediately ban the divorced couple from appearing in public with the Royal Family at events such as Christmas. He may also finally evict them from Royal Lodge, their Windsor mansion, which William is said to be demanding as a minimum.
‘The difference between the Yorks and the Sussexes is that Andrew and Fergie have never publicly criticised the monarchy or the King. Andrew’s friends say that even in private they’ve never heard him say a bad word about his brother’, the Mail’s royal source said.
‘The King doesn’t want to cut ties with his brother, former sister-in-law and that side of the family. The late Queen, conscious that Fergie was the mother of her granddaughters, always took that view, even if Prince Philip couldn’t bear to be in the same room as Sarah’.
But the monarch faces a battle with Prince William who will be ‘urging’ his father to take the chance to cut them loose and kick them out of their 30-bedroom home close to Windsor Castle.
William has his eye on the future of the Royal Family and for the good of the family they must never be seen at events again, the Mail’s insider has said.
The Prince of Wales is said to want them out of the Royal Lodge to fend for themselves. Andrew has reportedly refused to move to the much smaller Frogmore Cottage.
The royal source has suggested the Palace may advise Sarah Ferguson to do a mea culpa interview – but nothing like Andrew’s disastrous Newsnight grilling that heaped more shame on him an his family.
‘I think there’s plenty more to come out yet about Epstein and Andrew. Perhaps the Royal Household should be thinking about pre-empting it all by coming clean?’, the source said.
‘The Duchess of York can be extraordinarily charming. So I’m sure she will be backpedalling furiously. But this latest scandal threatens her ability to earn money as well as her charity patronages. Who can say what effect that will have on the Yorks’ ability to afford the costs of staying at Royal Lodge, where they live at opposite ends of the (30-room) house?’
Sarah, Duchess of York, is glimpsed in the back of a Range Rover as she is driven from Royal Lodge at Windsor on Monday
In emails revealed by The Mail on Sunday this weekend, she described Epstein as a ‘supreme friend’ and ‘humbly’ apologised for an interview in which she disowned him after a £15,000 loan he gave her came to light.
Astonishingly, she told Epstein she only tried to distance herself from him to save her reputation and work as a children’s author.
