Source: Radio New Zealand
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was stripped of his “prince” title in October, 2025, due to his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. AFP/ PAUL FAITH
The former prince hardly received the royal treatment last week as he was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office, but an insider says the House of Windsor will do what it always does – keep calm and carry on
The news of his arrest last week echoed around the world, a prince’s public life imploding in real time, and the aftershocks are still rattling the monarchy.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s dramatic fall from public life has become one of the most damaging royal scandals in modern history.
The Detail talks to royal commentator Dickie Arbiter, who was formerly the press secretary to both the late Queen Elizabeth and to King Charles (when he was the Prince of Wales), about the arrest, the response, the fallout, and why Andrew has been targeted, while other alleged high-profile offenders continue to live large.
“It’s very unusual, the last time a royal was taken into custody was about 1647, when Charles I was arrested and then he had his head chopped off about two years later,” Arbiter tells The Detail. “So, it is extremely rare.”
Once a war veteran and senior working royal with global trade roles and front-row status at state events, Andrew was forced to step back after his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein sparked international outrage.
The crisis intensified after civil allegations from now-deceased Virginia Giuffre, which Andrew has always denied, but which culminated in a costly out-of-court settlement that effectively ended any hope of a public comeback.
More recently, his titles have been stripped, his military affiliations removed, and he was pushed out of official duties – an extraordinary step rarely seen in royal history.
Last month, he was also forced out of his palatial home; now this month, the arrest and 11 hours in police custody.
“Andrew hasn’t responded at all … nobody has seen him,” says Arbiter, who says police aren’t releasing any information about the allegations while Andrew is being investigated.
“There are a lot of documents to go through, and they [police] are going to be going through them forensically.”
He says the arrest and allegations stem from Andrew’s job as a trade ambassador.
“When he came out of the Navy in 2001, a job had to be found for him, and he was given the job of trade ambassador international, part of the Department of Trade and Industry – a job that had been done for 20 years by the Duke of Kent … he did it for those 20 years without an inch of scandal at all. He did an extremely good job.
“Andrew seemed to have gone off the rails. Being the man that he is, or was – arrogant, bombastic, rude, you name it, he’s it, and he took advantage of the whole scenario, and he travelled globally, a lot of it on behalf of the British government to ostensibly sell British trade abroad.
“How much and how successful he was is still being asked. But he was taking advantage, and he was meeting all sorts of dodgy people, and within that meeting of dodgy people, somewhere along the lines, between 2008 and 2010, he was actually handing over – they are calling them sensitive, they are calling them secret, I prefer to use the word confidential, without knowing the full extent of the documents – but documents for his eyes, and nobody else’s eyes, and certainly not Jeffrey Epstein’s eyes.
“So, that is part of the whole concept of misconduct in public office.”
He noted that while Andrew has been “hauled across the coals,” former cabinet minister and ex-British ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson, who has also been accused of misconduct in public office, “seems to be lying low at the moment, and nothing is going on there, except police taking away boxes of paperwork, over a week ago. So, it looks like Andrew is the one who is being nailed at the moment.”
Arbiter believes Andrew will be removed from the line of succession – he currently remains eighth in line to the throne, and the change will require new legislation.
He says the government is considering any further steps that may be required, and nothing is being ruled out.
Arbiter also believes Andrew’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, has long been involved and knows what has been going on.
“How involved? Up to her armpits, quite frankly. She’s the one who was taking money all the time.”
But he feels for their children, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.
“They are the daughters of two very unsavoury people. They are lying low as well. It is very difficult for them, but it is probably more so difficult for their respective husbands, who are in businesses and yet tarred by the same brush.”
Despite the headline-grabbing scandal and public fallout, Arbiter believes the monarchy will survive as an institution.
“They are a family, and one of their own is a rotten apple; it doesn’t mean to say the whole basket is rotten.
“The family has been dented, but the family is carrying on. And the monarchy has taken a knock, and the monarchy will carry on, and the monarchy will survive.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand