London: Queen Elizabeth was welcomed back to her beloved Scottish estate, Balmoral Castle, for her annual summer residency with a ceremony complete with an honor guard and a Shetland pony. The trip should have been a chance for the monarch to decompress after a difficult year that saw the death of her husband, Prince Philip, and spend time with her loved ones, who routinely visit the remote Victorian estate in Scotland’s Dee Valley.
Instead, less than 24 hours into the vacation, Britain’s royal family was dragged back into crisis as it emerged Prince Andrew was being sued in New York by a woman who alleges she was sexually abused by the senior royal when she was 17.
This is not the first time a member of the family has faced legal action, CNN historian and royal expert Kate Williams says. She points out that Prince Charles was sued by a law student in 1978 following an appearance in Ohio. The student sued for alleged deprivation of “various rights guaranteed by the (US) Constitution,” (though the case did not progress). And in 2002, Princess Anne became the first member of the royal family to be convicted of a criminal offense, pleading guilty to a charge when her dog bit two children in a park. But those cases pale in comparison with allegations of sexual assault of a minor.
Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s claims are not new but this is the first time she has pursued a civil case against the ninth in line to the British throne, seeking damages in an amount to be determined at trial. A representative for the duke’s legal team declined to comment on the fresh litigation on Tuesday, as did Buckingham Palace.
Traditionally, the royal family has adopted the mantra of “never complain, never explain.” But that crisis management strategy of silence may not suffice this time.
Over the years, Andrew has become a recurring character in the Jeffrey Epstein saga. Back in 2019, he sat down with the BBC to answer questions about his links to the late disgraced financier and strenuously denied Giuffre’s allegations, saying unequivocally “it never happened.” These remarks led to a PR crisis of his own making.
That interview, conducted on palace grounds, ignited a firestorm after Andrew’s apparent lack of sympathy for Epstein’s alleged victims. The disastrous sit-down resulted in the prince’s effective exile from royal duties. In a statement at the time, Andrew said he was stepping back “for the foreseeable future” and promised “to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required.” In the years since, Andrew has mostly stayed away from the public eye, choosing to hole up at his Royal Lodge property at Windsor.
Despite his public vow to aid officials investigating the alleged sex ring once operated by Epstein and his associates, US officials say otherwise. In January 2020, the then-US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey Berman, called out the prince, saying he had “provided zero cooperation.” Giuffre’s lawyers also say Andrew’s legal team have been “stonewalling” their efforts for information over the past year, leaving litigation the only course of action — which brings us to where we are today. CNN
