Prince Andrew Questions Follow King Charles As Palace Trust Row Grows
Just when the royal family thought the Andrew chapter was finally closing, it has swung wide open again. Prince Andrew questions are reportedly piling up at the door of King Charles, after a well-known royal author publicly urged the Palace to stop staying silent and start giving the public straight answers if it wants to win back trust.
The call has come from Andrew Lownie, the royal writer behind the book Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York. According to reports, Lownie believes the family has never properly explained some of the biggest decisions taken around Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and he claims that silence is now doing real damage to the monarchy itself.
At the centre of his argument sits one very expensive question. Lownie has reportedly asked who actually paid for Andrew’s reported £12 million settlement with Virginia Giuffre, the woman who accused Andrew of sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager. Andrew has always strongly denied those accusations, and the settlement, reached in 2022, was made without any admission of liability on his part. But the money question, Lownie suggests, was never answered in public.
According to the reports, Lownie said his own sources, along with a report in The Sun, suggested the settlement money came from Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles. The Palace, he noted, denied that account. And that, in his view, is exactly the problem: a denial without a clear explanation simply leaves the public guessing, and guessing is where rumours grow.
The timing of these comments is no accident. They arrived only days after Andrew won a legal challenge over police searches of his royal homes, with police accepting that the search warrants were unlawful. A London court must reportedly still decide whether officers can keep the items taken during those searches, and both the judge and the police have stressed that the wider investigation remains ongoing.
To understand why this matters so much, it helps to remember how far Andrew has already fallen. Once one of the most visible working royals, he stepped back from public duties after his widely criticised 2019 television interview about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender. Then, last year, King Charles removed Andrew’s remaining royal titles, including the title of prince itself, and Andrew left Royal Lodge, the Windsor home where he had lived for around 20 years.
Lownie’s message, as reported, boils down to three simple questions that he says the public keeps asking. What did the royal family know about Andrew? When did they know it? And what did they do about it? Until those questions are answered openly, he argues, confidence in the monarchy will keep taking quiet hits.
He is not the only voice pushing in that direction. Republic, the campaign group that wants to end the monarchy, backed his comments and claimed on social media that the royals had prevented Parliament from properly holding them accountable. Supporters of the King would no doubt answer that the Palace has already acted more firmly than many expected, pointing to the removed titles and the loss of Royal Lodge as proof that consequences were real.
And that is the tightrope King Charles now has to walk. His whole reign has been built on the image of a slimmer, more modern, more trusted monarchy. Defenders say answering every question about his brother would keep the scandal alive forever. Critics say the questions are not going away either way, so honesty is the only route back to trust. For now, the Palace has reportedly offered no fresh response to Lownie’s challenge.
What happens next may depend on the courts as much as the Palace. With a decision still pending on the seized items and an investigation described as ongoing, Andrew’s name is unlikely to leave the headlines soon. And every fresh headline, royal watchers say, will bring the same Prince Andrew questions back to King Charles, louder than before.
Royal commentators say the Palace has stood at this exact crossroads before, and history offers it little comfort. When hard questions around a royal scandal are left to drift, they rarely fade away. They gather. Lownie, who spent years researching the York family for his book, is presented by his supporters as a man asking the awkward questions early rather than late. Whether the Palace agrees with him or not, his intervention has dragged the settlement money, and what the family knew about the whole Andrew affair, back into open debate. That is precisely the conversation the King had been hoping to leave behind.
Key Takeaways
Royal author Andrew Lownie has reportedly urged the royal family to answer open questions about Andrew to rebuild public trust.
The biggest unanswered question, he claims, is who paid for Andrew’s reported £12 million settlement with Virginia Giuffre.
Lownie reportedly suggested the money came from Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles, an account the Palace denied.
His comments came days after Andrew won a legal challenge over police searches of his homes, with warrants accepted as unlawful.
King Charles removed Andrew’s titles last year, including the title of prince, and Andrew left Royal Lodge after about 20 years.
Andrew has consistently denied wrongdoing, and the investigation connected to the searches is still described as ongoing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Who is urging King Charles to answer Prince Andrew questions?
A: Royal author Andrew Lownie, who wrote a book about the House of York, has reportedly said the family must answer questions about Andrew if it wants to rebuild public trust.
Q: What is the main question Lownie wants answered?
A: He reportedly wants to know who paid for Andrew’s reported £12 million settlement with Virginia Giuffre, claiming the public was never given a clear explanation.
Q: Has the Palace responded to the claims about the settlement money?
A: According to reports, the Palace denied the suggestion that the money came from Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles, but no fuller explanation has been reported.
Q: What has already happened to Andrew?
A: King Charles removed his royal titles last year, including the title of prince, and Andrew had to leave Royal Lodge, his home of around 20 years. He has consistently denied wrongdoing.
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