Prince Andrew ‘is feeling relatively chipper’, plans on making a comeback

One of the things that The Crown demonstrates so well is that Queen Elizabeth’s first instinct is usually to do nothing. Her second instinct is usually the wrong one, to do the exact opposite of what she should do. It’s like it never occurred to her during her reign to demonstrate leadership within her family or within her country. I bring this up because Prince Andrew is his mother’s son and he seems to have the exact same tone-deaf instincts. Andrew’s friends and allies are briefing the media to say that Andrew is quite “chipper” following his settlement with Virginia Giuffre, and that he’s still focused on eventually “coming back” to a public role:

Sarah Ferguson was pictured in Windsor today as a friend revealed Prince Andrew is feeling ‘relatively chipper’ and ‘relieved’ after his mother the Queen ‘personally’ covered £2million of his £12m sex case pay off. Fergie wore a glum expression as she sat in the back seat of her Range Rover while being driven through Windsor Great Park, where she still lives with the Duke of York at the Royal Lodge.

It came as one of Andrew’s friends revealed his thoughts are now turning to the future and even a possible public role – despite this being a vanishingly unlikely prospect given his reputation will now be forever tarnished by his decision to settle. The 61-year-old has previously shown himself impervious to public outrage over his behaviour, even reportedly considering his disastrous Newsnight interview as a success.

‘He is feeling relatively chipper, under the circumstances,’ a friend told the Telegraph, summing up his current state of mind. ‘You can understand the level of personal relief involved.’

[From The Daily Mail]

I said this in a previous post, but all of the talk about Andrew “coming back” and whether that should happen, the start point is not the royal commentary class. The royal commentators are desperately trying to tell the palace to slow their roll and take this seriously, that of course there will be no way back for Andrew. It’s Andrew, the Queen and the palace courtiers circulating stories about how he could eventually come back into public life. As for Andrew feeling chipper… I mean, the dude paid off his rape victim with money he was given by his mummy. He clearly has no shame, nor will he ever face any real repercussions.

The anti-monarchy group Republic has been all over this story, and they’re demanding a full accounting of where the money is coming from. Good luck with that!

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid and WENN.