Prince Andrew arrived in Balmoral last week with ‘flunkies in tow’

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Prince Andrew apparently traveled to Scotland last week. Andrew likes it at Balmoral, and since he has absolutely nothing to do these days, he’s probably looking forward to a lengthy stay with his mother. According to Richard Eden’s Eden Confidential column, he arrived last Wednesday:

Barely has the royal standard been raised at Balmoral to mark the Queen’s arrival than Prince Andrew has joined her at the castle. I hear the Duke arrived by car on Wednesday, flunkies in tow. No doubt, his ex-wife will soon follow.

[From Richard Eden’s column]

Which flunkies though? He brought staff? Or is Eden referring to Andrew’s royal protection officers, which Ravec reviewed recently and decided that Andrew should keep? I doubt anyone would refer to Andrew’s royal protection officers as “flunkies,” which means Andrew brought staff to Balmoral. And how does he still have staff?

Meanwhile, as we discussed a few weeks back, there is a book out about Prince Andrew’s infamous 2019 BBC Newsnight interview. The book, Scoop, has already been optioned for a movie. Now it looks like a second movie is going to be made about the same interview? And Andrew is very upset about all of it.

Royal sources have complained of fears that ‘unwelcome’ rival bids to dramatise the duke’s Newsnight interview could bend the truth. Palace staff said the ‘feeding frenzy’ to claim credit for the BBC’s blockbuster scoop in 2019 is set to produce new accounts that may claim ‘dramatic licence’.

Producer Sam McAlister last month published Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews, which in part told the story of how the interview with Prince Andrew was secured and offered details of the day itself. That chapter will become a blockbuster film, titled Scoop, set to film later this year.

Meanwhile Emily Maitlis last week announced her own scripted version of the infamous interview. Blueprint Pictures, the producers behind a Very British Scandal and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel films, are said to have bought the rights to Maitlis’s story before McAlister teamed up with Moffat.

A friend of the duke told The Times: ‘This latest exploitation for financial gain of a book and now a film of what was, and remains, a very difficult time for the family, is unwelcome. Not least as the account of events leading up to and around the interview appear to have elements of dramatic licence.’

Controversially, sources close to Andrew claim McAlister’s book made a factual error, prompting additional fears about ‘dramatic licence in the retelling’.

In Scoops, McAlister claimed that the Duke was left almost alone by senior staff. She wrote: ‘No lawyers, no other royal staff. I’d expected a swarm of people to oversee it all. A tall white man comes into the room to say hello. He’s introduced as Donal McCabe, “communications secretary to the Queen” … After speaking to a couple of people, he leaves.’

But royal sources told the newspaper McCabe stayed in the room throughout the interview – and even recorded it. Asked about the clashing versions of events, McAlister told The Times: ‘If it’s conceivable that he was there and I didn’t see him, then they are not mutually exclusive.’

[From The Daily Mail]

Imagine Prince Andrew – Air Miles Andy, the BFF of Jeffrey Epstein – getting huffy about “exploitation for financial gain.” Women have literally spoken about how Andrew exploited them. Andrew exploited his own royal status for financial gain throughout his life. As for the whole “dramatic license” BS – I’m not sure the Queen’s staff want to actually own up to how much they knew about the interview as it happened, especially since it was a complete disaster and it took days for the Queen to actually understand that.

Photos courtesy of Instar, BBC screencap.

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