Princess Anne is known for her sharp and witty retorts, and she expertly avoided an awkward personal question about her brother Andrew Mountbatten Windsor this week.
The former prince has been sensationally stripped of his titles and told to vacate his home of Royal Lodge by King Charles after fresh revelations about his association with Jeffrey Epstein came to light. Andrew vehemently denies all claims against him.
The spotlight has been very much on the royal family and the headache isn’t over, as Andrew has now been summoned by US congress to explain his links to the late billionaire paedophile Epstein.
But the Princess Royal dealt with the issue in her typically matter-of-fact way when she was asked about her sibling during her visit to Australia. The exchange took place at a garden party marking the centenary of the Royal Australian Signal Corps, where the Anne met numerous military personnel.
Princess Anne expertly dodged a question about her disgraced younger brother, Andrew(Image: ©Francis Dias/Newspix International)
James Thorpe, who heads the Royal Australian Regiment Association, initiated the conversation by mentioning his previous encounter with her younger sibling. Upon being told by James that he had previously encountered her “brother”, Anne promptly responded: “Which one? I have three.”
The quick retort enabled the 75-year-old royal to avoid discussing Andrew, whose name has become a source of shame for the royals. Princess Anne’s Australian visit continues until 11 November, before she heads to Singapore for a two-day visit marking 60 years of diplomatic relations between the nation and the UK. The Princess is accompanied on her visit by her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence.
The pair will then return to the UK in time for Anne to present the Merchant Navy Medal for Meritorious Service on 18 November, before a dinner at the The Royal Academy of Engineering that evening.
It comes after Princess Beatrice made her first public charity appearance since her father was stripped of his titles. On Monday, Beatrice toured the Borne research laboratories at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, where she gave birth to her youngest child Athena several weeks prematurely in January.
A biographer has warned there are more stories to come about the disgraced ex-Prince(Image: PA)
Meanwhile, the author of a damning Andrew Mountbatten Windsor biography has warned that there are potentially many more stories to come about the former prince. Andrew Lownie sent shockwaves through the royal sphere earlier this year with his release of Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York and has continued to share a number of explosive allegations surrounding the disgraced royal.
Since the dramatic loss of Andrew’s honours and titles, the biographer claims many more people have been willing to come forward and tell their own stories of working with Andrew. Speaking exclusively to the Reach PLC, he said: “I’m hearing from protection officers, diplomats, people in the Navy. I’m getting two or three people a day.”
Both Andrew and ex-wife Sarah will soon need to evict Royal Lodge(Image: Getty Images)
He says that there have been so many new revelations that he’s not only working on a new, expanded edition of his bombshell exposé, but he now has enough material for a second volume. He explained: “I also have plans to do a sequel called Untitled … I’ve just got so much new material from people coming forward.”
Several of Andrew’s previously-anonymous stories are now stepping out into the light. “A lot of people who were off the record for going on the record for the paperback – it’s suddenly opened the floodgates,” the author further claimed.
He added that people who might in the past have remained silent on the former Duke of York have now decided that they want to be “on the right side of history”.
He added: “I was giving a talk at the Bridport festival on Friday [November 7] and two people in the audience piped up. One was a nanny of Andrew’s in the 1960s, and another was an ambassador from Kazakhstan. Really good people are coming forward and adding to the stories.”