Expert Warns ‘The Monarchy is Over’ As It 'Gets Worse and Worse' After New Epstein Files
Fresh revelations reignite scrutiny of Prince Andrew’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein and raise fears for the Crown’s future.
For the monarchy already struggling to find its footing, in an era of skepticism and shrinking deference, the latest Epstein revelations have reopened a question many at the Palace would rather avoid—what happens when scandal refuses to fade, no matter how hard the institution looks the other way? That question now hangs heavily over the Crown following the newest release of Epstein-related files, and according to one royal expert, the danger is no longer confined to ex- Prince Andrew alone. Writing with the anguish of a committed monarchist, columnist Amanda Platell argues that unless the royal family confronts its crisis head-on, it risks drifting toward irrelevance.
Writing for The Daily Mail, she says, “The royals just don’t get it. Listen to me, Charles, William, and Kate - unless something changes FAST, the monarchy's over... and Andrew's NOT your only problem.” Platell is careful with her wording, framing her argument not as an individual attack on senior royals, but as a warning about institutional failure. She admits the discomfort of asking what many Britons are now thinking aloud. She wrote, “It pains me deeply as a lifelong monarchist to ask the question on so many people’s lips,” she writes. “But how can the royals ever recover from the sordid disgrace the former Prince Andrew has brought upon them as a result of his association with Jeffrey Epstein?”
Her concern has been catalysed by what the newly released documents appear to confirm. “Especially now we have learned so much more from the latest dump of the Epstein files,” Platell writes, “which confirm that Andrew and his complicit, cling-on ex-wife Fergie lied about their ongoing relationship with the prolific child s-- offender, even as girls younger than their daughters were being abused.”
One of the most damaging developments, she argues, is the renewed focus on the photograph showing Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor with his arm around Virginia Giuffre, the woman who accused him of s----- assault. This week, Ghislaine Maxwell — Epstein’s longtime associate and now a convicted trafficker — confirmed the image was genuine and taken at her London home.
“The devastating confirmation this week… blows apart his claim it was fake,” Platell writes. “It shatters his so-called alibi that he was with his daughter Beatrice at a Pizza Express in Woking.”
Mountbatten-Windsor has always denied wrongdoing, and his civil case with Giuffre was settled without an admission of guilt. Yet Platell insists the issue now extends far beyond the disgraced duke himself. “This all makes for horrible reading,” she says, “yet my concern is certainly not for Andrew. It is for the monarchy, and what happens now, the truth is out.”
As per Platell, the moment would have received a closure, had the late Queen Elizabeth not tried to protect her son. “If only the late Queen Elizabeth II had not protected her favourite son,” she writes, adding that without royal intervention, Mountbatten-Windsor would have been forced to face his accuser in court. “The lingering rot that’s infected the monarchy as a result of the Epstein affair would have been cauterised.” Instead, Platell says, the monarchy has been left to endure a “drip-drip” of disclosures about Andrew and Fergie that continually reopen wounds. “Yet with the drip-drip of disclosures… it just gets worse and worse.”
She then goes on to criticise the broader royal response— or the lack of one. King Charles’s upcoming documentary on environmental harmony, she suggests, misses the national mood entirely. She also does not spare the future king and queen. While acknowledging his family challenges, Platell argues that his low visibility and focus on initiatives like Earthshot feel disconnected from public anxieties. Kate, too, she says, risks being seen as remote despite her candid discussions of illness and recovery.“All very worthy. But the royals just don’t get it, do they?” Platell writes. “It’s not the planet they should be straining every sinew to protect right now… It is the monarchy.” If the current response continues, Platell predicts a slow slide into irrelevance — an unthinkable fate for what she calls Britain’s 'bedrock' institution.
