Royal Expert Says There's Going To Be a 'Massive Apology' From Royal Family at Some Point
As Andrew's Epstein ties deepens, scrutiny is now closing in on King Charles as well.
Trigger Warning: This article contains themes of child sexual abuse that some readers may find distressing.
King Charles is met with mounting criticism over what one royal commentator believes is an apology that the monarch ultimately owes for the events that unfolded on “his watch.” As things continue to get worse around Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s connection with Jeffrey Epstein, questions are no longer limited to the former duke. They have been circling the King as well, and how he handled the crisis.
As he spoke on The Daily Beast podcast, royal commentator Tom Sykes, known for the outlet’s Royalist substack, unabashedly put forward his stance. He said, “This crisis around Prince Andrew—ex-Prince Andrew, as I suppose we really should call him—has metastasized to such a level, has become so extreme, that it feels like it’s going to be very hard for the royal family just to come back to its original shape and pretend that nothing has happened.” As fresh details from the Epstein files are seeing the light of day regarding Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, a criminal investigation, “amazingly, could happen.” But Sykes also put forward a stark warning about its aftermath: “We could end up in a situation here where His Majesty’s brother is at leisure in His Majesty’s prison.”
The possibility has only made the palace’s longstanding communications strategy undefendable. Sykes weighed in, “We are way past the point of ‘Never complain, never explain.' There is clearly going to have to be a massive apology from the royal family at some point, because this all happened on Charles’s watch.” While Charles revoked his brother’s titles, style, and honors in October 2025, he recently announced he is ready to assist police investigating allegations that Mountbatten-Windsor shared classified information with Epstein while serving as the nation’s trade envoy. As per Sykes, His Majesty has always appeared passive, sometimes blaming the late Queen Elizabeth’s indulgence of his son, despite taking charge of royal affairs in the final years of her reign.
The controversy has also added fuel to tensions between King Charles and Prince William. Sykes revealed to host Hugh Dougherty, the outlet’s executive editor, that the King’s statement about cooperating with the police “blew Prince William out of the water” as he was in the middle of preparing for his diplomatic high-profile trip to Saudi Arabia. Sykes shared, “That really gets to the heart of this conflict between William and Charles, which is tearing the royal family apart. I mean, the anger that William’s camp and William’s side have towards Charles about the way that he’s dealt with Andrew.” Some representatives of the press pool in Riyadh reportedly returned to the UK convinced that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was on the verge of getting arrested.
Meanwhile, William hasn’t been able to escape the widening fallout. His Earthshot Prize charity earlier received funding from DP World, chaired until recently by Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, who had exchanged emails with Epstein about explicit content. Both William and Kate Middleton had spoken out last week about being “deeply concerned by the continued revelations.” Andrew, who has consistently denied his involvement in any wrongdoing, has yet to publicly respond to the latest disclosures. Sykes cautioned that while proving s-- trafficking allegations may be difficult, prosecuting the ex-Duke over alleged information sharing could be more feasible. He concluded, “If it doesn’t end up in court at this stage, and if it doesn’t end up with the proper investigation, I think it’s extremely damaging for the royal family.”
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