The Queen Made Her Feelings Clear on the Andrew Saga With a Single Remark, New Book Reveals

A new book details how the late monarch shielded Andrew to her final days and how Charles has since rewritten that chapter.

Queen Elizabeth was a famed stoic, and often hesitated to show her emotions, even to her own children. However, she wasn't immune to exceptions. The late Queen was hardly neutral when it came to her son Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. Reportedly, she had a ‘weak spot’ for him, and that endured even as his reputation collapsed under public scrutiny. Now, a new book has spilled the beans on just how far she went to protect him, even in her final days.

Robert Jobson's upcoming book, ‘The Windsor Legacy’, serialized by the Daily Mail, lays bare the Queen’s feelings on 'the Andrew saga'. It has been publicly known that Mountbatten Windsor was her favorite child, the first baby born after her coronation, arriving 12 years after Charles and 10 years after Anne. He was effectively raised as an only child until Prince Edward arrived later on. Given that the Queen had settled into her role as monarch by then, Mountbatten Windsor found a unique position in his mother’s heart, a closeness that would later complicate the monarchy’s handling of his downfall. Jobson writes that even as the Epstein scandal engulfed the royals, the Queen “never changed her stance on Andrew.”

Reportedly, she stood by him privately, long after her advisers had urged her to let go. “The late Queen, of course, adored her second son and continued to support him after his disgrace,” Jobson wrote, adding, “In her final days she kept him close, shielding him as Palace insiders continued to push for his total exile.”

“She confided her support to a trusted confidant,” Jobson wrote. “‘You have to remember, he is my son.’” But while the Queen’s loyalty was unwavering, her eldest son had to take the difficult route. Following Mountbatten Windsor’s disastrous 2019 Newsnight interview, it was Charles, not his mother, who pressed for decisive action. According to Jobson, the then-Prince of Wales was the one who insisted his brother “step down from royal life and be cut adrift.”

The Queen, ever the soft touch when Mountbatten Windsor was concerned, tried to cushion the fall. As the lawsuit brought by Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre loomed, she reportedly planned a “private one-to-one meeting” with the former Prince to break the news that his military titles and patronages were being taken away. But senior courtiers intervened, insisting they be present to witness the conversation. Jobson says Mountbatten Windsor was 'blindsided' by the 'painful' exchange.

And for that, Charles had to pay the price. Writing for The Sunday Times, Roya Nikkhah claimed a family source said, “It seems to me that Queen Elizabeth has quite a lot to answer for. It’s as if she left an unexploded bomb for Charles. The thing about the Queen was that everyone always said she was so dutiful, and she was — but this was a terrible dereliction of duty. She indulged Andrew all the time and always avoided confrontation.”