The Biggest Similarity Between Prince Harry and Prince Andrew
Plus, The Duke of York's continued fight to clear his name against Virginia Giuffre
I’m playing catch-up and revisiting some royal-related stories I’ve written about over the past few weeks related to Virginia Giuffre, Prince Harry, and Prince Andrew.
The media continues to portray Prince Harry and his uncle, Prince Andrew, as the same kind of headache for King Charles. Below, I discuss the latest attempt to conflate the two. The media, whether purposefully or otherwise, misses the point. Prince Harry and Prince Andrew have one massive thing in common: They were the Spare to their older brothers. (Before Queen Elizabeth changed the rules, girls were passed over in favor of their younger brothers in the line of succession. Therefore, Andrew was the spare, not his older sister, Anne.)
That’s where the similarities, in my opinion, end. I described the British Monarchy as the longest-running soap opera in my Royal Women and the Rags series writing that:
Even as actors depart the series, new ones are fitted within archetypes you’re familiar with.
The bumbling, lost Spare is one of those Archetypes.
Before we jump into that, let’s circle back to Virginia Giuffre.
Prince Andrew, Still a Scumbag
In late April, we received the sad news that Virginia Giuffre had died by suicide. Giuffre was a victim of the sex-trafficking ring run by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. She once described herself as “passed around like a platter of fruit” to rich and powerful people like Prince Andrew (allegedly). Giuffre famously sued the Duke of York in a civil suit that was settled out of court in 2022. The settlement included millions of pounds, but no apology or admission of liability.
Enjoying royal perks without the responsibility of working duties on top of no substantial legal consequences for what is a top three in Andrew scandals wasn’t enough for the disgruntled Duke. According to reporting in The Times (an article we’ll get into further down for a separate reason), Andrew hasn’t gone quietly. He has worked to unseal legal documents that would ‘demolish’ Giuffre and ‘clear his name’.
I have news for you, Andy: There aren’t enough legal documents or PR campaigns in the world to fix your image.
One thing we might find out in the coming weeks is how much the Prince………’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II, paid to settle with Giuffre (if her will doesn’t redact this information).
The King and I’s (Opinions)
Moving on to The Times piece and my new theory as to why this story was published last weekend by this royal reporter.
If you want to read my breakdown of the above piece, it’s in my blog from last week:
King Charles Won't Speak with Prince Harry, but His Close Friends Will Speak to the Press
In my previous post I looked into key events leading up to the decision to pull Harry’s security. Here, I’ll dive into my key takeaways from the BBC interview, the moments that made me go “what’d he just say?!”, and the royal defense laid out in a Sunday Time’s article.
Here, I want to discuss the “why” of this piece.
Why this reporter? Well, she’s a part of the royal rota from one of the serious papers.
Why now? It’s a rebuttal to Prince Harry’s BBC interview, where he mentioned his father won’t take his calls.
I still believe that is part of the truth. I think this piece would have run on May 3rd either way. But it’s mostly because of what the same royal rota editor published in this op. ed. on April 27th, 2025.