The royal family should pay to keep Prince Andrew silent about Ghislaine Maxwell and everything else, expert says

Even though Prince Andrew is massively disliked by the British public, it’s easy to imagine some publisher thinking he could still garner an audience for a tell-all memoir, in which he shares insider information about the royal family and dishes dirt about the other rich and powerful pleasure-seekers he may have met while hanging out with convicted pedophiles Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

If the royal family is smart, Ingrid Seward, editor in chief of Majesty Magazine says, they will make sure that Andrew is kept financially secure so he won’t feel compelled to cash in by writing a memoir or giving more disastrous TV interviews in a misguided attempt to rehabilitate his image.

“He will be more trouble and start talking and giving TV interviews and writing books,” Seward said on True Royalty TV’s The Royal Beat show, the Daily Mail reported. 

Prince Andrew, Virginia Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell.(Florida Southern District Court) 

Seward noted that Andrew, reportedly the queen’s favorite son, was stripped of his job as a senior working royal in the early days of the scandal over his association Epstein, the late financier who died by suicide in 2019, and Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime girlfriend and co-conspirator in his sex trafficking operation.

On Tuesday, Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for helping Epstein carry out a years-long scheme to groom and sexually abuse underaged girls.

Andrew lost his military patronages and HRH title after he settled a sexual abuse lawsuit filed against him by Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s alleged underage trafficking victims who said she was forced to have sex with Andrew three times in 2001.

Thus far, Andrew has reportedly refused to talk to the FBI about his association with Maxwell and Esptein, but it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for the financially strapped duke to write a book or give an interview about the association as he infamously did in his “car crash” BBC interview in 2019. He could try to avoid saying anything that could be used against him in criminal court.

Because of the scandal, there is no way the royal family will ever allow Andrew to return to a public role, Seward said in a conversation with Newsweek royal correspondent Jack Royston, the Daily Mail reported. It’s also likely that the royal family will become especially insistent that Andrew retreat to a quiet, private life after Maxwell’s sentencing.

If nothing else, the sentencing is another reminder of how Andrew and Maxwell, a former British socialite, were close friends for many decades. She reportedly introduced Andrew to Epstein in 1999. At the time, Maxwell was Epstein’s girlfriend, but even after Maxwell and Epstein broke up, they remained close friends, with Maxwell traveling with the multimillionaire on his private planes, running his various households and mingling with his rich and famous friends and guests, including Andrew, Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and Bill Gates.

It has been documented in news reports and court filings that Andrew traveled on Epstein’s private plane multiple times, visited his different homes, and invited the financier for a weekend stay and for royal family birthday parties at Balmoral and Windsor castles. The friendship continued at least through late 2010, after Epstein was first investigated for trafficking underaged girls. He was convicted in 2008 of crimes involving sex with a minor.

During that time, from 1994 to 2004, Maxwell and Epstein worked together to identify girls as young as 14, groom them and entice them to travel with them to Epstein’s properties in New York, Florida, New Mexico, and elsewhere, prosecutors said in their sentencing memorandum for Maxwell.

Even though Andrew settled his lawsuit with Giuffre in February, he denied having sex with her or even meeting her. That denial has never gained much traction, given that Giuffre famously produced a photo that showed her visiting Maxwell’s London townhouse in 2001. The photo, she said, was taken the night she first had sex with Andrew, and shows him with his arm around her bare waist.

Both the queen and Prince Charles reportedly helped Andrew cover the cost of his settlement with Giuffre, which was reported to be between $9 million and $12 million, The Sun reported in February. Charles loaned his younger brother a sizable portion of the sum, while the queen also contributed.

Discussing Andrew’s absence from the queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations and other recent royal events, Royston said on the show: “When the Queen is no longer here, Charles will not have any truck with Andrew attempting a comeback.”

Ingrid Seward agreed, but said she still believes the Duke of York will be looked after financially.

“They’re not going to cast him out because he will be more trouble and start talking and giving TV interviews and writing books,” she said.