“Take the titles away! And don’t turn up at the royal event just to keep your little royal fleecing going!,” the notorious British media commentator Piers Morgan exclaimed on air several weeks before the coronation of King Charles III.
These statements from the Sky News Australia host were not directed towards the King’s brother, Prince Andrew, who was publicly accused of sexual assault back in 2014. Instead, these expressions of disdain were, in fact, sparked by rumors that the King’s younger son Prince Harry would be in attendance.
Wave after wave of media attention has been directed towards Prince Harry’s every move. Harry recently released his first book, Spare, which has become infamous for criticizing some members of the British monarchy. Yet, in comparison, the attendance of the Duke of York, Prince Andrew, at the King’s coronation was hardly objectionable for many Royal watchers. One poll released this past week showed that more members of the public opposed Meghan Markle over Prince Andrew attending the coronation.
This is despite the Duke of York having been accused back in 2014 of sexually assaulting an American-Australian woman, Virginia Giuffre, when she was 17. Giuffre is a known victim of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking operation and has alleged that the Duke had his friend Epstein traffic her to him on multiple occasions. Giuffre later sued Prince Andrew through a New York civil case in 2021. Prince Andrew ultimately settled out of court last year for an undisclosed amount suspected to be in the millions.
Although stepping down from his formal royal roles in 2020 due to the allegations, Prince Andrew has still maintained a public presence and occasionally appears alongside his family members at official events. He has also been permitted to continue living at an official royal residence, the Royal Lodge, in Windsor. At the Coronation itself, the Prince appeared attired in his Order of the Garter robes, a decision that seemingly was approved by the King himself. These robes signify knighthood and membership in the order of chivalry, and the late Queen had previously banned her son Andrew from wearing this ceremonial dress due to the allegations against him. Prince Andrew’s seat in the same row as Prince Harry at the Coronation also suggests that the Duke of York has not yet fallen out completely with the new King. Sexual assault and writing a tell-all book about your family members appear to produce the same level of disgrace for the Windsors.
Furthermore, British media remarks about Prince Andrew’s presence at the coronation focused on more mundane details rather than questioning why the Duke was considered acceptable company in the first place. “Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson reunite!,” gushed the headline of one DailyMail article, praising that the Duke’s ex-wife had accompanied him to the Coronation concert. People Magazine ran a similar article.
The Independent was one of the few that covered Prince Andrew’s controversial attendance, reporting that protesters booed the Duke as he made his way to Westminster Abbey. Protesters were supposedly told by police to avoid including mentions of sexual assault and Prince Andrew in their chants, arguing that this was an excessively “offensive” topic that could risk arrest.
There were hopes that Prince Andrew was being increasingly pushed out of the royal spotlight, with the Queen having stripped him of his honorary military titles and royal patronages in early 2022. However, it appears that the Royal Family and the British media are becoming more receptive to him once again.
The Windsors’ continued acceptance of Prince Andrew sends a shameful message to survivors that they believe sexual violence does not matter. Many right-wing pundits have stoked fears of ‘cancel culture’ becoming rampant in the wake of the #MeToo movement. Although most instances of ‘canceling’ can more accurately be described as convicted sexual abusers simply being recognized as such—for instance, as with film producer Harvey Weinsten—images of the Duke of York at the coronation must be reassuring to these commentators. How can ‘cancel culture’ possibly exist when a man alleged to have sexually assaulted a teenager can continue to be treated, quite literally, like royalty?
Image Credits: Image: Yahoo! News UK
My name is Kate, and I’m a master’s student in the MSc Politics Research program at the University of Oxford. I recently graduated from the University of Toronto with a B.A. in Political Science. After seeing my friend Julia, the President and Founder, go through her own experiences of sexual violence, I joined Survivors to Superheroes in 2019 to help other survivors in their healing journey. As the Director of Research, I lead the Research Team in creating much-needed resources for our website, as well as supporting our organization’s other branches with any research tasks. Outside of Survivors to Superheroes, you can find me playing viola or obsessively following Canadian politics in the news.
