The Queen showed her support for Prince Andrew by appearing in a stage-managed photo of them out riding.Royal insiders say it is increasingly likely that all the organisations he is patron of – over 175 – will ditch him.
Humiliation was heaped on Andrew as Barclays – a major sponsor of his Pitch@Palace project – ditched him over the furore. Andrew was forced to make a grovelling apology to the Queen and Charles after the disastrous TV interview when the Duke spoke about his friendship with Epstein. “He has been ordered to step back from royal life until he has unequivocally cleared his name or the Epstein case is over, which could be years. The road to redemption might not only be long, it could be completely blocked off.”
A Palace spokesman said: “The Duke will continue to work on Pitch and will look at how he takes this forward outside of his public duties, and outside of Buckingham Palace. We recognise there will be a period of time while this transition takes place.”