The Duke of York allegedly “lobbied very hard” to try and stop King Charles III from becoming the monarch after Queen Elizabeth II died, it has been claimed.
An explosive new book delving into the life of Camilla, Queen Consort, by royal commentator and biographer Angela Levin, alleges that Prince Andrew tried to convince his late mother to make Prince William king instead.
The author also claimed that Andrew attempted to “block Charles marrying Camilla” because he “rarely got on well” with his eldest brother.
Levin quoted a senior insider as saying: “[Andrew] tried to persuade the Queen to block Charles marrying Camilla by being quite poisonous, mean, unhelpful and very nasty about Camilla.”
The duke also allegedly claimed that the Queen Consort “was not to be trusted” because she was “insufficiently aristocratic”.
The same source added that Andrew “plotted” with Diana, Princess of Wales, to “try to push Charles aside”.
He allegedly sought to become Regent to William, who was a teenager at a time, and used Diana’s friendship with his former wife, Sarah, Duchess of York, to do this.
A regent is a person who is appointed to govern a state temporarily when the monarch is a minor, absent, or otherwise unable to carry out their duties.
The insider reportedly told Levin that “they were dark and strange times, where paranoia became reality”.
However, Andrew’s “very, very negative and extremely unpleasant” behaviour failed to convince the Queen, who disagreed with him, Levin wrote.
“I was told it was one of the rare occasions he didn’t get his way,” she added.
Elsewhere in the book, titled Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall: From Outcast to Queen Consort, the author wrote that the Queen was initially did not accept Camilla as a member of the royal family and her daughter-in-law.
It was only when the royal couple announced they were engaged in 2005, 35 years after they first met, that the two women’s relationship came to “a turning point”.
Camilla’s engagement ring, which featured a 12-carat sapphire surrounded by 14 solitaire diamonds in an Art Deco design, first belonged to the Queen Mother, then the Queen, before it was passed to her.
It was “proof that [the Queen] had finally accepted Charles’s determination to marry her”, Levin wrote.
Excerpts from Levin’s book have been serialised in The Telegraph ahead of publication later this month.
The Independent has contacted Buckingham Palace and Andrew’s representatives for comment.
