Priti Patel has apologised to King Charles for causing “embarrassment and difficulties” after reportedly suggesting a review of Prince Andrew’s security should be launched.
Andrew no longer has taxpayer-funded police protection, according to reports, after giving up his HRH title after his association with the child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and an out-of-court settlement in a US civil case dominated headlines.
A leaked email from the former home secretary to the king’s principal private secretary, Sir Clive Alderton, reportedly backs Andrew’s efforts to get his £3m-a-year security back. But Alderton is powerless to make any changes to royal protection.
After Patel’s email to Alderton was leaked, she told the Sun: “It is disappointing that this correspondence has been leaked into the public domain and I apologise to His Majesty for the embarrassment and difficulties the publishing of this correspondence has caused.”
Andrew stepped away from public life after his disastrous Newsnight interview in November 2019 and the furore over his friendship with the financier Epstein.
Virginia Giuffre also sued him for allegedly sexually assaulting her when she was 17 after she was trafficked by Epstein.
Andrew has always denied the claims but paid an undisclosed sum, thought to have been worth millions of pounds, in an out-of-court settlement in the US civil case.
In January 2022, before his legal settlement, his mother, the Queen, stripped Andrew of all of his honorary military roles, including Colonel of the Grenadier Guards, and he gave up his HRH style.
Ghislaine Maxwell, who was pictured in the background of a photo with Andrew and a 17-year-old Giuffre, last year said she felt “so bad” for her “dear friend” Prince Andrew.
In her first lengthy interview since her conviction on sex-trafficking charges last year, Maxwell said she still cared about the Duke of York.
Speaking to the Israeli-American documentary film-maker Daphne Barak, Maxwell said: “I feel so bad for him. I follow what is happening to him.’’
