Prince Andrew Speaks Publicly For The First Time Since Disastrous Epstein Interview To Mourn Prince Philip

With Prince Philip’s passing, Prince Andrew has made a return to public life.

As we previously reported, Andrew, the third child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, was permanently retired from royal duties last year following a ruinous interview on his association with notorious billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. (Andrew famously claimed in the interview that he couldn’t have slept with an underage girl because she said he was “sweating profusely,” while he alleged he wasn’t able to sweat at the time.)

Since then, Andrew has been flying under the radar — though his name comes up not infrequently in Royal Family discourse. In the wake of his father’s recent death, the 61-year-old seems to have been let off the leash, not just releasing a statement on Philip’s passing, but actually speaking to reporters about it.

Speaking to the press outside the Royal Chapel in Windsor Great Park on Sunday, he shared:

“Yes, it’s a terrible loss. My father said to me on the telephone a few months ago: ‘We’re all in the same boat, and we must always remember that.’ But occasionally we, the family, are asked to stand up and show compassion and leadership. And unfortunately with my father’s death, it is brought at home to me, not just our loss, but actually the loss that everybody else has felt. For so many people who as it were, died, and lost loved ones during the pandemic. And so, we are in the same boat, slightly different circumstances because he didn’t die from COVID.”

The Duke of York added:

“We’re all feeling a great sense of loss, but at the same time, the tributes have been absolutely amazing that I’ve seen, and the messages that I’m getting are absolutely outstanding. And I just want to say how grateful I am, we are, for these tributes.”

"We've lost almost the grandfather of the nation"

Prince Andrew describes the Duke of Edinburgh as a "remarkable man" and says his death has left "huge void" for the Queenhttps://t.co/SyGxs5x8Sm pic.twitter.com/8j0MOfHCJj

— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) April 11, 2021

Andrew continued:

“He was a remarkable man. I loved him as a father. He was so calm. If you had a problem, he would think about it. And that’s the great thing that I always think about, is he was always someone you could go to and he would always listen. So… it’s a great loss. I think the way I would put it is, we’ve lost almost the grandfather of the nation.”

He went on to say:

“I feel very sorry and supportive of my mother, who’s feeling it, I think, probably more than everybody else.”

Asked how Elizabeth is doing, the prince responded:

“The Queen, as you’d expect, is an incredibly stoic person. She described his passing as a miracle. And she’s… contemplating, I think is the way that I would put it. She described it as having left a huge void in her life, but we, the family, the ones that are closer, are rallying around to make sure we are there to support her. And I know that there is a huge amount of support, not just for her, but for everybody, as we go through this enormous change.”

Definitely a better showing for Andrew than his last tête-à-tête with a journalist, but that’s not saying much. Our hearts do go out to the family dealing with this loss, but we hope it doesn’t mean we’ll have to see more of this particularly dubious royal in the future.

[Image via WENN]