Case Explained: UK police say ex-Prince Andrew released under investigation – Legal Perspective

Queen Elizabeth II’s second son, Andrew, the spare rather than the heir to use the phrase popularized by the Netflix series “The Crown,” was rather a popular royal in his younger life. 

Gregarious and outgoing, in contrast to his elder brother Charles who faced far greater public pressure and scrutiny, he served for 22 years with the Royal Navy, including combat operations as a helicopter pilot in the Falklands War in 1982. 

Fellow “spare” Prince Harry would follow a similar path in Afghanistan a generation later. 

Andrew’s marriage to Sarah Ferguson, formerly the Duchess of York, became a subject of considerable press attention, as did their 1992 separation and 1996 divorce, not long after Charles’ contentious divorce from Princess Diana.

But Andrew’s lifestyle and associations with questionable characters including but not limited to Jeffrey Epstein, American financier and convicted sex offender, put him under increasing pressure as time went on. 

In 2011, his ties to Epstein, convicted on sex offenses three years earlier, led to his resignation from a role as a trade envoy for the UK. 

In 2019, amid even more intense public scrutiny, the prince gave a disastrous interview to the then-BBC journalist Emily Maitlis for the “Newsnight” program. Designed to explain away his connections to Epstein and allegations of sexual misconduct from the late Virginia Giuffre, it backfired.

The claims that prompted scrutiny and skepticism included Andrew saying that he could not possibly have been guilty of an alleged case of misconduct in 2001 because he was at a Pizza Express restaurant in Woking with his children at the time, and him saying that as a result of his military service in the Falklands, he was no longer able to sweat.

He announced he would step back from public engagements as a royal soon after.