There are mixed feelings over Meghan and Harry’s return to Britain, to put it mildly. Family, friends and the general public all have opinions on the shock move, not all of them favourable.
But there is one man who is, we hear, absolutely seething that the pair are seemingly being welcomed home from America without any repercussions for all the scathing verbal missiles they’ve fired at the Royal family since 2020.
And that man is the disgraced former prince, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who is said to be enraged that they can seemingly waltz their way back into King Charles’s good graces, while he’s being left to rot for what he still considers to be a whole lot less.
An insider tells us, ‘As usual, Andrew is throwing a fit and saying he’s being treated terribly by his brother Charles. Never mind that His Majesty has helped him financially; somehow, it’s still not enough. For Andrew, though this is about more than money, it’s also the respect, or total lack of respect, he feels his brother and the rest of the family is showing him. The fact that he’s been punished and banished, while the red carpet is being rolled out for Harry and Meghan, has left him feeling very hard done by.’
Harry and Meghan have returned to the UK © Getty Images
Among the criticism levelled at his father and the royals, Harry has stated that his family colluded against Meghan and leaked stories in the press. In his book Spare, he alleged that William once physically attacked.
Andrew currently resides at Marsh Farm at the Sandringham Estate, after being ousted from Royal Lodge, Windsor, in February, where he’d lived largely rent-free for 20 years. Charles, who owns Sandringham, paid for renovations before Andrew moved into the 5-bed property. Andrew’s downfall followed years of controversy over his friendship with the late paedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and allegations made by Virginia Giuffre, which he has always denied. In October 2025, Giuffre’s posthumous autobiography alleged that Andrew had sexually abused her on three occasions when she was 17. Tragically, she died by suicide in April 2025, aged 41. The memoir intensified the pressure on the Royal Family, and Charles began the process of stripping his brother of his titles. Andrew has since faced further scrutiny over allegations concerning his conduct during his time as a UK trade envoy.
Despite all of this, it appears Andrew believes that Harry is the one who has really damaged the royal family. Our source explains, ‘He says he’s never put the family down the way Harry and Meghan have. He doesn’t understand how they can be forgiven for saying these terrible things about the family so publicly, and yet here he is, excluded and blocked when he’s never once set out to harm the family the way they’ve done. He accepts that he made mistakes in terms of his choice of his friendships, but he doesn’t feel it’s fair that he’s banished for the rest of his life while these two get to waltz back in.’
It must be dizzying for Andrew to experience how quickly favour can come and go. One minute, the Royals seemingly banded together in outrage at Harry and Meghan’s public onslaught; the next, they’re back in the fold, and he’s still out in the cold.
The former prince thinks Charles has treated him terribly © Getty Images
‘Andrew was right in the thick of it when Harry and Meghan were at the most treacherous. It really wasn’t all that long ago that everyone, including the King, was adamant that they’d never get another chance, and now here they are suddenly waltzing back in as though all is forgiven. Andrew is appalled, and not simply because he’s now found himself on the outside looking in. But he insists it’s the stress and suffering they caused his late mother and father in the final years of their lives that he just can’t forgive,’ says our source.
Queen Elizabeth never spoke out against her grandson Harry and his wife, but Andrew remained committed to her: ‘Andrew has always been incredibly protective of his mother. She may not have condemned Harry and Meghan for the things they said and did, and in Andrew’s view, she should have. But he’s still so furious on her behalf, and he says he can’t believe his brother Charles would blight her memory by allowing his traitorous son and daughter-in-law to slither back in.’
Not only is Andrew smarting that Harry is ‘allowed’ back, but it must also rankle that Harry holds him in such poor regard.
‘Harry has not said anything outright, but it’s well known that he has zero respect for his uncle,’ our insider confides. ‘If he and Meghan had shown Andrew even a shred of support, he’d probably be singing a different tune, but they’ve been very pointedly icing him out for years now. The disrespect really gets under Andrew’s skin, and to add insult to injury, they’re closer than ever to his daughters. Andrew doesn’t doubt that they’re encouraging Eugenie and Beatrice to avoid him too, which only adds to his fury.’
But has Andrew found a way to inveigle himself back into William’s good – well, better – books, and therefore a vehicle out of banishment? We hear it’s not beyond credibility that Andrew might propose they launch a double-pronged attack on Charles to make him see sense. After all, Andrew – like the rest of the world – is aware that William is not in a forgiving mood when it comes to Harry.
Andrew is furious on his late mother’s behalf © Getty Images
The source says, ‘This is probably the one and only thing that Andrew would side with William on right now. He’s said he’d be willing to speak to his Majesty alongside William to appeal to him, which says a lot considering how unforgiving William has been to him.’
Andrew, we are told, ‘refuses to stay banished after this’ and might see this as the alliance that opens the door a crack.
Whether this is something William would ever consider is another matter. A family friend told the BBC, ‘William is very stubborn. To feel cheated by your own brother has been painful. He can’t just put it behind him.’
In contrast, last year Harry told the BBC, ‘I would love reconciliation with my family. There’s no point in continuing to fight any more.’
For now, Elizabeth’s sons and grandsons appear firmly at odds, with little common ground between them. And with such notoriously stubborn men involved, it will be interesting to see who is prepared to budge, and who stays firmly in their corner.