The House of Windsor is in danger of seeming to favour the disgraced Andrew Mountbatten Windsor over Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex an expert has warned
14:23, 17 Jan 2026Updated 14:23, 17 Jan 2026
Expert issues warning over Royal Family’s treatment of Harry and Andrew(Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
It’s hard to overstate just how unpopular Andrew Mountbatten Windsor has become in the UK. The latest polls show that the former prince has sunk to the lowest estimation yet with just three percent of Brits approving of King Charles’s disgraced younger brother.
Andrew and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson’s connections to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has generated much controversy in recent months, with their ties to the deceased paedohile brought back into the spotlight. Both Andrew and Fergie were pictured in the recently released Epstein Files – though this is not indicative of wrongdoing.
However, emails emerged last year that showed Fergie had remained in contact with Epstein after she had publicly disowned him, dubbing him a “supreme friend” and apologising for negative comments she had made about him in a newspaper interview. Charities Sarah had worked with for years swiftly cut ties with her, leading one PR expert to dub her brand “toxic”, and the children’s book she had penned that was due to be released was quietly pushed back, before its publication being cancelled altogether.
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The release of Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir – “Nobody’s Girl” – and the publication of an explosive joint biography of Andrew and Sarah – “Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York”, by Andrew Lownie – both brought the controversy surrounding the former couple back into the spotlight. Mountbatten Windsor has firmly and repeatedly denied the allegations made against him by his accuser, but amid the ongoing public outcry, King Charles unceremoniously stripped his younger brother of his royal titles and styles, and Andrew finally agreed to leave his long-term home of Royal Lodge.
A removal van was seen at Royal Lodge recently(Image: (Image: Jim Bennett))
The monarch has taken steps to “distance” himself and the monarchy itself from his errant younger brother, with the statement announcing Andrew’s loss of royal status seeing the King and Queen throw their support behind “survivors of any and all forms of abuse”, something that one expert “welcomed”.
Andrew Lownie told the Mirror about the King’s blistering statement, ” I think they are distancing themselves from Andrew quite rightly, they don’t want further reputational damage to the monarchy from being linked to him. I don’t think it’s quite the end of the story, but i think it’s what needed to be done. Particularly the comments about the victims, I welcome it. I think it shows the King has acted ruthlessly – there was a lot of criticism for appearing to be weak.”
Fergie and Andrew have lived together for many years at Royal Lodge, remaining close after their divorce in the 1990s, but they are finally poised to go their separate ways. King Charles is understood to have offered Andrew a new home on the Sandringham Estate, whilst Fergie is going her own way, reportedly looking for a property in the Windsor area.
Marsh Farm is the home on the 20,000-acre estate that the King owns privately that Andrew is reported to be moving to once renovations are complete, and Lownie called the Sandringham option a “very neat solution”.
However, one royal expert has issued an urgent warning to the Firm that their contrasting treatment of Prince Harry and Andrew over the years could end up harming the monarchy. Dr. Tessa Dunlop, writing for the Independent, said “Going forward, the House of Windsor cannot be seen to favour Andrew over not-so-bad Harry.”
Harry and Andrew(Image: Getty Images)
The royal author explained that the contrast of Andrew being gifted another home within the royal fold, whilst Harry and Meghan were evicted from their former UK home of Frogmore Cottage – shortly after the release of Harry’s bombshell memoir Spare back in 2023 – “will make for challenging optics” when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex visit the UK.
Harry and Meghan are reported to be likely to return to the UK for engagements relating to the Invictus Games, which will be held next year in Birmingham and Harry is reported to be hopeful that his father the King might attend the competition for former service people, which the Duke founded in 2014, alongside him.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex might not be as popular in the UK as they once were – Meghan’s approval rating stands at 19 percent, the lowest recorded by YouGov so far. However, Dunlop writes, “the recent defenestration of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has cast the Sussexes in a more benign light. In an upended world of strongmen and loose morals, it’s become that bit harder to hate on a former-actress” and “jam-influencer.”
In his memoir Spare, Harry wrote that part of his surprise that his police security was removed back in 2020 came from the fact that Andrew had retained his own, despite the major controversy his uncle was wrapped up in. “Despite being involved in an embarrassing scandal, accused of having sexually abused a young woman, nobody had suggested removing his security,” Harry wrote. “People may have a lot of grievances towards us, but sexual offences weren’t one of them.”