Former British diplomat Simon Wilson opened up about his ‘uncomfortable’ encounters with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor who worked as a trade envoy between 2001 and 2011
Liam McInerney Content Editor
06:00, 05 May 2026
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was a trade envoy for the British Government (Image: Aaron Chown / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)
A former Foreign Office diplomat has opened up about the five times he met Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor — saying one “uncomfortable” thing was immediately noticeable.
The disgraced former prince used to be a trade envoy for the government between 2001 and 2011. It was during this role that he encountered Simon Wilson, who was a deputy ambassador to Bahrain from 2001 to 2005.
And speaking about his relationship with the late Queen’s son, Simon said: “I have to say I was a little bit surprised about how sort of cocky he was.”
He claimed there was a good feeling when Andrew initially took the unpaid job as a trade envoy, and that people inside the Foreign Office were convinced it would open doors with royal families in the Gulf.
But according to Simon, things “started to go wrong from the word go”. He explained to 60 Minutes Australia: “We started to get reams of instructions about his likes and dislikes in terms of food, that he didn’t drink, alcohol, tea or coffee, but would drink still water, room temperature, no ice.
Andrew’s staff were often ‘uncomfortable’, according to Simon Harris (Image: Jordan Pettitt – Pool/Getty Images)
“One thing that was noticeable, which I didn’t encounter with any other visit of a royal family, they always went very smoothly anyway, was that his staff seemed to be petrified of him.”
He said this was strange because usually, when he had dealings with private secretaries of other senior royals, they were visibly “very proud” to be working for them.
Simon said those people relished going on foreign trips but as for Andrew’s staff, he added: “You really got the impression that they were really uncomfortable all the time, treading on eggshells, didn’t want to put a food wrong and of course that transferred in the wider picture to us, the embassy who were organising things, we were treading on eggshells.”
Simon said that although the role was not paid, the reality was that Andrew took a large number of staff with him who needed paying.
Andrew during a visit to New York (Image: Getty)
He also claimed that the former prince refused to travel on commercial flights, even if it was first class, and that he insisted on private planes.
The former diplomat also claimed Andrew declined staying in the ambassadorial residences, which were free, and instead preferred the best hotels on the island.
He said he was “surprised” Andrew lasted in his role for a decade and that “so much went wrong”.
Simon helped organise three trips for Andrew and he recently told the i Paper he was “rude and arrogant” before revealing his unpleasant nickname. He said: “The term ‘His Buffoon Highness’ was used among diplomats.”