![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static.euronews.com\/website\/images\/logos\/logo-euronews-stacked-outlined-72x72-grey-9.svg\"){kind=logo}
\n ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
\n ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
Short-tempered, vain, arrogant, sex obsessed… Prince Andrew, Duke of York and the younger brother of King Charles III<\/strong><\/a>, does not come off well in Andrew Lownie\u2019s new book, \u201cEntitled: The Rise And Fall Of The House Of York.\u201d<\/p>\n To say the very least.<\/p>\n The new biography, which tells the story of “a spoilt prince unable to connect and a duchess pushed by her insecurities into a desperate need to maintain the attention her \u2018royal\u2019 status brought,” is based on court papers, freedom of information disclosures, interviews with ex-staffers and correspondence.<\/p>\n The 450 pages reportedly took Lownie four years to complete, and he paints an unflattering portrait of the Duke of York \u2013 from shady financial deals to sex scandals and close ties with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Extracts from the book were serialised in the Daily Mail newspaper, and the biography hits shelves today.<\/p>\n It comes as a YouGov poll<\/strong><\/a> suggests that not only is Prince Andrew is the most unpopular royal in the country, but also that two thirds of Britons would support stripping him of his remaining royal titles – Queen Elizabeth II having stripped her son of his military titles and patronages in 2022<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cEntitled: The Rise And Fall Of The House Of York\u201d will do nothing to lower his polling numbers.<\/p>\n Here are five of the key takeaways from this damning new book.<\/p>\n Andrew and Epstein\u2019s relationship<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cEntitled: The Rise And Fall Of The House Of York\u201d dwells on the relationship between Andrew and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, saying that their bond was much closer than the prince has admitted.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lownie claims that Andrew \u201cwas easy prey for a rattlesnake like Epstein,\u201d adding: \u201cEpstein played Andrew. The prince was a useful idiot who gave him respectability, access to political leaders and business opportunities. He found him easy to exploit.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Lownie reports that Ivan Novikov, Epstein\u2019s personal driver,\u00a0claims he remembers driving the prince around with \u201ctwo young girls around eighteen to the Gansevoort Hotel in the Meatpacking District. Both girls were doing lines of cocaine.\u201d<\/p>\n Lownie also alleges that Epstein sold Andrew\u2019s \u201cmost intimate secrets\u201d to foreign intelligence agencies around the world<\/strong><\/a>, including to Israel\u2019s Mossad and the Saudi Arabian authorities.\u00a0<\/p>\n Andrew claims to have met Epstein in 1999 \u2013 something the book refutes, as the pair allegedly already knew each other \u201calmost a decade earlier\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n The late Virgina Giuffre, who was a masseuse in Epstein\u2019s employ, accused Andrew and Epstein of sexual assault<\/strong><\/a>. He denied any wrongdoing in the\u00a0disastrous 2019 interview with BBC\u2019s\u00a0Newsnight<\/strong><\/a>, in which Andrew claimed that he had no memory of meeting\u00a0Giuffre – despite\u00a0numerous photos of them together.<\/p>\n Giuffre later filed a lawsuit against Andrew\u00a0in 2021<\/strong><\/a>. They settled the following year outside of court for an undisclosed amount<\/strong><\/a>. Giuffre took her own life earlier this year<\/strong><\/a>, at the age of 41.<\/p>\n An \u201cunbelievably cruel\u201d man<\/strong><\/p>\n The book claims that Andrew once called a royal staff member a \u201cf*cking imbecile\u201d for failing to give the Queen Mother her full title.<\/p>\n \u201cHe could be unbelievably cruel,\u201d Lownie writes of Andrew\u2019s behaviour towards royal employees.\u00a0<\/p>\n Other cases of inappropriate and childish behaviour include firing an employee because he wore a nylon tie, dismissing another member of staff because he had a mole on his face, and asking his security guards to retrieve his golf balls.<\/p>\n A tussle with Harry<\/strong><\/p>\n Lownie alleges that Prince Harry<\/strong><\/a> gave his uncle Andrew a bloody nose during\u00a0a \u201cheated argument\u201d at a 2013 family gathering in which \u201cpunches were thrown\u201d.<\/p>\n The book claims that Harry \u201cgot the better of Andrew\u201d after the latter said that his marriage to \u201copportunist\u201d Meghan Markle would not last more than a month.<\/p>\n Lownie also claims: \u201cBuckingham Palace braced itself for historic complaints about Prince Andrew\u2019s bullying, profanities and impossible demands. Some say a report on bullying accusations against Meghan Markle has never been released because it would also raise questions about the behaviour of the queen\u2019s second son.\u201d This refers to the accusations of bullying levelled against Markle in 2021 \u2013 accusations which she has denied.<\/p>\n The philandering prince<\/strong><\/p>\n Lownie alleges that Andrew, a \u201csex addict,\u201d had relations with anywhere from \u201cone thousand\u201d to \u201cthree thousand\u201d women, including dozens he met through Epstein.<\/p>\n Regarding his marriage with Sarah Ferguson, the book details how Andrew was\u00a0in the Royal Navy when he and Ferguson wed in 1986, and most of his time was spent at sea.<\/p>\n \u201cSarah discovered Andrew wasn\u2019t coming home on some of his leave. He was going elsewhere – and this just drove her crazy,\u201d shares the Duke of York\u2019s former driver in Lownie\u2019s book. The former employee also reveals that\u00a0\u201cRandy Andy\u201d\u00a0slept with \u201cmore than a dozen women\u201d before Andrew and Ferguson\u2019s\u00a0\ufb01rst anniversary.\u00a0<\/p>\n Other claims about Andrew\u2019s sex life include that he lost his virginity at 11 years old, that he \u201crealised he was obsessed with women\u201d, and that dozens of women were brought to his hotel room during a stay in Bangkok.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHotel staff were used to foreigners bringing in girls, but amazed that more than 10 a day were going to Andrew\u2019s room,\u201d Lownie writes.<\/p>\n Andrew and Sarah\u2019s schemes<\/strong><\/p>\n The book details Ferguson\u2019s money schemes, as well as how she met with an editor at Hello! magazine to discuss how she could fill the gap left by Princess Diana, following her death in 1997.<\/p>\n She agreed \u201cto give Hello! everything about her for a monthly retainer,\u201d a source told Lownie. \u201cThe deal was thought to be worth $134,000 a month.\u201d<\/p>\n