Daily Mail<\/a>, \u201cIt was not just an outburst of expletives and a jab of a finger but what one member of staff described as a \u2018kinetic\u2019 blow. Even by Andrew\u2019s standards, it caused astonishment.\u201d<\/p>\nJohnstone-Burt was a respected and senior figure in the household. Like Mountbatten-Windsor, he\u2019d been a helicopter pilot during the Falklands War.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had then gone on to a very distinguished Royal Naval career, rising to captain of the carrier HMS Ocean and commanding Joint Helicopter Command before becoming a popular, long-serving master of the household,\u201d Hardman writes, adding that Johnstone-Burt\u2019s department \u201cincluded more royal employees than any other.\u201d<\/p>\n
The aftermath![\"Despite](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0f0815281f333827e04f3298364247b7.jpeg\"\/)
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Despite his strained standing with members of the royal household, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor still enjoyed his mother Queen Elizabeth II\u2019s support in private, a new book claims. By: Eliot Press \/ ELIOTPRESS \/ MEGA<\/p>\n
Hardman explains that Johnstone-Burt reported the incident to the most senior official in the royal household, Lord Chamberlain Lord William Peel<\/strong>, who then raised it with the then-Prince of Wales \u2014 the current King Charles III<\/strong>. Charles confronted his brother about what had happened.<\/p>\nMountbatten-Windsor \u2014 who was stripped of his royal titles in late 2025 amid increasing scrutiny of his ties to predator Jeffrey Epstein<\/strong> \u2014 later phoned Lord Peel, but according to Hardman\u2019s book, the ex-Duke of York was unapologetic. \u201cI gather you\u2019ve been calling people and causing problems,\u201d Mountbatten-Windsor allegedly said.<\/p>\nThat prompted a face-to-face meeting in which Lord Peel made his position clear. \u201cI\u2019ve been told you\u2019ve been treating members of the household in a wholly inappropriate way. It\u2019s got to stop,\u201d Lord Peel said, as reported by Hardman.<\/p>\n
Despite the seriousness of the situation, the incident was not initially raised with the queen, as it had already been escalated through senior palace officials.<\/p>\n
But Mountbatten-Windsor\u2019s father heard about it and tried to make amends.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe duke\u2019s behavior was so alarming that it stirred Prince Philip<\/strong> from his retirement to write a letter of apology to Johnstone-Burt,\u201d Hardman reveals, adding that \u201cAndrew was prevailed upon to write one himself (described by one member of staff as a \u2018sorry \u2014 not sorry\u2019 letter).\u201d<\/p>\nThe queen\u2019s reaction<\/p>\n
When the monarch eventually heard about what her son had done, \u201ca senior member of staff tried to downplay it to spare her blushes,\u201d Hardman writes.<\/p>\n
However, the author adds, \u201cShe was unfazed. \u2018Oh, I\u2019m sure he did it,\u2019 she replied. \u2018That\u2019s the sort of thing he does.’\u201d<\/p>\n
After that, there was \u201cno further manhandling of staff,\u201d the author writes.<\/p>\n
But privately, \u201cAndrew still had the queen\u2019s ear,\u201d Hardman confirms.<\/p>\n
One long-serving member of the royal household told the author that Elizabeth \u201cwas always worried about [Mountbatten-Windsor].\u201d She saw him as vulnerable and felt he had been manipulated by bad people, and she took him at his word.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was like his father in that he could be rude to people, but he was just not as intelligent [as Philip]\u2026\u201d the member of the royal household added, explaining, \u201cHe created a character that allowed him to survive in the circles he mixed in, which was this rude, blustering, boring man.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is at the center of new allegations of a shocking physical confrontation inside the palace. By:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":876819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7708],"tags":[173775,31795,518,248509,1763,11058,5105,7710,519,448,248508],"class_list":["post-876818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-royals","tag-andrew-mountbatten-windsor","tag-duke-of-york","tag-king-charles-iii","tag-lord-william-peel","tag-queen-elizabeth-ii","tag-robert-hardman","tag-royal","tag-royal-families","tag-royal-family","tag-royals","tag-vice-admiral-sir-tony-johnstone-burt"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116360480032210612","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=876818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Andrew](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ec3858ed9ce82c1ea632fc22d054beab.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Vice](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/27a09337b402cbe76e47d5d013fd18b2.jpeg\"\/)
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