Prince Harry criticises Duke of York over 'shameful scandal' of Epstein affair

Prince Harry has become the first member of the Royal family to publicly criticise Prince Andrew over the Jeffrey Epstein affair.

The Duke of Sussex refers to the furore around his uncle as “a shameful scandal” in his memoir, Spare, which officially goes on sale on Tuesday.

Last year, the Duke of York settled a lawsuit against him from Virginia Giuffre, an American woman who alleged that she was trafficked by Epstein, a friend of Prince Andrew’s, and that the Duke had twice sexually assaulted her.

The details of the settlement were not made public and Prince Andrew has always denied the allegations and did not accept any liability as part of the settlement.

Writing in his book, Prince Harry describes discussing his security arrangements with his wife, Meghan. The couple have been embroiled in a row with the Royal family and the Government over their personal security.

Once they stopped being working royals and moved to North America, they were no longer entitled to the security provided to the Royal family.

In Spare, Prince Harry writes about their decision to move to Canada and describes discussing with Meghan the security provided by the Royal Family.

It was an “obligation” and an “implicit promise” to protect them, the Duke believed, but his wife asked him whether it would ever be removed.

'Not after what happened to my mother'

“‘Never. Not in this climate of hate. And not after what happened to my mother,’” he told her.

He then writes, “Also, not in the wake of my Uncle Andrew. Despite being embroiled in a shameful scandal, accused of sexually assaulting a young girl, no one had even suggested removing his security.

“People have had plenty of reasons to complain about us, sex crimes weren't one of them.”

No other member of the Royal family has spoken publicly about Prince Andrew. He is no longer able to use his HRH title and lost his military titles, a similar arrangement to that reached with Prince Harry after he ceased to be a working royal.

The row over Prince Harry and Meghan’s security has been a major theme of their dispute with the Royal family.

The King is believed, at least initially, to have personally contributed to the cost of private security in the United States, where the Sussexes live, but that has still left the couple needing to fund much of the multi-million pound cost themselves.

During their 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Prince Harry raised the issue, alleging that his father “literally cut me off financially”.

The row threatened to prevent the Sussexes from returning to the UK. Last year, Prince Harry sued the Home Office after he was told that he could not pay for the Metropolitan Police to provide security for him and his family in the UK.

In the book, Prince Harry describes having to move out of a Hollywood friend’s house after being located by the paparazzi and therefore having to fund his own security just at the point where the King was ending his financial support.

Prince Harry acknowledges that it is “ridiculous” for a thirty-something-year-old to complain about his father cutting him off, but writes that the King wasn’t just his father but “my boss, my banker, my auditor and the administrator of my money throughout my whole adult life”.

He compares the situation to being fired without compensation after a career that made it impossible for him to do other work, saying that his life had been like The Truman Show in which he never did anything for himself.