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Prince Andrew was the pampered favorite son of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. But could her indulgent attitude to her third child, along with his resentment at being “the spare,” have set the stage for one of the monarchy’s biggest scandals in recent memory? A new documentary suggests it did. 

Prince Andrew was pampered and indulged as a child, royal experts say 

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Andrew in a carriage
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Andrew, Duke of York | Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty Images

Secrets of Prince Andrew, which premiers August 21 on A&E, is a deep dive into the life of the man who was once second in line to the throne, with a particular focus on his disastrous November 2019 interview with the BBC about his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. 

Andrew’s involvement with Epstein – who died by suicide in August 2019 after he was arrested for sex trafficking – began in the 1990s. But there were warning signs early on that the prince might become a liability for the royal family.  

From birth, Andrew was treated differently from his elder siblings, Charles and Anne. 

“The queen was very young when she had her two oldest children,” explains journalist Annette Witheridge. “By the time Andrew appeared, it was like, ‘Wow, this is motherhood.’ Whereas before, duty had come first, totally … now she can go, ‘OK, I can sit back a bit. I can be a mom. I can read him bedtime stories.’ She had time to enjoy Andrew.” 

“She was a very indulgent mother in that period,” confirms royal expert Valentine Low. 

Thanks to his status as the queen’s favorite, Andrew was able to behave in a way his siblings couldn’t – especially Charles. 

“The boundaries weren’t set for him,” says royal biographer Andrew Lownie. 

Prince Andrew’s status in the royal family diminished once Prince Charles married 

Despite his privileged and pampered upbringing, everyone knew that Andrew was not at the top of the royal pecking order. As he got older, his status as “the spare” began to weigh on him. When Andrew was 21, Charles married Diana. Once they had children, Andrew’s status fell even further. 

“We know from what Harry’s said that [being the spare] creates a strong sense of resentment and jealousy against the one who seems to have all the advantages,” Lownie says in Secrets of Prince Andrew. “Andrew had thought he was a master of the universe. It turned out he wasn’t. He was an accident waiting to happen for years.” 

It didn’t help thing that Andrew wasn’t as well off financially as his brother. Despite generous handouts from the queen, he didn’t have enough money to support his lavish lifestyle. That’s one reason he fell into the orbit of Epstein, a shady financier later accused of flying teen girls around the world to have sex with prominent men. 

Andrew thought he could explain his association with Epstein 

Melanie Trump, Prince Andrew, Gwendolyn Beck, and Jeffrey Epstein talking at a party in 2000
Melania Trump, Prince Andrew, Gwendolyn Beck, and Jeffrey Epstein at a party at the Mar-a-Lago club, Palm Beach, Florida, February 12, 2000 | Davidoff Studios/Getty Images
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Andrew’s association with Epstein began to raise eyebrows around 2011, when it came out that Epstein had loaned Andrew’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson a substantial sum of money. But the friendship didn’t become a major scandal until 2019, after Epstein was arrested. That prompted renewed attention to Virginia Giuffre’s 2014 claims that Epstein had forced her to have sex with Andrew when she was underage. (Andrew denied those allegations but later reached an out-of-court settlement with Giuffre.) 

With his reputation in tatters, Andrew thought he could repair the damage by talking to the BBC. While friends and associates warned him it was a bad idea, he was confident he could tell his side of the story. The possibility the interview could play out any other way didn’t occur to him, it seems. 

“He wanted to control the narrative,” BBC producer Sam McAlister says. “Imagine you’ve spent 59 years with everyone blowing smoke up you, telling you you’re incredible, you’re amazing. They never contradict you. He’s never had somebody say the word no.” 

Secrets of Prince Andrew premieres Monday, August 21 at 8 p.m. ET on A&E. It will be available to stream the next day on demand and to stream on the A&E App and AETV.com.

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