UPDATE  (November 20, 2019): Less than a day after we reported the Queen’s intention to meet privately with Prince Andrew about his Epstein connection, the Duke of York publicly announced he is stepping down from his royal duties.

The Royal Family issued a formal statement on Twitter. The statement indicates that it was Prince Andrew’s decision to step down for “the foreseeable future”.

In the statement, the Prince says, “It has become clear to me over the last few days that the circumstances relating to my former association with Jeffrey Epstein has become a major disruption to my family’s work and the valuable work going on in the many organizations and charities that I am proud to support.”

Read the full statement here:

Resume Original Story >>>>>

Yesterday we reported about Prince Andrew’s ‘train wreck’ of an interview over the weekend. In the interview, the 59-year-old Duke of York  opened up  about his friendship with the late disgraced billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. Now, a royal expert, and former spokesman for Queen Elizabeth, disclosed the Queen is having “a rough time” dealing with the fallout from this interview. And, that she plans to confront her son about his relationship with the convicted pedophile.

Queen Elizabeth To Hold Private Meeting With Prince Andrew

Dickie Arbiter, who was the Queen’s former spokesman during the scandal-ridden years of Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s marriage, said in a Tuesday interview that the Queen and Prince Andrew will be meeting privately to discuss the Epstein scandal.

“We’ve got to look at the queen as two people,” Arbiter said, according to Fox News. “She’s queen, head of state, but she’s also a mother. And she will be looking at her son, and will be asking, ‘Did this really happen?’ in a private conversation. She has to put on a brave face in public.”

“She has to be collegiate in public, but in private, she will really want to know, ‘Andrew, what is going on?’” he continued. “And I don’t think she’s getting the answers.”

RELATED: Prince Andrew’s BBC Epstein Interview Is a “Train Wreck” For Royal Family

The Queen Is Having A ‘Rough Time’

Arbiter went on to say that he believes the Queen, 93, has had “a rough time” dealing with the entire scandal surrounding her son and Epstein. This comes as lawyers for Epstein are calling on Andrew to tell American authorities everything he knows about possible illegal activity that took place.

“It is a serious issue,” Arbiter explained. “He was friends with a convicted pedophile. He went over there, as he said, he was doing the honorable thing to break off a friendship. Well, if you know somebody who is a convicted pedophile, you would keep within a million miles. He claimed he didn’t know what was doing on.”

RELATED: Queen Elizabeth Bans Any Discussion Of Prince Harry And Meghan Markle In Her Presence

“He also claimed that Epstein’s house was a bit like a railway station,” he added. “Well, if it’s a bit like a railway station and you see all these underage ladies walking through, aren’t you going to ask questions, aren’t you going to wonder why they are all there?”

Prince Andrew Needs a “Sabbatical” From Royal Duties

Various women connected with Epstein have claimed that Andrew had sex with them when they were underage. Because of these allegations, Arbiter said that Andrew needs to take a step back from his royal duties.

Read Virginia Robert’s account of that night: Virginia Roberts Giuffre Details First Sexual Encounter With Prince Andrew At 17

“In private life, you send them on gardening leave, and I think with Prince Andrew, it’s a sabbatical, and until this is resolved, he really does need to step back,” he said.

Earlier in the week, Arbiter said that Andrew should stop talking to the press altogether, as he described his interview over the weekend as “disastrous.”

“It was a rotten idea,” Arbiter said. “If it was done as a means of crisis management, then all they have done is manage to create a new crisis. He needs to take a sabbatical. If you look back earlier in the year there was an engagement in Northern Ireland and they canceled it [because of the scandal]. What charity wants a VIP guest with this hanging over him?”

Hopefully, the Queen will not only get to the bottom of what really happened between her son and Epstein but also take any appropriate recourse.

Mentioned in this article:

More About: