It’s been three and a half years since Queen Elizabeth passed away at the age of 96, but she is still missed by millions around the world to this day. Now, a royal author is speaking out to reveal what he believes is the biggest “mistake” that the Queen made months before her death. According to him, this “mistake” will cast a shadow over her legacy.
The Queen’s Alleged ‘Mistake’
Robert Hardman, author of Elizabeth II: In Private. In Public. The Inside Story, which hits stores on May 19, believes that the Queen made one huge mistake in her final years. This alleged mistake was her protecting Prince Andrew, who has long been seen as the favorite of her four children, amidst his links to the late billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In March of 2022, just a few months before her death in September of that year, the Queen helped to fund Andrew’s estimated $16 million civil settlement with the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre. She was a former sex slave of Epstein’s who claimed that she was forced to have sex with Andrew when she was an underage 17 year-old girl. Though Andrew settled the case, he denied any wrongdoing.
Hardman told People Magazine that the Queen’s decision to help fund this settlement “will go down as a mistake. And one that has outlasted her.”
Those who were close to the Queen acknowledge that this will always be a complicated part of her legacy.
“The Queen effectively sacked him and forced him to step back from public life. Which clearly he didn’t want to do,” said a close palace source. “I don’t think we should underestimate what it would take for a mother to do that. Throughout, she showed that when it came to the demands of family over the role, the role would win out.”
‘Her Greatness Remains…’
Hardman chimed back in to say that the Queen, who would have turned 100 on April 21, left behind a legacy that will always be larger than the royal family that she left behind.
“Her greatness remains,” Hardman said. “We tend to look at things through the prism of the present — particularly Andrew and Harry. But when you stand back and take in a 70-year reign and a 96-year life, those are important chapters. Not the defining elements.”
“She came into a man’s world. [She} held that institution together and handed it on in far better shape than people expected,” he continued.
Royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith, author of the Royals Extra Substack, was quick to agree.
“She was the calm in the face of problems,” Smith said. “People knew that they could count on her.”
The steadiness that the Queen exhibited during her record-breaking 70-year reign was evident when her country needed her the most.
“In moments of anguish, stress and crisis, she was the glue that kept us all together,” said her former press secretary Ailsa Anderson.
Anderson went on to say that the latest challenges that the royal family has faced, including Andrew’s Epstein scandal, “are not going to be [their] downfall.”
“They’re survivors. The monarchy has weathered far worse,” she concluded.
Whether you agree with the Queen’s decision to help her son Andrew or not, it can’t be denied that she was a legendary figure who will always be dearly missed.
Rest in peace, Queen Elizabeth.