The late Queen Elizabeth II faces renewed criticism over her decision to personally bankroll Prince Andrew's multi-million-pound legal settlement.
According to veteran royal biographer Robert Hardman, the monarch's choice to intervene in her son's civil case with Virginia Roberts Giuffre stands as the 'one big mistake' of a seventy-year reign otherwise defined by duty.
In his forthcoming book,Elizabeth II: In Private, In Public,Hardman argues that this intervention was a strategic error that has outlived the Queen and left a stain on the monarchy's reputation.
Despite stripping Andrew of his public roles following the disastrous Newsnight interview, the Queen's maternal loyalty allegedly clouded her judgment regarding the Prince Andrew settlement. This revelation comes as the Royal Family crisis deepens in 2026, following the shock arrest of Andrew on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
Hardman, whose forthcoming book revisits the late monarch's 70‑year reign, told People that her intervention in Andrew's legal battle stands apart from the rest of her record.
He said Elizabeth's choice to help pay the Giuffre settlement 'will go down as a mistake ... and one that has outlasted her.'
Sources who spoke to Hardman insist the decision did not come easily. Palace insiders described the late Queen as conflicted, torn between maternal loyalty to a son long thought to be her favourite and the need to protect the Crown from the fallout of his association with Epstein.
'The Queen effectively sacked him and forced him to step back from public life, which clearly he didn't want to do,' one source told the biographer, recalling how shestripped Andrew of his public roles after his disastrous Newsnight interview in 2019. '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.'
Giuffre, who later died by suicide in April 2025, had accused Andrew of abusing her on multiple occasions when she was a teenager. In her posthumous memoir, Nobody's Girl, she wrote of being 'forced to have intercourse' with him and described the prince as 'friendly enough, but still entitled – as if he believed having sex with me was his birthright.'
Those are allegations Andrew and his legal team rejected.
Source: International Business Times UK
