Royal author Andrew Lownie sits down with the Mirror to mark the release of the newly updated bestseller, Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, which features explosive new claims about Andrew and Sarah
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie have been dragged further into their parents’ scandal as fresh allegations emerge.
Uncomfortable questions about the siblings’ finances have been raised ever since Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and Sarah Ferguson were unceremoniously stripped of their royal titles. And now a royal author claims that Beatrice and Eugenie were asked to submit a financial audit by King Charles and Prince William, but refused. He also alleges to The Mirror that Fergie may be “negotiating” for a “nice pension” in exchange for not taking part in a tell-all interview.
Andrew Lownie’s biography, Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, sent shockwaves through royal circles last summer with bombshell claims about Andrew and Sarah. After years of research, Lownie painted a picture of a truly toxic pair, with allegations of sordid affairs, reckless spending and staff bullying. And his updated book, released today, is brimming with new material.
READ MORE: New Andrew and Sarah claims laid bare – ‘dog abuse, bullying and paying a psychic with fags’
While Beatrice and Eugenie have retained their royal titles, they’ve not escaped scrutiny. “The daughters are clearly footballs in this thing,” the author tells us ahead of his paperback release. “The fact that they are still swanning around the Middle East, using their titles…it doesn’t send out the right signals if you want to work your passage back. It’s confusing.”
He further claims that when it comes to Fergie’s future, she may well be negotiating over whether or not she has a continued place somewhere in the royal orbit, or will be left out in the cold. “That may be what Fergie’s negotiating at the moment. Can she get a nice pension from them and not have to do an Oprah interview,” he alleges.
“I think it’s a very schizophrenic relationship at the moment with the royals and Beatrice and Eugenie,” Lownie adds. “One minute they’re very publicly being told they’re not going to be invited to Ascot, then they are going. You get the sense of distancing and I think there’s possibly two schools of thought here. There’s Camilla, William and Kate, who see the reputational damage and want to keep them at arm’s length, and then there’s Charles who is a bit sentimental and feels obligated to be protective”.
Lownie alleges there may be a hidden motive behind King Charles’ decision to keep Beatrice and Eugenie somewhat in the royal fold. “He might be under pressure from Andrew because I think a deal was done to get him out of Royal Lodge that said, ‘We’ll take care of your daughters’. So he would be kind of torn and can’t go back on that deal,” he claims.
He also argues there’s a “double standard” when it comes to the Firm’s treatment of the York women compared to Harry and Meghan – none of whom are working royals. “Poor old Meghan has watched Fergie for the last 40 years selling her jam and doing all sorts of things – and quietly doing it in the States.
“Sarah would argue she wasn’t a royal – but she was clearly living in Royal Lodge, and still semi royal – and the Sussexes must have thought ‘well we can do the same’. They are double standards, the Royal Family don’t have much control over them”.
Beatrice and Eugenie have not responded to the Mirror’s request for comment on the claims over their finances. But this is not the only new allegation haunting the York family, who have been caught in scandal for months.
In Lownie’s new updated book, he claims that Andrew once kicked a dog on a royal shooting trip, behaved in a ‘foul manner’ towards staff and now speaks of his ‘distress’ and ‘regret’ over how the Epstein scandal has affected his family.
The author also claims that Sarah stayed in an apartment block belonging to Jeffrey Epstein’s brother Mark, on more than one occasion in 2013 – two years after she publicly disowned the sex offender. A source also claims that she would have “married” Epstein if he had ever asked.
As Andrew and Sarah’s ties to Epstein have been brought under the microscope in recent months, Lownie claims it’s clear that relations between the once-close family have ruptured. “The [claim] that Eugenie didn’t tell her father about her pregnancy shows just how fractured that relationship may be,” he says.
After hearing from a ‘long serving’ personal assistant to Fergie in his book, who told him that she saw every social interaction as a “business opportunity’, Lownie believes that “this culture has been passed down to the daughters as well”. And when it comes to their future in the Firm, the author muses: “Do they keep them in the tent, or outside the tent?”
For Lownie – a self-described “disillusioned monarchist” after all his researching – “transparency” is the only way to ensure the future of the monarchy. And he sees one simple solution: a royal register, something he fiercely advocates for to stop royals from leveraging their status for personal gain, and to protect them from bad actors.
“It’s so important we have a royal register, like the parliamentary register, which parliament was going to do 20 years ago, because if all these royals, Prince Michael of Kent, Peter Phillips, had to say ‘I’m being paid this, this and this, by these people to promote, milk,’ or whatever it is, then at least we know what’s what. But at the moment, we have no idea.”
Addressing Andrew’s security needs, Lownie argues that while the ex duke absolutely needs security, he must pay for it out of his own pocket. “My view is that he can afford it and he does need security and he should do it,” Lownie says. “He should be paying for his own security, he’s brought these problems on himself.”
“I do think it just needs five cars when he is out to stop him, in the way they did with Princess Anne, cut him off and do a raid, a bit like a bank raid.
“He could be kidnapped, or [attacked]. There is a duty of care for him, either he pays for it or Charles pays for it, but I don’t think the public is going to swallow him getting more taxpayers money, given this is a problem of his own making.”
One shock claim in the new book sees Andrew accused of kicking his dog in the head, and leaving it “whimpering on the ground”. The guest told Andrew off for the alleged act of animal cruelty, to which Andrew is claimed to have replied, “P*** off” and said it was none of the guest’s business.
Later, Prince Philip is claimed to have approached the family friend and told them they were “absolutely right” to put Andrew in his place, and that his son needed a “good scolding” every so often.
“This guy can ask for 16 year old blondes and [apparently] no one’s too worried, but as soon as he hits his dog, everyone’s in uproar,” Lownie says about the reaction to the story. Among the new claims in Lownie’s book is that, upon an invitation to open a Bahamian golf course and resort in 2004, Andrew allegedly sent in a litany of demands that included a hefty appearance fee and a request for “sixteen-year old blondes”.
“It’s extraordinary, it’s so revealing, he had this power over the rest of the family that they kind of left him alone,” Lownie says. “What’s so odd is that Philip didn’t really discipline him, because this source – who was almost family to the Royal Family – you wouldn’t have thought they would have cared about embarrassing Andrew in front of him, but that clearly was a factor.”
Only Prince Edward is known to have visited Andrew in Norfolk since his exile, of which Lownie says: “It’s interesting that Edward’s gone, I didn’t think there was great love lost between the brothers, though they are the closest in age”.
Delving into their fraught dynamic, the author tells the Mirror of an allegation from Britannia in 1979. “Andrew wouldn’t come up and thank the staff as they disembarked and Edward who was only about 14 at the time gave him a really tough time, and really stood up to him.”
Ultimately, Lownie believes that the Royal Family still have questions to answer. “The game changer has been the Epstein releases, because we have just seen chapter and verse, but why didn’t they do anything in August when my book came out? Or when Fergie was caught selling access to Andrew in 2010, he remained trade envoy for another year….you just get the sense that until they are forced to act, until people heckle them, they just hope the problem will go away. I think they should explain what they knew, when.”
Lownie is not finished with the former Prince Andrew yet, revealing to the Mirror that he has already begun work on a follow-up about the former couple, called ‘Untitled’.
The Mirror has approached Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, Sarah Ferguson, Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice and the Palace for comment.
The updated version of Entitled: The Rise and Fall of The House of York by Andrew Lownie is out now
