Prince Andrew scandal over Jeffrey Epstein links is supreme test for Queen and Royals — Jayne Dowle

It hasn’t been the best of years for the 93-year-old monarch. The determination of her grandson, Prince Harry, to do things his own way with his American wife; the reported rift between Harry and his brother Prince William; the election uncertainty; and then the Duke of York.

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In different times, perhaps Prince Andrew’s friendship with the late, disgraced paedophile Jeffery Epstein could simply be banished to the tower named ‘public embarrassment’. Andrew might have been sent away on a long overseas tour, or tasked with heading up some enterprise well away from public scrutiny.

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Until the car-crash interview with Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis, with no less a backdrop than Buckingham Palace reminding viewers of his privilege and sense of entitlement, made his perilous situation a lot worse. Now there are calls from lawyers for Epstein’s victims that the Queen’s second son should be prevailed upon to speak to the FBI about what he knows.

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Already, he has been effectively ‘retired’ from Royal life, and stripped of his £249,000 a year Sovereign Grant. As Andrew is cut adrift from ‘the Firm’, the first question is, will anyone notice?

And the second question is, if something as monumental as the monarch’s second son being effectively dumped can happen so boldly, what does it signal for other close members of his family?

A restructuring consultant would probably tell Her Majesty to focus on the line of succession. This, after all, is the prime purpose of and justification for retaining a monarchy in a modern democracy.

In this role, Prince William and his wife perform their jobs impeccably. You only have to look at William’s often-furrowed brow to realise that the weight of expectation sits heavily upon him.

I’d argue that in recent years, whilst we have all been dazzled by Harry, perhaps we have been guilty of neglecting to take into account the other side of the sibling relationship. If Harry has changed since he met Meghan, how much has William changed since he became aware of his responsibilities as a future monarch.

In any family, as children reach full-blown adulthood, the dynamics shift. Most of us never even give this a thought, because we don’t live in the public eye and our house renovations aren’t funded by the public purse. Yet what is clear is that behind the scenes, this much-talked of reform is happening already.

Perhaps Harry and Meghan will decide to leave Windsor behind and make their main base in America; in which case, a sensible family should allow them to go and get on with it.

Meanwhile, the Queen’s other grandchildren, including Prince Andrew’s daughters, Eugenie and Beatrice, seem perfectly capable of operating in the outside world. It’s here that serious discussions should be had between Palace and government about the level of public funding still afforded this generation; the security bill for Eugenie’s wedding last year alone was thought to be around £2m.

Also, as always with the Royals, it is useful to see the bigger picture. It is reported that the Prince of Wales persuaded his mother to come down hard on his brother. It is also reported that there is a plan, over the next few years, for Charles to become Prince Regent when his mother turns 95.

She is still in charge, and if change is to come about, it must be driven by Her Majesty. She has shown herself capable of change over the years; from a distant figure castigated for failing to show grief at the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, to that impromptu hospital visit to the teenage victims of the Manchester Arena terrorist attack in 2017.

And she must know that the British monarchy is not just a crown, but a fluid, constantly moving and evolving institution. As monarch for 70 years, she has led this evolution. You only need to dip in and out of the acclaimed TV drama The Crown, now in its third series, to realise that.

Although much of the dialogue – and some of the plotlines – are imaginative, what is clear is that the role she inherited from her father in 1952 has changed beyond all recognition. Simply by living as long as she has, and living through some of the most tumultuous times in British life, Her Majesty has learned that the key to survival is adaptability. What now needs to happen is for her children, and their children and grandchildren, to accept that, too.