News that Prince Andrew has relinquished the title Duke of York and membership of the Order of the Garter might surprise the uninformed — providing greater reason to read “Entitled:”
The downside of fame and fortune appears uppermost in Andrew Lownie’s explosive biography “Entitled” — a gossipy book providing variation on a theme of tabloid journalism.
The biography makes a stronger case for republicanism than any academic study might. Members of the Commonwealth of Nations are unlikely to support the Royal Family after observing how unsympathetic the royals can be.
Pertinent after considering Prince Andrew’s reprehensible conduct is why the Palace Guard and White House advisors, minutely managing messages, allow collateral family members to become loose cannons on deck.
Doris Kearns Goodwin noted while promoting “No Ordinary Time” (1994) — her history of FDR’s White House — that the five Roosevelt children were married 19 times, collectively. JFK Jr. seemed ill-suited to public life. Presidential brothers Donald Nixon and Billy Carter, not to mention Neil Reagan, appeared not quite ready for prime time. Presidential progeny Neil Bush and Hunter Biden fared no better.
Prince Andrew, like Hunter Biden, needed tough love instead of indulgence from a codependent parent — the last thing in the world that such sorts should be given. Public relations efforts to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in both instances figuratively closed the barn door after valuable assets were lost.
Prince Andrew’s insatiable sexual addiction delivered him into Jeffrey Epstein’s machinations as predictably as if the Greek Fates preordained an outcome. A significant strength of the biography is exploration of Epstein’s wiles.
Jeffery Epstein did not pimp to ingratiate himself with well-connected cronies. He coldly and calculatedly pandered sexual favors to prominent people so he could sell compromising details to foreign governments, which could subsequently manipulate individuals refusing favors sought: Secretly filming sexual activity in flagrante delicto offers information that neither the palace nor the White House wants disseminated.
One example mentioned was that “… an arrest for Ghislaine [Maxwell] was imminent and Prince Andrew was not just someone who was naively friends with one sex offender — he was good friends with two of the most prolific sex traffickers in the world.”
The Daily Mail “detailed how Epstein and the prince had ‘partied together at least 20 times — even after the financier was convicted,’ in New York, Palm Beach, Little Saint James, Thailand, Buckingham Palace, Balmoral, Sandringham and Windsor Castle.”
Jeffrey Epstein’s mentor Steven Hoffenberg commented that, “Andrew had a weakness for the girls and fast life, Epstein provided that fantasy…. Andrew would… give intelligence that Epstein would give to Israel. This was happening when I was working with Epstein.” Epstein boasted that Andrew was his “Super Bowl trophy.”
Lownie ultimately opines that “It was Prince Andrew’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and Virginia Giuffre that was instrumental in his fall from grace, far more than press criticisms of his role as special representative, his financial scandals or his abuse of taxpayers’ money.
It is clear how Epstein played Andrew. The prince was a useful idiot who gave him respectability and access to political leaders and business opportunities. What drew Andrew to Epstein? An opportunity to join the super rich and a lifestyle to which the duke had long aspired, a supply of available women, a chance to make money himself and someone who would bankroll his life as well as settle his ex-wife’s debts. Both men, ostensible friends, used each other but it was an unequal relationship. According to one of Prince Andrew’s friends, Epstein to Andrew ‘was like putting a rattlesnake in an aquarium with a mouse.’
“… ‘If the unconditional truth is ever released I think the British public would try to impeach the Royal Family. Because a lot of Andrew’s wrongdoings were done on the British taxpayer’s tab.’”
A historic phrase of disparagement among the English aristocracy is: “Not quite our type, dear.” Detail easily accessible in the Information Age delineates that the Royal Family — the epitome of English nobility — is arguably “Not quite our type, dear.”
Jay Wiener is a Northsider
