When Prince Harry and Meghan stepped back as working royals, they were swiftly stripped of the trappings of royal life, but it took much longer for the same to happen to disgraced Prince Andrew

Harry wrote in his memoir about Andrew’s scandal

Prince Harry’s scathing comments about his disgraced uncle are coming back to haunt him as Prince Andrew remains engulfed in controversy.

When Meghan first joined the Royal Family after marrying Harry, there was excitement in the air – with the Sussexes, along with Prince William and Princess Kate, swiftly dubbed the ‘Fab Four’.

However, behind closed doors, things weren’t quite as rosy as they might have seemed. While Harry and Meghan embarked on a charm offensive during their official engagements, taking their public duties in their stride, privately they were struggling, with Meghan later revealing she experienced mental health difficulties and even suicidal thoughts.

Relations were also breaking down with some of the other senior royals, with Harry even admitting before their exit from the UK that he and his brother were on “different paths”. When they announced they wanted to stop undertaking royal duties full-time, the news sent shockwaves across the nation.

With the late Queen and her advisors deciding there could be no ‘half-in, half-out’ option for the couple, many of the trappings of their royal life, including their police security, were swiftly taken away – standing in stark contrast to the disgraced Prince Andrew, who is once again under renewed scrutiny for the many scandals he has been embroiled in.

Meghan and Harry faced the same high “threat level” as the late Queen, Harry claimed in his memoir, and so it came as a total surprise to the Duke of Sussex when he received the news that their taxpayer-funded security was to be removed in 2020.

The couple was in Canada at the time, with their young son, Prince Archie, and borders were closing in quick succession in an attempt to curb the spread of the Covid pandemic. Their location had been made public, and the couple felt like ‘sitting ducks’ – but luckily, aid came from a surprising source.

Hollywood mogul, Tyler Perry, stepped in and offered the Sussex family both the use of his private security team and his mansion whilst they found their feet, providing them with a safe haven.

However, Harry revealed in his memoir, one of the main reasons he had assured Meghan that there was no way their security would be pulled was the case of his disgraced uncle, Prince Andrew.

Andrew announced on Friday that he will voluntarily give up the use of his duke title and his royal honours, after a 10-minute phone call with his “weary” elder brother, King Charles, but he has not been a working royal for six years.

The King’s errant younger brother stepped back from public duty in 2019, after he undertook a sit-down with Newsnight discussing allegations of sexual assault made against him by Virginia Giuffre, which he categorically denies, and his long-term friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

However, he retained his police security, despite being mirred in scandal. Harry, clearly seething over the decision, wrote in his memoir, “Despite being involved in an embarrassing scandal, accused of having sexually abused a young woman, nobody had suggested removing his security. People may have a lot of grievances towards us, but sexual offences weren’t one of them.”

According to reports, it was not until 2022 that Andrew’s police security was removed, but the late Queen continued paying his private security bill.

King Charles followed suit for a time, before the monarch reportedly stopped funding this in 2024, in an attempt to encourage Andrew to move out of Royal Lodge.