‘Prince Andrew’s problems are about to get even worse – what a nightmare for King Charles’

This right royal mess isn’t going to go away any time soon, writes Giles Sheldrick.

Andrew is bracing himself for the release of his accuser Virginia Giuffre’s memoir

Prince Andrew’s stock could hardly have been higher as Britain waged war with Argentina during the Falklands conflict in 1982.

Just three years after joining the Royal Navy the strapping young sub-lieutenant was thrown into mortal danger in the South Atlantic thousands of miles from home.

Serving with 820 Naval Air Squadron the handsome and bearded prince, then just 22, was a Sea King helicopter pilot on the aircraft carrier HMS Invincible, often acting as a decoy to draw away incoming Exocet missiles.

When critics later questioned his lavish lifestyle, partying, and laid back approach to public duties, his supporters would often hit back with the response: “And what exactly did you do during the Falklands War?”

And it was a fair point. For heartthrob Andrew, the all-action prince, his job meant death-defying sorties from the deck of the Royal Navy task force’s lead ship as the Argentine strike force tried to destroy the fleet.

He returned home a national hero, further cementing his status as the Queen’s favourite son, rising to the rank of commander and obtaining the honorary rank of vice admiral.

But perhaps his finest hour came on July 23, 1986 when he married Sarah Ferguson in Westminster Abbey in a wedding broadcast to a global television audience of 500 million.

A crowd of 100,000 even gathered to see the couple’s first public kiss on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. Their decade-long union produced two daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, but since his retirement from active service in 2001 Andrew has been plagued by repeated accusations of idleness and privilege.

Single Andrew is said to have enjoyed dalliances with a string of high-profile women including actress Koo Stark, former Miss UK Carolyn Seaward, Vicki Hodge, who starred in the 1974 film Confessions Of A Sex Maniac, and Angie Everhart.

The King has made the prince a pauper by stripping his title in an act of humiliation (Image: Getty)

By 2001 Andrew was becoming something of a curiosity with no defined role. He was made UK envoy with a remit to promote UK business interests abroad. He did not receive a salary but had his expenses and travel costs paid.

His judgement was called into question for holding meetings with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s son Saif and entertaining the son-in-law of Tunisia’s ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

But the greatest damage was yet to come.

Virginia Giuffre, then Roberts, alleged paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein trafficked her and got her to sleep with powerful pals, including Andrew, against whom she filed a lawsuit alleging he sexually abused her when she was 17.

The accusation has been vehemently and consistently denied. Ms Giuffre died by suicide in April, aged 41.

Today it is impossible to imagine his reputation could sink any further at a time the Royal Family, an institution unrivalled in the embodiment of entitlement and privilege, battles for relevance in a society riddled with division.

The prince is now effectively a pauper with nowhere left to turn. It is a parable about poor taste, questionable judgement, and greed without compare.

The mess will hardly come as a surprise to those who have watched Andrew flaunt himself down the decades but his predicament raises fresh questions about the very future of the monarchy.

In truth his decision to “give up” royal titles, including the Duke of York and other honours, was clearly not his but the result of direct intervention by an infuriated King Charles for whom his errant sibling has become an appalling distraction and continued stain on the family name.

He hoped this would be the end of the matter, but the nightmare might only just be starting.

When Andrew relinquished his titles the sense of relief must have been palpable at Buckingham Palace.

That has now been replaced with panic, fear, and foreboding, with Ms Giuffre’s posthumous tell-all book Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice set to be released today (Tuesday).

Despite efforts to ride the storm out, and in the process losing the power and privilege he holds dear while still being holed up with his ex-wife in their well-appointed Royal Lodge on Windsor Estate, Andrew and his family continue to find themselves in a right royal mess that could be about to become significantly worse.