Prince Charles is currently in New Zealand on a royal tour with the Duchess of Cornwall. They were there this past weekend, when Prince Andrew’s trainwreck BBC interview aired. Charles is reportedly furious that the national and international conversation is about Andrew and not his Kiwi tour. But… Charles is usually upset that his travels aren’t reported on with the same kind of consistency as his sons’ travels. That’s nothing new. And Charles has been beefing with Andrew for years now, if not decades. Charles has long known that Andrew is an absolute moron, and the BBC interview debacle has just proven that Charles was right all along. Who comes out of the catastrophe smelling like a rose? Charles, yet again. So obviously, there’s talk that when Charles becomes king, he will shut down his brother’s status and “cancel” him completely. From the Daily Beast:

Charles is mad about Andrew overshadowing him: “Charles’ jealous streak is well known,” one friend of the family told The Daily Beast, “I can’t imagine he’ll be anything less than absolutely bloody furious about this.”

Charles will strip Andrew of his duties: “Charles does not want to inherit a crown that has been tarnished, scratched, and dented by a fresh round of scandals,” said royal writer Christopher Andersen. “Once he is king, he will almost certainly read Andrew the riot act, if he hasn’t already, strip him of many of his duties and responsibilities, and put him under the royal equivalent of might loosely be described as house arrest—a life of unlimited luxury and pomp, of course, but under the reign of Charles III, the Duke of York’s freedom to pursue his personal appetites will be significantly curtailed.”

Penny Junor says Charles will probably avoid stripping Andrew of his HRH status: “That would be pretty unthinkable. However it’s perfectly possible that he might not be given too many royal jobs and engagements. But his family do think that he is innocent of the underlying charge.”

Charles was forward-thinking once again: Undeniably, Charles’s assessment that having Andrew involved in the inner circle of family was of no benefit to The Firm has been proved absolutely spot on. This crisis would be much, much worse for the royals if Andrew still had a senior and highly visible role. The PR and crisis management consultant Mark Borkowski told The Daily Beast: “He hasn’t had a major role in public life since about 2011, but the reason he did this interview was to try and carry on with the little bit of public life he still has.”

Andrew is so useless: Borkowski says the fact that KPMG stopped sponsoring Pitch At The Palace in October gives a clue as to how the walls have been steadily closing in on Andrew’s existence: “He is reliant on his status and royal connections to wander around giving people completely useless advice about business entrepreneurship.” Andersen thinks that the Queen and Charles will be angry with Andrew for once again dragging the royal family into a scandal, “but frankly, I don’t think either of them are particularly appalled by Andrew’s underlying behavior. They are appalled by the fact that he was reckless enough to get caught. With all the other problems going on inside The Firm right now—the rift between William and Harry, Megan Markle’s obvious unhappiness—the revelations concerning Andrew and Epstein are just tossing more gasoline on the fire. Simply put, the monarchy is starting to look a lot shakier than it did just one year ago—and Andrew’s fumbled attempts at explaining away his shocking private life aren’t helping.”

[From The Daily Beast]

I sometimes do a game-theory in my head about whether Charles is the puppet-master, pulling everyone’s strings in the royal family. Does it sort of benefit Charles if his sons are at odds with each other? Does it benefit Charles that William and Kate look lazy, superficial and unprepared?
Does it benefit Charles that Harry & Meghan – arguably the two “star power” royals – seem so unhappy, unhappy enough to leave the UK? Does it benefit Charles that Andrew is seen as such a buffoon and a dull, rapist pervert? Does it benefit Charles that he seems like the only steady, hard-working and undramatic person in the family? But how much is Charles actually *doing* to make all of this happen?

As for the crux of the immediate issue – Andrew being stupid, gross and criminal – I sincerely hope that there is a larger conversation IMMEDIATELY about Andrew being stripped of everything royal and royal-adjacent. No more balcony trips with mummy, no more HRH, no more bread-and-butter royal appearances, no more royal patronages. None of it.

Photos courtesy of WENN.