Queen stripped Diana of 'HRH' title after divorce from Charles, so why does Prince Andrew still have his, fumes Piers Morgan
Piers Morgan has called on the Queen to strip Prince Andrew of his title (Duke of York) after the events of the last few days. In a column for Mail Online, Morgan said that if Prince Andrew wasn't fit for public duties anymore, he should not have the privileges to be called His Royal Highness either.
"Andrew has brought disgrace to the royal family and plunged the Monarchy, and his poor mother, into a constitutional crisis that could yet be far more devastating and far-reaching than it already is. If he’s not fit for duty then he’s not fit for our respect either," Morgan said.
Andrew said in a statement that he was stepping away from his royal duties "for the foreseeable future" due to continuing controversy over his former friendship with convicted American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The "catastrophic" interview with the BBC only added to his problems and the world saw a major royal shakeup, something that was compared to King Edward VIII's abdication in 1936 after protocol forbade his marriage with American divorcee Wallis Simpson.
Morgan compared the consequences Prince Andrew has faced for being involved with a man who is currently being investigated by the FBI for sex trafficking as far less severe than what Princess Diana faced, for having an affair. "It’s an abject humiliation, of course, especially for an arrogant piece of work who has swanned through life loving his lavish taxpayer-funded existence as a playboy prince," he said, speaking of his dismissal, "Yet many with long memories, like me, will wonder why he’s still being allowed to call himself His Royal Highness?"
Princess Diana also had a "devastating" interview with BBC back in 1995, Morgan says where she confirmed her affair with James Hewitt and made some seriously shocking claims about Prince Charles and the royals. "Retribution came fast and furiously," wrote Morgan, noting that the Queen sent a letter to Diana "insisting" that she and Charles divorced. Charles, Morgan says, wanted to take it up a notch.
"But Charles, appalled by his wife’s behavior, went one step further and demanded she also be stripped of Her Royal Highness title and known after the divorce as Diana, Princess of Wales," he wrote. The stripping of the HRH title came with the loss of privileges that includes free travel, staff and security, bows and curtsies and palace quarters, he wrote.
"Diana was so upset by losing the HRH that Prince William, then just 14 years old and heir to the throne after his father Charles, reportedly told her: ‘Don’t worry Mummy, I will give it back to you one day when I am King.’ He was never to get the chance," wrote Morgan.
He also added that had Diana still been under Royal protection, it may have prevented her death in the Paris car accident. "If his association with a convicted pedophile is considered so heinous that his own mother has had to fire him, then why the hell should anyone now be expected to bestow any regal civilities towards him?" Morgan said. He pointed out BBC interviewer Emily Maitlis ended the interview by saying, "Thank you... Your Royal Highness" - a royal protocol.
It would be a personal pain for the Queen to strip him of the HRH title but he recommends she do it. "...the Queen should announce he is being stripped of the HRH title, or she will send a message to the world that getting divorced from her sons is a worse offense than cozying up to a man convicted of procuring a 14-year-old girl for prostitution."
He even recommended a title - "If Andrew wants a title, then Prince Pinocchio will do just fine."