Prince Andrew has given Prince Charles the perfect opportunity to trim the flab from a bloated monarchy, but will he take it?
For many years, Prince Charles has made it no secret that when he comes to the throne, he will be looking to streamline the monarchy.
He has always wanted to slim down the monarchy and given he is the heir to the throne, it is highly possible that he could end up doing so. Prince Charles recently landed in New Zealand for a royal tour, which has been totally overshadowed by the scandal surrounding Prince Andrew.
Prince Andrew had recently done a BBC interview which was considered to be disastrous and a major PR nightmare. As reported by the Daily Beast, a royal writer shared, "Charles does not want to inherit a crown that has been tarnished, scratched, and dented by a fresh round of scandals".
"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," the writer added.
In the past, Prince Charles has always been wary of peripheral members of the royal family given how in 2012, he decided to cut off Prince Andrew and his children and forbid their presence on the Buckingham Palace balcony post the Queen's diamond jubilee celebrations.
For 10 years until 2011, Prince Andrew's official role was Britain's trade envoy, which meant he had to suck up to international businessman on the behalf of Britain. Prince Charles had never been comfortable with his brother having such a sensitive role and thought he was ill-suited for the role.
It was also reported that Prince Charles regarded his brother's decision to give BBC an interview with "incredulity and alarm" and also considered the whole affair "misguided".