Prince Andrew 'return to public life' update as new TV drama raises fresh Jeffrey Epstein questions

Prince Andrew's reputation - already in tatters over his connections to sex fiend billionaire Jeffrey Epstein - will be further scrutinised with a new docudrama revisiting the royal's disastrous BBC interview

Prince Andrew faces further humiliation after a new TV drama raises fresh questions over his relationship with a convicted paedophile that led to his exile from the royal family.

The disgraced Duke of York was forced to step back from royal duties after a disastrous interview with BBC Newsnight in 2019, which delved into his toxic friendship with the late billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein.

A new three part series released on Thursday on Amazon Prime, titled A Very Royal Scandal, revisits tawdry allegations that Andrew, 64, had sex with 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre who was trafficked around the world by Epstein and his lover Ghislaine Maxwell.

Sources close to the prince said he was “resigned” to the fact he will never return to public life, with his reputation in tatters, and was bracing himself for further ignominy.

The programme, with award winning actor Michael Sheen as the prince and Ruth Wilson as former BBC journalist Emily Maitlis, who acts as executive producer on the project, presents the duke as arrogant and entitled while surrounding himself with clueless palace aides which led to his downfall.

A source said: “He (the Duke) knows there is no way back for him, even before this latest indignity. The public made their mind up long ago and even his own family have an arm’s length relationship with him. It really is all over for him.”

The latest Amazon instalment on the Duke of York’s fall from grace follows the Netflix movie ‘Scoop’, released in March starring Rufus Sewell as the prince and Gillian Anderson as Emily Maitlis.

Until recently, friends of the Duke said he still believed he could find a way back into public life if he was to “keep his head down for a bit”. But the reality of life on the sidelines has since set in, with Andrew spending his days as a virtual recluse at his Royal Lodge home apart from occasional horse rides in the nearby Windsor estate.

Andrew in 2022 reached an out-of-court settlement of £12million with Ms Giuffre, following a civil claim against him in the US, alleging Andrew had sex with her on three occasions in 2001.

The Duke has continued to vehemently deny any wrongdoing.

Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in Manhattan in August 2019 while he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.

Since then Andrew’s publically funded security was cut off as he was no longer a working royal and supplemented by the late Queen and then the King.

However the Duke, whose finances have often been shrouded in mystery, has been embroiled in a row over his living arrangements as the monarch has attempted to persuade him to move out of his 30 room mansion and into the nearby four bedroom Frogmore Cottage, where Prince Harry and his wife Meghan formerly lived.

The King has also told his brother he will no longer pay for his private security detail which is due to come to an end in weeks. One palace insider said the royal family were “utterly exasperated by the whole episode” and said it was “unlikely” they would watch the Amazon drama. Another source said: “What more can be said that we don’t already know? The feeling is this has been covered extensively and nothing is going to change from what has occurred.”

While Andrew has found himself cut off from friends and family, the King did declare to his inner circle that his brother would be brought in from the cold for “family events”.

The duke was seen driving the Prince and Princess of Wales to church last summer and has been invited to spend Christmas with the King and extended family.

Buckingham Palace did not comment.