Prince Andrew’s world is finally coming crashing down.

We may only fully understand just how bad a PR move his BBC interview was in years to come, but we can already be certain that it was a blunder of epic proportions.

The public pressure on Buckingham Palace to act was ramped up exponentially off the back of that trainwreck, with news breaking late last week that the Queen had forced Andrew to step down from royal duties, and stripped him of that salary.

If you care, Andrew’s daughters, Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice, were said to be rallying around their father.

For your Monday update, let’s start with the Times of London, and the FBI’s potential involvement:

The FBI wants to interview Prince Andrew over his connection to Jeffrey Epstein…

Detectives leading the investigation into the Epstein sex-trafficking scandal are understood to be examining ways to interview the prince in Britain through the US justice department, which oversees the FBI.

US justice officials would be required to provide the duke’s lawyers with a detailed outline of what they hoped to achieve from the interview. It could be conducted only if he agreed to it.

“If he agrees to an interview, he could potentially provide some very unique and helpful insights and make a considerable difference to the investigation,” an FBI source said.

Given that Andrew has gone on the record as saying that he is willing to help out with the investigation, I expect the FBI to come knocking.

Then there’s the bit about Prince William, which comes via the Daily Mail, who are revelling in this royal scandal:

The Duke of Cambridge is ‘not a huge fan’ of Prince Andrew, it was reported today, amid claims he ‘hoodwinked’ the Queen by not warning her he was about to discuss the scandal at length in a disastrous BBC interview.

The Duke of Cambridge was unhappy with his uncle’s behaviour and decided his removal from public life was ‘the right thing to do’, a source [said].

Another said he had spoken to the Queen and Prince Charles about Andrew’s future, adding: ‘William is becoming more and more involved in decisions about the institution [monarchy] and he’s not a huge fan of his uncle Andrew.’

You’re not alone there, William.

Guess who’s even booted from the nest, otherwise known as Buckingham Palace? It’s your man Andrew, again. Here’s E!:

…the Duke of York has been ordered to move his private office out of Buckingham Palace…

A spokesperson for Buckingham Palace says…”The Duke will continue to work on Pitch and will look at how he takes this forward outside of his public duties, and outside of Buckingham Palace. We recognize there will be a period of time while this transition takes place.”

The Queen has also reportedly cancelled Andrew’s 60th birthday party, which was due to be a grand celebration held in February next year.

Instead, she will host a ‘small family dinner’, where I imagine there will be awkward clinkings of silver spoons on dinner plates, and Andrew stuck down the end of one of those long tables you see in the movies.

As for that ousting from the Palace itself, Andrew isn’t taking it lying down, with other reports stating that he’s already plotting his comeback:

The Duke of York intends to make a grand comeback after clearing his name…

But sources say that his brazen self-belief, which Palace insiders believe is misplaced, risks putting him on a potential collision course with the Prince of Wales.

Prince Charles was instrumental in effectively sacking his younger brother last week. And while Andrew’s statement said he was stepping back from public duties for the ‘foreseeable future’, it is understood that Charles has every intention of making his expulsion permanent…

Of Andrew’s planned comeback, a source said: ‘I can’t see that Charles would ever let it happen. And many at the Palace just want him out of the scene now – end of. It’s effectively an early retirement.’

The permanent departure of Andrew would assist Charles’s aim of creating a more streamlined and cost-effective monarchy when he becomes King.

Sure, there’s that whole ‘streamlined’ angle, and then there’s the fact that you’ve ousted a man who stands accused of having sex with at least one underage girl, and who repeatedly enjoyed the company of a convicted sex offender.

Another solid reason to oust Andrew from the Palace? Well, how about the people he invites over, once more from the Daily Mail:

Prince Andrew secretly met his friend Ghislaine Maxwell at Buckingham Palace in early June – just a fortnight after US prosecutors announced they were reopening their inquiry into the activities of convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, their mutual friend.

Ms Maxwell, the daughter of disgraced newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell, has been accused of procuring underage girls for Epstein [the pair below]. She denies the claims.

Andrew, 59, met Maxwell on June 6 inside the Prince’s private Palace quarters, and she is said to have brought four other people along with her.

‘They were all smartly dressed and looked very official… They stayed for about two hours.

‘It seems very likely they would have been discussing the fallout from Epstein’s misdemeanours and what they planned to do about it,’ a source [said].

Maxwell should not be visiting Buckingham Palace. That much is obvious to everyone except Andrew, I guess.

Finally, let’s end on something spicy, like Prince Andrew ‘motorboating’ a lap dancer at one of Epstein’s parties. Here’s the New York Post:

A former lap dancer says Prince Andrew once greeted her at Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan pad by burying his face between her breasts and blowing a raspberry.

“I was shocked, but I laughed, thinking, ‘Wow, what was that?’ … I guess being a prince gives you those privileges,” the woman [said]…

“Anyone doing that in a bar or in the street would have got a punch in the face, believe me.”

The lap dancer says she was paid by Epstein to hire young women for the party, including some who resembled Andrew’s former wife, Sarah Ferguson, in that they were “big-breasted and curvy”:

“They were mostly older teens paid $200, $300,” the woman said, adding that there were rooms upstairs in the posh townhouse set up for sex…

“The duke seemed in good spirits and was out to enjoy himself. I always thought Andrew liked my breasts. When he started to say hello, he looked at them first rather than me,” the woman said.

“He leaned forward and put his face on them and blew a raspberry.”

She said she laughed and that the prince “laughed, too. He’d never done it before, and I thought, ‘It’s going to be a good night.’

“He said I should be in a magazine for big-breasted women.”

The same woman said that she saw Andrew at a number of parties, usually whilst he was standing in close proximity and staring at her breasts, adding that she found him awkward and clumsy.

Hey, who needs game when your pal Jeffrey just pays the women?

Right, that’s enough about the shambles that is the Royal Family at present. I imagine Harry and Meghan are enjoying some time away from the front pages of tabloids around the world, although Andrew’s behaviour will no doubt embarrass them both.

The whole scandal has led to renewed calls for the end of the monarchy, and I can only agree that this outdated drain on the taxpayer has no place in modern society.

Then again, is the understood trade not taxpayer money for outright entertainment? If that’s the case, then they’re currently paying for themselves many times over.

[sources:timeslondon&dailymail&e!&dailymail&dailymail&nypost]