Sombre looking Prince Andrew leaves his luxury ski chalet to fly home as the furore grew over claims he had underage sex with a teenager at an orgy.
The duke headed back from Verbier in Switzerland for talks with the Queen, royal lawyers and aides about the shock allegations made in US court papers, which he emphatically denies.
His mother was said to be horrified over the widely-circulated claims by Virginia Roberts that she was forced to sleep with Andrew three times as a 17-year-old by his former friend Jeffrey Epstein, who she has accused of turning her into a sex slave.
Prince Andrew Pictured With Virginia in 2001(there may be some fire beneath this smoke after all)
The Queen put on a stoical display as she attended a church service on her sprawling Sandringham estate with Prince Philip.
But behind the scenes palace staff were frantically working to limit the damage from the most serious claims ever to be made about a modern royal.
And there will be acute embarrassment to the monarchy that Andrew’s links with convicted paedophile Epstein have surfaced yet again.
One royal observer said: “The Queen will be totally appalled by all this.
“I would imagine she feels hard done by on Andrew’s behalf for this slamming he is getting and for all the allegations. We are told Andrew is her favourite son and there is a close bond.
“She has guided him through stormy waters before and the Epstein thing is something that keeps coming back to haunt them. They must think that they’ve seen the last of it but it’s a recurring nightmare as far as the Queen and the Duke of York are concerned.
“Inevitably this will cause damage to the monarchy. I think it’s going to get messier before it gets better.”
But behind the scenes palace staff were frantically working to limit the damage from the most serious claims ever to be made about a modern royal.
And there will be acute embarrassment to the monarchy that Andrew’s links with convicted paedophile Epstein have surfaced yet again.
One royal observer said: “The Queen will be totally appalled by all this.
“I would imagine she feels hard done by on Andrew’s behalf for this slamming he is getting and for all the allegations. We are told Andrew is her favourite son and there is a close bond.
“She has guided him through stormy waters before and the Epstein thing is something that keeps coming back to haunt them. They must think that they’ve seen the last of it but it’s a recurring nightmare as far as the Queen and the Duke of York are concerned.
“Inevitably this will cause damage to the monarchy. I think it’s going to get messier before it gets better.”
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