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Several royal experts believe Prince Andrew, the disgraced Duke of York, should stay in the shadows and never return.
Attorney David Boies, who represented Virginia Giuffre in her sex assault lawsuit against the British royal, urged Andrew to “say sorry and come clean” following her death.
“I think she would have accepted Prince Andrew taking responsibility,” Boies said during a recent appearance on “Piers Morgan Uncensored,” as reported by the New York Post.
However, several royal experts have argued that the prince should do the opposite — never been seen or heard from again. There’s nothing he can do to redeem himself publicly, they stressed.
“Andrew needs to avoid being seen or heard for the rest of King Charles’ reign,” Kinsey Schofield, host of the “To Di For Daily” podcast, told Fox News Digital. “I’m not worried about a King William reign. William would put him in his place… but King Charles is weak, sick and detests confrontation, so Prince Andrew runs over him.”
“If you want to attend church with your family, fine — stay 100 feet behind them when photographers are around,” Schofield argued. “Otherwise, he should continue… horse riding privately on the property that King Charles asked him to surrender. Whether he’s innocent of the initial accusations is irrelevant. He’s guilty by association with Jeffrey Epstein.”
Giuffre, who accused Andrew and other influential men of sexually exploiting her as a teenager trafficked by Epstein, an American financier, took her life on Friday at her farm in Western Australia, her publicist confirmed. She was 41.
Schofield said Andrew had already done “enough talking” during his nuclear 2019 BBC interview in which he attempted to explain his connection to Epstein. Viewers saw a prince who proffered curious rebuttals — such as disputing Giuffre’s recollection of sweaty dancing by saying he was medically incapable of perspiring — and showed no empathy for the women who said Epstein abused them.
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Within days of the interview, Andrew stepped down from his royal duties.
“It was such a colossal failure of a PR strategy that there have been multiple scripted dramas made dissecting the horrific misstep,” Schofield pointed out.
Doug Eldridge, founder of Achilles PR, agreed.
“As a PR strategist and crisis communications expert, I have rarely, if ever, said this: Prince Andrew is probably beyond the point of no return as it relates to his public image and reputation,” Eldridge told Fox News Digital.
“I’m not sure what Prince Andrew’s destination is at this point, but he’s long since crossed the point where he can turn things around and return to the way they used to be,” Eldridge shared. “The accusations, the settlement, the seppuku-level public statements, and the informal relegation within the royal hierarchy, have all served to seal his fate.”
Eldridge noted that it’s not likely Andrew would admit any kind of wrongdoing as it would put him in legal hot water. He also pointed out that Andrew settled with Giuffre in 2022 for an undisclosed sum, agreeing to make a “substantial donation” to her survivors’ organization.
WATCH: VIRGINIA GIUFFRE, JEFFREY EPSTEIN AND PRINCE ANDREW ACCUSER, DEAD AT 41 BY SUICIDE: REPORT
A statement filed in court said that the prince acknowledged Epstein was a sex trafficker and Giuffre “an established victim of abuse.”
“A typical component of a settlement agreement is a non-disclosure clause,” Eldridge explained. “In effect, it means that in exchange for a financial sum, the party offering to settle enjoys a privacy/secrecy element related to the agreement… The settling party might not be required to publicly admit any wrongdoing. In this case, with the settlement agreement in place, and Virginia Giuffre now deceased, the details are unlikely to be made public.”
Giuffre, born Virginia Roberts in Sacramento, California, once told interviewers that her childhood was shattered when she was sexually abused as a grade-schooler by a man her family knew. She later ran away from home and endured more abuse, she said.
In subsequent lawsuits, Giuffre said she was approached by Epstein’s girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, in 2000. She said Maxwell hired her as a masseuse for Epstein, but the couple made her a sexual servant, pressuring her into gratifying not only Epstein but his friends and associates.
Giuffre said she was flown around the world for assignations with men, including Andrew, when she was 17 and 18.
WATCH: KING CHARLES SECRETLY PAYING PRINCE ANDREW’S RENT, AUTHOR CLAIMS
The men denied it and assailed Giuffre’s credibility. She acknowledged changing some key details of her account, including the age at which she first met Epstein. However, many parts of her story were supported by documents, witness testimony and photos — including one of her and Andrew, with his arm around her bare midriff, in Maxwell’s London townhouse.
“Prince Andrew’s image is so toxic, and his BBC interview did so much damage, that nothing he could say at this juncture would improve matters,” British royals expert Hilary Fordwich told Fox News Digital.
Fordwich claimed that senior members of the royal family “held an emergency meeting” after the announcement of Giuffre’s death.
“Prince Andrew was excluded,” Fordwich claimed. “Both Prince William and Kate Middleton have been concerned regarding any resulting backlash towards the royal family… The mood in the U.K. is one of heightened scrutiny and little sympathy for Andrew.”
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson previously told Fox News Digital they do not speak for the Duke of York as he is no longer a working royal.
Giuffre said in one of her lawsuits that she had sex with Andrew three times: in London during her 2001 trip, at Epstein’s New York mansion when she was 17, and in the Virgin Islands when she was 18. She said she met her now-husband in 2002 while taking massage training in Thailand at Epstein’s behest. She married, moved to Australia and had a family.
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Epstein killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial on U.S. federal sex trafficking charges involving dozens of teenage girls and young women, some as young as 14. The charges came 14 years after police in Palm Beach, Florida, first began investigating allegations that he sexually abused underage girls who were hired to give him massages.
Giuffre came forward publicly after the initial investigation ended in an 18-month Florida jail term for Epstein, who made a secret deal to avoid federal prosecution by pleading guilty instead to relatively minor state-level charges of soliciting prostitution. He was released in 2009. She went on to become an advocate for sex trafficking survivors and a central figure in Epstein’s prolonged downfall.
Andrew categorically rejected Giuffre’s allegations and said he did not recall having met her.
Maxwell was convicted in 2021 on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Royal expert Ian Pelham Turner told Fox News Digital he expects Andrew to follow his late mother Queen Elizabeth II’s mantra — never complain, never explain.
“[The royal family will] let it blow over, knowing that to say sorry would be to admit guilt,” he said. “In my view, Virginia Giuffre’s death will seem uncomfortable for now for the royal family, but ultimately end in closure.”
Giuffre separated from her husband this year. She had been charged with breaching a family violence restraining order over an incident in February and was set to appear in court in June in the city of Perth, where her estranged husband and children live. She had yet to enter a plea to the charge. A conviction would have carried a potential maximum sentence of two years in prison.
Most recently, Giuffre’s publicist said she was hospitalized after a serious accident. She is survived by her three children.
“The only thing that would, even in a small way, help Andrew’s reputation would be actions,” said Fordwich. “Such as charitable work for those impacted by sex trafficking or related charitable works. If he did this for several years and learned more about the resulting impacts and anguish, he could [possibly] speak, in time, with more genuine empathy.”
It is believed that Andrew first met Epstein in 1999. Andrew claimed he cut ties with Epstein shortly after the pair were photographed taking a stroll through Central Park. These days, he’s been attempting to keep a low profile at his Royal Lodge home.
