‘No muck-raking hack': SkyNews.com.au royal expert Nigel Jones defends author's credibility amid his bombshell claim Prince Harry brawled with Andrew over Meghan

Sky News AU

a day ago

Just when it seemed that peace was about to break out within the feuding British Royal Family - new revelations about the appalling behaviour of that 'oafish boor' Prince Andrew have been hitting the headlines.
Days ago, rumours were rife that the cancer-stricken King Charles was about to kiss and make up with his estranged wayward second son Prince Harry after the two men's communications chiefs held a secret meeting in London.
But the spotlight has shifted back to the King's brother Andrew with the publication of a scorching new biography of the disgraced Duke of York.
Titled 'Entitled: the rise and fall of the House of York' the book has been splashed over the front pages of The Daily Mail, Britain's best-selling newspaper, and is nothing less than a brutal takedown on what little was left of Andrew's reputation.
The biography's author, Andrew Lownie, is no amateur muck-raking hack, but a serious historian who has made a speciality of forensically demolishing Royal reputations.
Lownie's last two books laid into the Duke of Windsor, the former King Edward VIII, who abdicated for love in 1936, branding him a Nazi-sympathising traitor who plotted to regain his throne with Hitler's help; and accused King Charles's beloved uncle, Lord Louis Mountbatten, (who was murdered by the IRA in 1979), of being an incompetent nitwit who had caused thousands of needless deaths as a commander in World War Two, and during his stint as the last Viceroy of British ruled India in 1948.
For good measure, Lownie also charged Mountbatten with being a barely-closeted gay, while his wife Edwina was branded a promiscuous woman who probably bedded India's revered first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
Now Prince Andrew is the latest target in Lownie's crosshairs, with a raft of new allegations against the second son of the late Queen Elizabeth.
Lownie claims that before his marriage Harry physically assaulted his uncle, leaving him with a bloody nose, after the Duke of York cruelly dissed both Harry's future wife, Meghan Markle, and his late mother Diana, the Princess of Wales.
Andrew is said to have enraged Harry by predicting behind his back that the marriage 'wouldn't last a month', and that Harry was making a huge mistake by not investigating the Hollywood starlet's past.
A spokesman for Harry and Meghan has officially denied the book's 'damaging and defamatory' claims of a fight between the Royal Dukes, and Harry has sent a legal letter to the Mail repeating the denial.
The book also claims the heir to the throne Prince William detests both Prince Andrew and his ex wife Sarah 'Fergie' Ferguson who share a sumptuous 30-room mansion, Royal Lodge near Windsor, despite being long divorced.
The Prince of Wales is said to support his father's efforts to oust the odd couple from their palatial residence, and is reputed to want the lodge to live in for himself, his wife Kate and their children.
Lownie writes that Andrew is widely despised in the Royal family for his oafish and boorish behaviour.
York officially stepped back from his Royal duties in 2019, after revelations of his friendship with the notorious US paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, but he has continued to attract unwelcome attention, most recently following the suicide in Australia of Virginia Giuffre, a victim of Epstein who accused Andrew of trafficking her for sex when she was a minor: a charge he has always denied, despite reportedly paying her millions in a legal settlement of her claims.
So long as the 64-year- old Duke lives and breathes, it seems, scandal will follow him as surely as night follows day.
To declare a personal interest, Andrew Lownie is my literary agent. After knowing him well for decades, I have complete confidence in his honesty and competence.