Andrew’s time as special representative for international trade and investment has faced increased scrutiny, and now it’s been claimed that he once made a “gratuitously rude” comment
A former diplomat has claimed that Prince Andrew once made a “gratuitously rude” comment to a famous family. In recent weeks, the former prince’s time as special representative for international trade and investment has faced mounting scrutiny, with retired civil servants alleging that the taxpayer footed the bill for his massages and excessive travel costs.
It comes in the wake of his arrest by Thames Valley Police on suspicion of misconduct in public office on his 66th birthday last month, having been accused of sharing sensitive information with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
He spent 11 hours in police custody last month while officers searched his home on the Sandringham Estate. Andrew, who continues to deny any wrongdoing, was released under investigation.
In a recent update about his time as trade envoy, the UK’s ambassador to Italy from 2003 to 2006 has claimed that the disgraced royal offended a member of a prominent Italian fashion house.
The alleged snub reportedly occurred in 2004 during a trip to Florence, where Sir Ivor Roberts claims that, when introduced to a member of the Schiaparelli family, Andrew responded: “I’ve never heard of you.”
Speaking in The i Paper, Sir Ivor added: “It was just gratuitously rude.”
Born in 1890, fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli hailed from a distinguished family of aristocrats and intellectuals — her father directed the Lincei library, and her mother traced her lineage to the powerful Medici banking dynasty.
Known as a provocateur, Elsa’s designs “incorporate humour and surprise”, according to London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. Indeed, she played with “subversive details” and the imagery of the Surrealist movement.
In related news, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently disclosed one of Andrew’s ideas from his time as UK trade envoy.
In a recent column for the Daily Mail, Boris alleged that Andrew wanted to “knock down” Battersea Power Station, a Grade II-listed “architectural masterpiece” situated on the south bank of the River Thames.
Boris wrote: “The Duke of York had a series of ideas, perhaps gleaned from some of his international contacts, about how we could make London even more attractive to the world’s billionaire investors.
“Bear in mind that this was back in the good old days, before Starmer’s Pol Pot war on wealth creators. London at the time had more billionaires than any other city in the world.
“But the Duke thought that we could do better. Look at Battersea Power Station, he said. It was an eyesore, a ruin. It was blocking the development of a huge and potentially lucrative site at Vauxhall. Why don’t we just knock it down,’ he said.”
