PRINCE Andrew may not be the recluse he is sometimes portrayed as these days but his landmark 65th birthday next week is expected to be a small affair.
In years gone by he might have expected a lavish party at Windsor Castle hosted by his mother Queen Elizabeth for a milestone birthday, bells tolling in celebration at Westminster Abbey, and showbusiness friends turning out in droves to add to the sense of glamour.
But his birthday celebration this year will be muted, a sign of his fall from grace.
Quite where it is happening remains a closely guarded secret so far among the diminishing number of people who remain publicly loyal to him.
"I imagine there will be a small gathering at Royal Lodge (the Duke of York’s 30-room home at Windsor)," said Andrew Lownie, the author who has spent the past few years researching a book on the King’s brother and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.
Lownie, who has been at the forefront of efforts to investigate the murky business dealings of Andrew and his friends, including an alleged Chinese spy now banned from Britain, contrasted this year’s birthday on February 19 with the Duke’s 60th.
"I don’t think the Chinese ambassador will be there this time," he said wryly.
Nancy Dell’Olio, the Italian-American lawyer who found fame as the partner of England football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson and went on to be a contestant in Strictly and Celebrity Big Brother, met him through her friendship with his ex-wife Fergie.
The two women have worked together on charity projects and have several mutual friends.
She has found the much-maligned Duke to be delightful company.
"I wish him a happy birthday," she said.
"He is a lovely gentleman. He is a nice person from what I have seen of him with friends.
“I have loved seeing the way he manages his relationship with his ex-wife and with his daughters and grandchildren.
“I think he is a lovely person. That’s my personal experience."
Birthday snub
On his 60th birthday he had been due to be promoted to the honorary rank of Admiral, in line with a royal tradition that members of the family who served in the forces continue to receive increasingly senior appointments on significant birthdays as if they were still in the armed forces.
But in the event, the promotion was cancelled, along with the Queen’s party for him, forcing him to relocate a smaller gathering to Royal Lodge.
Andrew, proud of his Naval service especially in the Falklands, where he served as a helicopter pilot, put a brave face on the lack of promotion.
He announced through the palace that he had asked for it to be deferred until he had returned to frontline duties after stepping aside "temporarily" three months earlier in the aftermath of a furious public backlash to his Newsnight interview defending his friendship with the financier and convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Lownie, however, thinks that the Queen had an even more prestigious honour in line for her favourite son before the Epstein affair made his position as a senior working royal untenable.
He believes she wanted to admit him to the Order of Merit, perhaps the most exclusive club in the world.
"It’s just something I picked up," the author said.
Membership of the order, which recognises distinguished service in the arts, learning, literature and science "or such other exceptional service as we are fit to recognise", is limited to 24 members from Commonwealth nations where the British monarch is head of state plus honorary members from overseas nations including Commonwealth republics.
Admission to the order, which was created by Edward VII in 1902, is in the personal gift of the sovereign.
Andrew would have followed in a long line of luminaries such as Sir Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee, Florence Nightingale, Thomas Hardy, TS Eliot, Graham Greene, Mother Teresa, and Nelson Mandela.
Two other members of the Royal Family had already been admitted to the order – Prince Philip in 1968 and the then Prince Charles in 2002.
Approached by Fabulous, Buckingham Palace declined to comment this week on the suggestion that the late Queen had considered Andrew for the honour too. But in any case, it was not to be.
Instead Andrew has found himself out in the cold, not even welcome to join his family at Sandringham last Christmas, and the subject of a daily drip feed of damaging stories about his financial deals and friendship with Epstein, who was found hanged in a New York prison cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
The palace declined to say if the King or any other members of the extended family would be helping Andrew to celebrate his birthday.
Although there have been tensions over Charles’s refusal to continue paying his £3million private security and £1million living costs at Royal Lodge, Andrew is said to have remained on good terms with and loyal to his brother.
Friends say they have never heard him criticise the King.
Andrew's A-list pals
And he does have loyal friends too with whom he still socialises, high society people from the world of finance, racehorse owners such as brothers Guy and Ben Sangster, as well as Formula 1 mogul Bernie Ecclestone and showbiz pals including Sir Elton John and Michael Caine.
Contrary to some reports, Andrew still manages to get into London, where he can be found socialising at Harry’s Bar, or meeting friends for lunch at Coworth Park, a luxury hotel in Ascot, near his Windsor home.
