PRINCE Andrew was told to settle by his mother the Queen to spare the Royal Family any further embarrassment from Her Majesty’s favourite son, a former Royal protection officer has sensationally claimed.
In a shock twist, lawyers representing Prince Andrew and accuser Virginia Roberts today announced the Duke of York has agreed to a settlement, just weeks before he was due to face a grueling two-day deposition.
The prince has agreed to pay a “substantial” amount to Roberts’ charity, although the exact amount has not been disclosed.
Among the bombshells from the letter, Andrew expressed regret over his past relationship with paedo financier Jeffrey Epstein and said that Roberts had been unfairly smeared.
Speaking to The Celeb Report Online, former Royal protection officer Paul Page, who has previously railed against Prince Andrew’s behaviour towards staff and the police, claimed Andrew’s dramatic U-turn settlement would have been his mother’s decision, not his own.
“This wasn’t his decision, this was the Queen‘s,” he said.
He added that Andrew was “f****d” from the moment he set out his defence, which Paul branded a “pack of lies”.
Andrew was set to face a two-day grilling at the hands of Virginia Roberts’ top legal team, including ace attorney David Boies, a factor which Paul claimed would have also influenced the prince’s lawyers’ decision.
He said Andrew “would have incriminated himself if the US lawyers got their claws into him”.
Paul went on to say Andrew’s story was “full of holes” and the Duke “would have been slaughtered” in his deposition.
He also called for “bullying claims” against Andrew to now be investigated.
“I wouldn’t like to be a teddy bear on Prince Andrew’s bed tonight,” he joked, referring to his previous revelations about the Duke in an ITV documentary.
Speaking to Ranvir Singh, Paul claimed Andrew had more than 50 teddy bears, and that he would scream at servants if they were arranged wrong.
Andrew’s lawyers had demanded a trial by jury just last month, and a number of embarrassing details from the Duke’s life were set to be exposed.
A spokesperson for Prince Andrew declined to comment. A press spokesperson for Buckingham Palace told The Celeb Report Online: “This isn’t something we would comment on.”
Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams claimed this decision to settle was likely in the best interests of the Palace, as it aims to draw a line under a difficult past year and look ahead to the Queen’s platinum jubilee year.
“I think the Palace will be breathing a sigh of relief,” he told The Celeb Report Online.
“There’s no doubt about it. They will be very relieved, practically speaking.
“His position in the family will not change foreseeably. But it is important. The civil case would certainly have been enormously damaging, so as far as the Jubilee, at least this has been settled.
“There would have been tremendous pressure on him from senior members of the royal family to settle. This has done enormous harm for them and cast a shadow on what is a unique year for the Queen.”
Paul has previously called for bullying claims against Prince Andrew to be investigated, just as Meghan Markle was.
He gave numerous examples of Andrew’s alleged bratty or rude behaviour, including ordering Royal protection officers to retrieve his stray golf balls while he practised in the gardens of Buckingham Palace.
However, he claimed he would have knocked Andrew out if he had asked him to pick up his golf balls.
He also recounted a memorable occasion when the Duke of York told him to “f*** off” after the prince triggered a security scare at the Palace.
“It was at night, and we were checking CCTV in the control room when we saw a man walking along the corridor in the Queen’s private quarters,” he told The Celeb Report Online.
“Her Majesty was not at Buckingham Palace at the time, so this was a major potential security scare.
“A sergeant, myself, and two other police officers went to her apartments to investigate.
“We approached from either end of the corridor so we could surround the potential intruder. But when we got there, we realised it was Prince Andrew.”
Page went on: “He looked scruffy and was wearing a tracksuit.
“I apologised and said, ‘I’m sorry, your Highness, we went to investigate a possible intruder in Her Majesty’s apartments’.
“Andrew replies, ‘This is my house, I go where I want, now f*** off’.”
Paul branded the Duke a “f***ing bully”. The former top cop, who was Andrew’s protection officer between 1998 and 2004, was convicted of fraud following a £3m scam and lost his job in 2009.
