PRINCE Andrew has seen his reputation dragged through the mud after years of denials over his sex case.
The Duke of York was all geared up fight his corner against Virginia Giuffre – claiming he had no memory of even meeting the trafficking victim.
But despite the bluster and the boasting of his innocence, the shamed Andrew decided to buy his way out and settle with Virginia.
Virginia claims she was trafficked to have sex with the Duke when she was just 17 by his pals Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Andrew always denied the allegations.
But now he has reportedly paid her around £12million – some of which is believed to have been covered by his mum The Queen.
It is the final nail in Andrew’s already shredded reputation as he is now likely to never return to public life.
Once being known as the Playboy Prince and Air Miles Andy, he faces the rest of his life as a pariah.
And he has also managed to humiliate himself along the way while also bruising the reputation of the royals.
Here are seven ways which the Prince brought shame and embarrassment upon himself and his family.
NEWSNIGHT
Prince Andrew told his beloved mum The Queen that his interview on Newsnight with Emily Maitlis was a “great success”.
The dopey Duke bragged that it was “mission accomplished” and that it would “end criticism of him”.
He hoped it would draw a line under his friendship with paedos Epstein and Maxwell.
However, when the Newsnight special went out on BBC Two on November 16, 2019 – Andrew was universally slammed.
The interview was widely described as a car crash as he was seen as pompous and trying to weasel out of any responsibility for his actions.
He was criticised for appearing to show a lack of empathy to the victims, and for not expressing regret for being friends with a convicted sex offender.
Andy said he was “too honourable” and described the abuse of young girls as an “unbecoming” way to behave.
If anything, his interview inflamed the scandal – and it was the precursor to his removal from public life the following May.
EPSTEIN MEETING
One of the obvious missteps that Andrew defended was going to meet Epstein – by then a convicted paedophile – in New York in December 2010.
The Duke stayed with him at his £50million townhouse in New York for a number of days and the pals were pictured walking through Central Park.
Andrew claimed he went there to “break up” the friendship and defended staying in the house of a sex offender as a “convenient place to stay” while appearing on Newsnight.
It was during this stay that the Duke was allegedly seen getting a foot massage from a young woman – something he denies.
“At the end of the day, with a benefit of all the hindsight that one can have, it was definitely the wrong thing to do,” he said.
“But at the time I felt it was the honourable and right thing to do and I admit fully that my judgement was probably coloured by my tendency to be too honourable but that’s just the way it is.”
HIDING FROM LAWYERS
Andrew has been accused of being uncooperative with lawyers throughout the legal processes unfolding around his own case and the investigations into Epstein and Maxwell.
US prosecutors claimed that the Duke was not working with them as they attempted to probe the couple’s sex trafficking pyramid scheme.
His team and the New York attorneys were locked in a war of words, with Geoffrey S. Berman saying the Duke had “completely shut the door” on helping them.
The spat continued until Berman was removed from his post – reportedly sacked by US President Donald Trump over a unrelated feud in 2020.
And then, Andrew again was accused of hiding from lawyers as Virginia’s team tried to serve him with legal paperwork in 2021.
He was accused of playing “hide and seek” behind palace walls in a bid to try and dodge the lawsuit – bringing further shame on himself.
TRIAL BY JURY
Prince Andrew seemed ready to fight tooth and nail to clear his name when he went public back in January with demands he face a “trial by jury”.
He was facing the lawsuit going to court anyway, but the very public declaration was a statement of intent try to prove his innocence.
It is reported to have put him on a “collision course” with the palace as he sent the message to Virginia saying: “I’ll see you in court.”
Yet just 20 days later – it was announced he had settled, seemingly under pressure from The Queen and his brother Charles.
It was a very public U-turn even when the Duke seemed as his most bullish and determined to fight on.
His settlement has seen him branded a “coward” by Piers Morgan and with headlines on the frontpage of The Celeb Report reading “His Final Disgrace”.
NO SWEAT
And one of the most bizarre claims Andrew made during the Newsnight interview was his boast that he “didn’t sweat” at the time in allegedly met Virginia.
He questioned claims that he was “sweating profusely” when they allegedly danced together in Tramp nightclub.
“There’s a slight problem with the sweating [claim] because I have a peculiar medical condition which is that I don’t sweat or I didn’t sweat at the time,” he said.
He added: “I didn’t sweat at the time because I had suffered what I would describe as an overdose of adrenaline in the Falkland’s War when I was shot at.”
Andrew went on to say that this condition has since cleared up.
The claim was widely laughed at – and there are a number of occasions were the Duke appeared to be perspiring around this time.
However, Andrew’s claims that he couldn’t sweat have been backed up by someone who knew him at the time.
Former US intelligence officer Allan Starkie recalled a night in 1992 when the Duke and Duchess of York visited Annabel’s nightclub in Mayfair, central London, just weeks before they announced their separation.
“It was extraordinary. The rest of us were perspiring madly, but he didn’t seem to have a bead of sweat on him,” he said.
NO PDAS
Another of his claims during his infamous Newsnight chat was that he “didn’t party” or do PDAs.
He had earned the nickname ‘”The Playboy Prince” when he was younger, as he was pictured with his arms around a bevy of glamorous women while out on the town.
But despite that, he claimed he rarely “partied” and wasn’t a fan of public displays of affection.
Andrew was asked about his reputation as “the party prince”, a charge he claimed was “a bit of a stretch”.
He insisted he had “never… really partied,” adding: “I was single for quite a long time in the early 80s but then after I got married I was very happy and I’ve never really felt the need to go and party.”
Pictures have also surfaced showing plenty of occasions where he cosied up to women on nights out.
PIZZA EXPRESS
Prince Andrew also gave a bizarre albi when quizzed about where he was on the night he allegedly slept with Virgina.
The Duke claimed he was not dancing in Tramp – instead he was actually at Pizza Express in Woking.
He claimed he had taken his daughter Princess Beatrice to chain restaurant and that he remembered it vividly.
“Going to Pizza Express in Woking is an unusual thing for me to do, a very unusual thing for me to do,” said Andrew.
“I’ve never been… I’ve only been to Woking a couple of times and I remember it weirdly distinctly.”
Andrews’s legal team admitted later there are no witnesses or documents that prove he was at Pizza Express.
And the claims sparked a wave of derision and memes from the public, with the restaurant flooded with fake reviews.
