One other supply stated the claims reinforce long-held perceptions about Andrew’s place inside the royal household.
They added: “Andrew was extensively seen because the Queen’s favourite baby, and with that got here a degree of entry others did not have. The priority is that this entry wasn’t all the time dealt with with the identical self-discipline anticipated of somebody in his function, which created friction behind the scenes.”
Hardman additionally mirrored on Elizabeth’s relationship along with her different youngsters, together with Princess Anne, now 75.
He stated the Queen considered Anne as a workaholic, however anxious about Andrew’s temperament and judgment.
Hardman added, “That was a special type of fear. However with Andrew, she might see that the others had been self-starters. They had been assured that they might get on with life. However Andrew was headstrong, sheepish; he’s typically described as the beginning of her second household, as a result of he got here alongside 10 years after Anne, and he was a bouncy, energetic baby, and she or he adored him, clearly.”
Hardman famous the considerations continued into maturity, notably throughout Andrew’s naval profession.
“However by the point (Andrew) was a younger grownup, it was fairly clear that he was fairly impressionable,” he stated. “He was a bit boorish. He might say the flawed factor, do the flawed factor. They tried to maintain him within the Royal Navy as a result of the one factor he was good at was flying helicopters. However by 2001, the Navy stated, ‘Look, there’s nothing we will do.'”
Andrew stepped again from royal duties in 2019 following his catastrophic Newsnight interview amid enormous scrutiny over his hyperlinks to Jeffrey Epstein, later dropping his remaining royal titles in 2025 beneath his older brother King Charles III.