Will Prince Andrew return to public life after a year-long hiatus amid questions about his connections to the late convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, and reports of his own sexual relations with trafficked women?
The U.K.’s Sunday Times has reported that he is hoping to return, and others say he has his mother the Queen’s blessing. An insider told the paper: “The duke is spending time working out how he can serve his country and support the monarchy in the future, and what else he might want to do with his life.”
However, the report also quotes a royal aide as saying, “While the hurdles around the Epstein case are still hanging over him, it will be difficult for him to represent the family in any capacity as his presence would overshadow the work of the monarchy.”
But The Telegraph insists he won’t return until he clears his name. Another source tells Newsweek that the Duke of York accepts he “can't just go back to the way things were” before the scandal surrounding his friendship with the convicted pedophile.
The timing of these rumors is interesting, as pressure on Andrew has mounted amid the appearance of court documents that show an alleged Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell being questioned about whether he had sex with the then-17-year-old trafficked Virginia Giuffre. He has denied the allegations, and Maxwell did too, according to the docs.