Queen Elizabeth Made a 'Mistake' by Protecting Ex-Prince Andrew After Jeffrey Epstein Scandal First Surfaced, Royal Author Claims

The late Queen Elizabeth seemingly made a big blunder by protecting her son Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor when it came to his scandals involving Jeffrey Epstein.

The former prince, 66, was arrested in February due to his ties to the dead financier for allegedly sending him private travel documents.

The queen — who passed away in September 2022 at the age of 96 following 70 years on the throne — reportedly donated a big chunk of money to Andrew's $16 million settlement with Epstein victim Virginia Roberts Giuffre.

Royal biographer Robert Hardman recently told People how the decision to fund the suit “will go down as a mistake … and one that has outlasted her."

Sources also told the expert for his new book about the monarch that her inner circle felt she was conflicted over how to handle Andrew.

“The queen effectively sacked him and forced him to step back from public life, which clearly he didn’t want to do,” a source divulged for Hardman's biography, Elizabeth II: In Private. In Public. The Inside Story.

“I don’t think we should underestimate what it would take for a mother to do that. Throughout, she showed that when it came to the demands of family over the role, the role would win out," they went on.

“In moments of anguish, stress and crisis, she was the glue that kept us all together,” the queen's former press secretary Ailsa Anderson also noted to the outlet. "They're survivors. The monarchy has weathered far worse."

The ex-Duke of York's reputation was further tarnished when King Charles ripped away his royal titles and his longtime Windsor home, the Royal Lodge, in October 2025.

Andrew moved into Marsh Farm on The Firm's Sandringham Estate earlier this year, where he will most likely spend the rest of his days without his staff or his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.

As for Giuffre, she accused Andrew of sexual abuse when she was just 17 while she was under the watchful eye of Epstein.

The abuse survivor died by suicide in April 2025 and her posthumous memoir, Nobody's Girl, was released months later. In her book, she detailed the harrowing times she was allegedly forced to have intercourse with the ex-duke.

"I agreed to a one-year gag order, which seemed important to the prince because it ensured that his mother's Platinum Jubilee would not be tarnished any more than it already had been," she wrote. "Andrew was friendly enough, but still entitled – as if he believed having s-- with me was his birthright."