Disgraced Andrew Bullied Queen Elizabeth While She Was 'Gaga', New Royal Book Claims

Prince Andrew bullied a cognitively declining Queen Elizabeth in her final years, manipulating the late monarch into complying with his wishes, according to a new royal book by author Andrew Lownie.

The allegations appear in Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, Lownie's detailed account of the disgraced 66-year-old's conduct, a work timed to a period in which Andrew's ties to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein have continued to generate serious legal and reputational consequences for the former Royal Family member.

Lownie writes that Andrew's relationship with the Queen was far less deferential than the image the Palace so carefully cultivated. 'By the end of her life, what people don't realise, is that she was completely gaga,' he wrote. 'He would go up there and he would bully her into doing things.'

The allegation, as Lownie frames it, would be 'deeply troubling to many who followed the late Queen's reign.' It is, to put it plainly, an accusation that turns one of the most enduring narratives of the late Elizabethan era, a devoted mother, and a devoted son on its head.

The portrait of power inside Buckingham Palace shifts considerably in the book's telling. Effective control of the monarchy, Lownie suggests, had already quietly passed to the then-Prince of Wales long before the Queen's death.

'For the last few years, King Charles actually was running the show, rather than the Queen,' Lownie wrote a detail that reframes not just Andrew's alleged behaviour, but the entire picture of royal authority in those final, fragile years.

Andrew and Queen Elizabeth: A Bond Stretched to Breaking Point

That Andrew would allegedly exploit his mother's vulnerability is all the more striking given how visibly the Queen had stood by him over the years. A source told OK! magazine that 'the Queen's instinct was maternal first,' explaining that she 'was determined not to abandon her son publicly, and backed him to the hilt' even as the Epstein association threatened to consume everything Andrew had left.

A photograph of Andrew and Epstein walking together in New York's Central Park surfaced in March 2011, handing the Palace one of its most uncomfortable public moments of that decade. The Queen, according to the same source, treated it as a crisis of perception rather than grounds to cut Andrew loose.

'From her perspective, the photographs were deeply embarrassing, yet she saw them as a crisis to manage rather than grounds to cast Andrew aside,' the source told OK!, adding, 'She believed loyalty within the family had to be absolute, even when mistakes had been made.'

That absolute loyalty, if Lownie's account holds, may ultimately have been used against her.

How the Epstein Scandal Has Continued to Define Andrew

The book's allegations surface as Andrew's legal situation has grown considerably more serious. He was arrested by Windsor police on 19 February on suspicion of misconduct in public office, a development extraordinary enough in itself for a former senior member of the Royal Family and Royal Navy veteran.

Separately, Andrew allegedly passed private travel documents to Epstein during his decade-long tenure as the UK's trade envoy, a role he held between 2001 and 2011.

Lownie's accusations reach further still. He writes that Andrew 'gave away confidential information to other countries' and alleges 'there is insider trading there.'

As for why Buckingham Palace would be deeply reluctant to see the matter tested in open court, Lownie is pointed in his reasoning, 'Buckingham Palace don't want Andrew turning up in court saying, 'Everyone knew about this, this is why I am being penalised.'

King Charles, 77, stripped Andrew of his royal titles and peerages last year in response to the continuing Epstein fallout. Earlier this year, the US Department of Justice released more than three million files from Epstein's estate, with emails exchanged between Andrew and the convicted financier among them, doing little to steady what little remains of the ex-royal's reputation.