Prince Andrew will not spend Christmas with the royal family

Across the Channel, the announcement has just fallen: “Andrew will not join the royal family for Christmas at Sandringham.” In any case, this is what royal sources confirmed to the British press this Monday, December 16. Prince Andrew must indeed withdraw from all family events “to avoid constituting a distraction”, they added in a press release cited by the BBC. As a reminder, last year he was present at the traditional festivities in the royal residence of Sandringham.

However, the news is not really a surprise. And for good reason: the younger brother of Charles III is entangled in several scandals. In 2019, he was accused of sexual assault and suspected of being involved in the Jeffrey Epstein affair. The affair had forced him to renounce his royal functions. Since then, he has attracted the wrath of the British and first of all, those of the king who allegedly cut off his funds and tried to oust him from his home, the Royal Lodge.

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Links to a Chinese spy?

But today, a completely different affair could end up tarnishing the reputation of the father of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie: that of the “Chinese spy”. THE Sun indeed revealed, on December 12, that Prince Andrew would have been friends with a supposed double agent. Nicknamed “H6” in court documents, the latter would have become one of the closest confidants of the former Duke of York. He even reportedly attended his birthday party in 2020. Three years later, the Chinese businessman was nevertheless banned from the United Kingdom by the Minister of the Interior at the time, Suella Braverman. She considered that he presented a “risk to national security”.

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While said spy appealed this decision, immigration judges have just rejected his request. They indeed considered that H6 had not been transparent regarding its links with the Chinese state. They also indicated that the alleged secret agent would be likely to exploit his relationships with public figures, including the prince, to whom he would have offered to act as intermediary with investors in his country.

In their decision, the judges highlighted the “unusual degree of trust” placed by a member of the royal family in the possible double agent. “It is clear that the pressures placed on the Duke could leave him vulnerable to abuse,” they added. Yet another scandal that Sarah Ferguson's ex-husband would have gotten away with, who is currently refusing to leave the Royal Lodge to move to Frogmore Cottage, worried about preserving his “status”.