Prince Andrew is rumored to be hatching some sort of comeback so that he might return to discharging public duties as a member of the British royal family and “serve his country”, but his efforts are unlikely to bear fruit, the Daily Mirror reports.
A source close to the Prince reportedly told The Sunday Times that the Duke of York remains confident he will be able to clear his name, and is determined to "support the monarchy" and resume a "public role", even as he appears "philosophical" about being unable to "carry on as normal".
However, even though conversations regarding the Duke of York's position reportedly do take place, “well placed palace insiders” suggest that the odds of his returning to his former role are practically “zero”.
"Whatever the Duke (of York) may think his future looks like, he should be under no illusion that view is not shared by the people who actually make the decisions within the family," one source is quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying. "There is no way of him ever returning to front line duties and he will remain very much on the outside."
And although Her Majesty is "believed to be sympathetic" to Andrew, both Charles, the Prince of Wales, and Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, are "united" in "their view that Andrew should be kept away from any public role because of his battered reputation", as the newspaper puts it.
Prince Andrew officially stepped down from his royal duties amid the furore which resulted from remarks he made while being interviewed by Emily Maitlis for the BBC in November 2019.
During the interview, the Duke of York defended his friendship with disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and denied claims made by Virginia Roberts Giuffre that she had had a sexual relationship with him at least three times on the orders of Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell.