Royals put on united front at Easter Service at Windsor Castle in first public family outing since Andrew’s arrest
The King and Queen attended a traditional Easter church service at St George’s Chapel in Windsor with other senior royals in their first public family outing since the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
Charles and Camilla have formed a united front with other members of the royal family, including the Prince and Princess of Wales, but not with Andrew or his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.
Andrew’s daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie have made alternative plans and will not attend the ceremony.
Andrew was stripped of both his right to be a prince and his right to be a duke by the King due to his relationship with pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The King and Queen were also joined by the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, the Princess Crown and Vice-Admiral Sir Tim Laurence.
Andrew was arrested in February, on his 66th birthday, on suspicion of misconduct in public office following allegations that he had shared sensitive information with Epstein while he was Britain’s trade envoy.
Andrew attended the ceremony alongside the King last year, along with Sarah Ferguson.
The royal family began to distance themselves from Andrew following his infamous BBC Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis in 2019 about her relationship with Epstein.
He was stripped of his military roles and use of his HRH title in January 2022, a month before he settled a legal dispute with Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s victims. She claimed she was attacked by Andrew.
On March 22, Andrew was photographed for the first time since his arrest. The 66-year-old former prince was spotted walking his dogs in the grounds around Marsh Farm, his new home on Sandringham Estate in Norfolk.
The former Duke of York said public outcry over his leases had led to his death at Windsor, during World War II. She was forced to move to the King’s estate in Norfolk after it resulted in her giving up her lease on the grade-listed mansion Royal Lodge. It emerged that he had only been paying peppercorn rent for more than 20 years, having first moved into the property in 2003.
On Thursday the King and Queen attended the Royal Maundy ceremony in Wales.
During the ceremony, the King presented Maundy coins to 77 men and 77 women from Wales and other dioceses of the United Kingdom in recognition of their outstanding service to Christians and contribution to their local communities.
The Royal Maundy ceremony commemorating the Last Supper of Jesus Christ has a tradition of distributing alms.
Workers in high-vis jackets were seen clearing graffiti reading “Not Our King” ahead of the King’s arrival on Thursday morning.
