The opening title of today’s Times is dedicated to the Ukrainian question and to the information from the American intelligence services according to which there are no concrete signs of the return of the troops of Moscow massed on the borders, but the front page is dominated by a large photograph of the prince Andrea . The news of the day in the UK tabloids and the out-of-court settlement between the queen’s son and Virginia Giuffre , the woman who accuses him of having sex with her when she was a minor and was recruited by American billionaire Jeffrey Epstein as her entertainer and its guests.
Andrea will pay “compensation” and this will save him the embarrassing process that he would have to undergo in the US, but he has no hope of being reinstated in the lost official representative roles , within the British royal family, indeed, rumors run around that he could risk losing the title of Duke of York as well . This is what the overseas press writes in the aftermath of the announcement of the mega extrajudicial settlement.
The newspapers are not unanimous on the amount agreed to close the case. The Telegraph assumes a total of 12 million pounds(over 14 million euros), American experts calculate “at least 10 million dollars” between the main sum – destined to go directly to Giuffre – and the contributions that the prince has committed through his lawyers to pay for campaigns in defense of women and abused girls.
But the question that hovers
over the story is: who will pay
the compensation will be entirely at the expense of Prince
O will instead be co-financed in part with public money by his mother . suggests to exclude any eventuality of the kind, given the opposition of the heir to the throne Charles and his son William.Sunninghill Park , the 12-bedroom country house near Windsor that was a wedding gift from the Queen. The vast property lay unsold for five years before it was suddenly bought in 2007 for £ 15 million – £ 3 million more than the asking price – by Timur Kulibayev, son-in-law of Andrea Nursultan Nazarbayev’s friend, the former president. of Kazakhstan.
The Verbier chalet, purchased with a mortgage in 2014, but put on the market following a legal dispute with its former owner for about 18 million pounds, is also being targeted. Finally, there would be the annual prerogative of 21 million pounds through the fund of the Duchy of Lancaster, controlled by Buckingham Palace.
Meanwhile, a deputy from the Labor opposition, Rachael Maskell, has openly invoked that Andrea now also loses the title of Duke of York . Indeed, you “renounce” spontaneously if the statements with which you expressed “regret” for your past acquaintances with Epstein “are sincere”.
With the agreement Andrea does not admit any of the accusations made against her by the woman who, however, “praises her for the courage” of coming forward and that she “suffered as a victim of abuse and also of unjust public attacks”.
No official comment comes from Buckingam Palace. Even if, according to rumors, behind the agreement there would be the pressing of the royal family intending to avoid a new scandal in the year marked by the celebrations of the Platinum Jubilee of 70 years on the throne of His Majesty.
