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23-02-2026
LONDON: King Charles woke up on Friday to pictures of his younger brother leaving a police station emblazoned across front pages of newspapers around the world, heralding the worst crisis for the British monarchy in 90 years.
The arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on suspicion of misconduct in a public office and the public humiliation over his relationship with the late convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has left some wondering if the saga could spell the beginning of the end for the 1,000-year-old institution.
Graham Smith, the head of the campaign group Republic which filed complaints with the police over the former prince and Epstein to trigger the investigation, used the arrest to repeat his demand for the institution to go.
“I think it’s incredibly bad for the monarchy,” he said.
Mountbatten-Windsor has denied any wrongdoing with regard to Epstein and said he regrets their friendship.
Scandals and crises
The House of Windsor is no stranger to scandals, embarrassments and calamities.
From the divorce and death of Charles’ first wife Princess Diana in 1997, which caused widespread public anger, to the upheavals caused by the king’s younger son Prince Harry and his wife Meghan stepping down from their roles and then criticizing the institution from the US, the family has been at the center of high-profile dramas before but the current situation of a senior royal under investigation and police arrest is without precedent, and leaves the monarchy facing its greatest threat since Charles’ great-uncle, King Edward VIII, gave up the throne to marry US divorcee Wallis Simpson in 1936.
“It’s certainly the worst crisis since the abdication, and it’s particularly bad because it’s not a crisis over which they can really exercise any control,” said one former senior royal aide who knows the king well.
“They have been sort of predominantly on the back foot throughout because they’ve had to react to information emerging, and they still don’t know what else is in the files,” the aide told media, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The key question for Charles, William and their courtiers is whether the scandal around Andrew does lasting wider damage or just reinforces the already negative view most people had of Mountbatten-Windsor himself.
The royals have already banished the former prince as much as they can, stripping him of all his titles, his mansion and any public involvement with the family.
The king, who is still undergoing treatment for an unspecified cancer and Queen Camilla have said their thoughts and sympathies are with the victims of any abuse. William and his wife Kate have said they are “deeply concerned” by the revelations in the Epstein files.
The king’s blunt public statement following his brother’s arrest, “Let me state clearly: the law must take its course” was a clear attempt to go still further.
“The institution has taken every step that it can to distance itself from him and his actions,” Julian Payne, Charles’ former communications chief, told media.
“The hope is that by doing so, they can create some clear blue water between the working members of the family and what they exist to do on behalf of the UK and the other countries around the world where he is king, and this person and the actions that they are responsible for answering.”
The most recent popularity tracker by pollster YouGov in January, before the release of millions of files relating to Epstein by the US government which heralded the British police investigation, showed only 3% of Britons viewed the king’s younger brother favorably. Some 90% held a negative opinion. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
