Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor had a very sneaky tactic to get what he wanted from his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, a royal author has revealed.
The former Duke of York, 66, has long been said to be his mother's "favourite" of her four children – and clearly knew how to make this work in his favour.
Speaking to HELLO!'s special live episode of A Right Royal Podcast, Robert Hardman, author of Elizabeth II, explained that Andrew would wait until afternoon tea with the Queen on a Sunday afternoon to bring up matters of importance, when no officials were present.
He said: "He did have a tactic which was, whenever he was told he couldn't do something or something was impossible, his favourite way of countermanding it would be to go round and have tea with Mummy on a Sunday afternoon, because there were no officials around. It was when officials were around that they would usually say, ‘Well, I'm sorry Sir, we can’t do this, we can’t do that."
"So on a Sunday at tea, Andrew would say, 'Oh Mummy, you wouldn't believe what they've told me I can't do. It's ridiculous. I'm sure you don't mind me doing this. It's going to be a good idea. You must agree.' And she’d eventually say, 'Alright, yes.' And then on Monday morning he’d say, 'No, it’s quite alright. I've got the Queen's permission. It's going to happen. I'm going to do XYZ.'"
Why the late Queen worried about Andrew the most
Robert also spoke about her late Majesty's relationship with her four children, whom she shared with Prince Philip: King Charles, Princess Anne, Andrew, and Prince Edward.
For example, the Queen worried that Anne, now 75, "worked too hard" and would say: "I wish Anne would slow down a bit." Andrew, however, was often at risk of committing a royal faux pas, especially during his time in the Royal Navy.
The royal author told our live event: "That was a different sort of worry. But with Andrew, she could see that the others were self-starters. They were confident that they would get on with life. But Andrew was headstrong, sheepish; he is often described as the start of her second family, because he came along ten years after Anne, and he was a bouncy, lively child, and she adored him, obviously.
© Getty"But by the time he was a young adult, it was quite clear that he was quite impressionable. He was a bit boorish. He could say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing. They tried to keep him on in the Royal Navy because the one thing he was good at was flying helicopters. But by 2001, the Navy said, 'Look, there's nothing we can do.'"
Andrew, 66, stepped down from royal duties in 2019 following his BBC Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis, and ongoing scrutiny over his links to the convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. He kept his "prince" and "Duke of York" titles until October 2025, when King Charles stripped him of his remaining honours.
How to watch the podcast episode
You can watch the full podcast episode from Best Quality Designer Handbag 's live recording with Robert Hardman below:
