Former Royal Officer Lifts The Lid On Prince Andrew's Behavior

Over the years, Prince Andrew has become unpopular among the public and palace staffers alike. Andrew's popularity is 11%, per YouGov, and new media offerings are shedding light on what it's like to work for the Duke of York. In a Daily Mail excerpt of his book "Courtiers: The Hidden Power Behind the Crown," Valentine Low chronicles multiple sources talking about Andrew's rudeness. Low also describes two different incidents in which Andrew dropped f-bombs when speaking to Queen Elizabeth II's press secretary, James Roscoe, as well as an unnamed senior courtier.

Another senior staffer told Low: "The fact he lashed out and was very rude to advisers like me was down to a total lack of self-confidence, and [an awareness] that he could always run to his mother and say: 'They are all being nasty to me.'" Andrew and the late Queen Elizabeth II shared a close relationship, and he was rumored to be her favorite child.

When it comes to former palace employees speaking out, Paul Page has taken numerous opportunities to provide details about Andrew's behavior. Page worked at Buckingham Palace for six years as a protection officer from 1998-2004, per Daily Mail. Speaking to the Mirror in January 2022, he called upon the palace to investigate Andrew's treatment of employees, saying, "an investigation should be started to confirm whether or not Andrew is guilty of being a bully and of intimidating staff." Now, in a recent documentary appearance, Page criticized Prince Andrew once again.

Appearing in the Peacock documentary "Prince Andrew: Banished," Paul Page talked about Prince Andrew's numerous relationships. "We used to have a joke that he should have a revolving door in his bedroom," the former royal protection officer said (via Page Six). "The amount of women going in and out of there, it was just literally every other day someone would be coming in to see him . . . a different one every time."

In a trailer for the documentary, journalist Helen Kirwan-Taylor affirmed Page's statement, saying, "The talk of the dinner parties was he couldn't keep his trousers closed." According to U.S. News, back in the 1980s, Andrew was dubbed the "Playboy Prince" in tabloids. Author Valentine Low noted (per Daily Mail) the prince also had the nickname "Randy Andy." That moniker is discussed in the documentary, as well as Andrew's relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein.

This isn't the first time Page has made an onscreen appearance to discuss Andrew and Maxwell. In the ITV documentary "Ghislaine, Prince Andrew and the Paedophile," Page detailed his frequent visits with Andrew at the palace, reported the Independent. In addition, after Andrew's legal team made a statement in the sexual assault case involving Virginia Giuffre, Page told Insider about the close bond between Andrew and Maxwell. After Andrew refuted a connection to Maxwell, Page said, "I don't know what planet he's on."   

Speaking in the ITV documentary "Ghislaine, Prince Andrew and the Paedophile," former protection officer Paul Page talked about Prince Andrew's strict rules concerning his numerous stuffed animals. According to Page, staff were required to use a laminated diagram to place the 50-60 toys. "If those bears weren't put back in the right order by the maids, he would shout and scream and become verbally abusive," Page said (via Independent).

Former palace maid Charlotte Briggs also spoke out about Andrew's behavior and corroborated Page's bear tale. "Each had to be carefully positioned. They were old-fashioned teddy bears — the Steiff ones — and nearly all of them had sailor suits on and hats," she told The Sun. After arranging the bears of his bed during the day, Briggs had to move them at night. "His two favorite bears sat on two thrones [on] either side of the bed."

In 2010, Andrew told The Daily Beast about his hobby, saying, "I've always collected teddy bears. Everywhere I went in the Navy I used to buy a little teddy bear." Journalist Elizabeth Day recalled her encounter with one of Andrew's stuffed bears during an interview. "It seemed rather strange to me that a grown man should be so amused by the presence of a stuffed toy," she wrote in the Daily Mail, "I wondered if this was someone who had never really grown up because he had never had to."  

Unlike Prince Andrew, whose case with Virginia Giuffre was settled out of court, former royal protection officer Paul Page was convicted of fraud in 2009. As reported in The Guardian, Page set up a bogus property company and defrauded participants, including some of his fellow palace staffers, out of £3 million. Page used a portion of the money to support his gambling addiction.  

During the trial, The Times noted that Page spent time criticizing the behavior of the other protection officers. His allegations included drug use, pornography, and smaller infractions like photo ops on the throne and napping at work. After his conviction, Page was sentenced to six years imprisonment. One of his former coworkers, Sergeant Adam McGregor, owned up to taking throne pics and sleeping on the job (via The Guardian). Although some of Page's claims were never proven, author Michael Gillard used them in his book, "For Queen and Currency," per Buzzfeed.

After Page spoke out about Prince Andrew's involvement with Ghislaine Maxwell in 2019, Buckingham Palace questioned his credibility, saying, "During the trial, which resulted in a conviction for fraud, Mr. Page made a series of ­allegations about the Royal Household and members of the Royal Family, none of which were substantiated," per the Mirror. Speaking to The Sun in June 2022, Page admitted to his troubled past, while taking a swipe at Andrew, saying, "I am no angel, but Andrew makes me look like a f***ing saint."