All Over For Prince Andrew

Queen Elizabeth has sacked her favourite son after his disastrous interview about his links to a paedophile, leaving the monarchy facing its biggest threat in decades

- Jane Vorster

THE year was 1992. The occasion: a speech by Queen Elizabeth to mark the 40th anniversary of her ascension to the throne. The tone: anything but celebratory.

It had been one of the worst years of her life, she told the nation – her annus horribilis, she called it.

And it wasn’t hard to see why. The marriages of three of her four children had broken down – Prince Charles’ to Princess Diana, Prince Andrew’s to Sarah, Duchess of York (Fergie), and Princess

Anne’s to Captain Mark Phillips. A devastating fire had ripped through her beloved Windsor Castle. A tell-all book by Andrew Morton, Diana: Her True Story, revealed bombshell details of Charles’ affair with Camilla Parker Bowles – and then pictures emerged of Fergie sunbathing topless and having her toes sucked by millionaire John Bryan.

“[It] is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure,” the queen said with characteristic restraint.

But it’s safe to say 2019 is a strong contender to knock that horrible year into second place.

It started with a literal bang when her husband, Prince Philip, crashed into a car carrying two women and a baby in January – and it snowballed from there.

A widening rift between grandsons William and Harry; controversy after controversy dogging Harry and his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex; Britain pushed to the brink of a constitutional meltdown; scandals involving more members of her family – the list goes on and on.

Yet all these headaches pale into insignificance compared with the monumental migraine her favourite son has caused her.

And it must’ve been with a heavy heart that the queen summoned her precious Andrew (59) to Buckingham Palace to tell him he was sacked from royal duty.