Brothers At Breaking Point - Andrew vs Charles

THE CROWN PRINCE REFUSES TO STAND BY HIS EMBATTLED SIBLING

- Andrew Mackintosh

Earlier this year, the Queen held a reception to honour the 50th anniversary of Prince Charles’ investiture as Prince of Wales.

The party had been due to take place in Wales but Charles (70) asked for it to be held in London to make it easier for his relatives to attend. They all did – bar three. Retired Prince Philip (98) doesn’t do events anymore. Prince Edward (55) was on official business elsewhere. And Prince Andrew (59) was a no-show.

“It is pretty extraordinary,” says a source. “One hears tales of tension between the brothers but the more you reflect on this, the more peculiar it seems.”

It was also very unwise. Andrew needs all the allies he can get as he faces accusations that he slept with an underage girl allegedly procured for him by his former friend, the late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

The billionaire was found dead in a New York jail on August 10 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges – and the scandal of Andrew’s ill-judged association is not going away.

In legal papers for a defamation case, Virginia Roberts Giuffre (now 35) alleges that she slept with Andrew three times, on Epstein’s orders. She subsequently said Andrew “knows what he’s done”.

A 2001 photo shows Andrew with his arm around the waist of Virginia, who was then 17.

Another woman, Johanna Sjoberg, claims in court papers that Andrew touched her breast “in a joking manner” at Epstein’s home when she was 21.

Bizarrely, singer Courtney Love (55) has reportedly told friends that Epstein also tried to set Andrew up with her.