Prince Andrew is a member of the British royal family, the second son, and the third child of the Late Queen Elizabeth II. He is eighth in the line of succession to the British throne.
Born in the Belgian Suite of Buckingham Palace on 19 February 1960, Prince Andrew Andrew was the first child born to a reigning monarch since the reign of Queen Victoria. He was schooled at Heatherdown School near Ascot in Berkshire and later was sent to Gordonstoun, in northern Scotland, which was also attended by his father and elder brother, King Charles.
Prince Andrew faced bullying and teasing at the hands of his schoolmates and was nicknamed “the sniggerer”, because of his peculiar laughter.
Military Service of Prince Andrew
Prince Andrew joined the Royal Navy in November 1978, after undergoing several sporting examinations and tests, at the Aircrew Selection Centre, at RAF Biggin Hill, and follow-up interviews at HMS Daedalus and Admiralty Interview Board, HMS Sultan.
Later, in 1979 he enrolled at Royal Naval College Flight and underwent pilot training, later being accepted as a trainee helicopter pilot.
Personal life of Prince Andrew
Being a keen golfer, Prince Andrew was a captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews in 2003 and 2004. Andrew had to resign honorary membership of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews when the Labour Co-op MP Ian Davidson raised the issue of his using the RAF planes for two golfing trips to St Andrews. The Queen had to remove royal patronages from several golf clubs while revoking Prince Andrew’s membership of the Royal Dornoch Golf Club.
Apart from golf, Andrew has also been a keen skier and he also bought a skiing chalet in Verbier, Switzerland in 2014.
Prince Andrew met American photographer and actress Koo Stark in 1981 and the next year, they took a holiday together to the island of Mustique. They had to split because of extreme pressure from the Royal family.
In 1986, Andrew married Sarah Ferguson, on the same day, he was titled Duke of York, Earl of Inverness, and Baron Killyleagh. He had known Sarah since his childhood and they both met occasionally at polo matches.
Controversies associated with Prince Andrew
In 2011, BBC reported Prince Andrew’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, an American financier, and convicted sex offender. Virginia Giuffre, an American-Australian sex-trafficking campaigner, accused Andrew of child sexual abuse. She claimed that she was trafficked to him as a minor, by the Prince’s friend Epstein.
Prince Andrew had to permanently resign from all public roles in 2020 and his honorary military affiliations and royal charitable patronages were returned to the Queen in January 2022. The civil lawsuit filed by Giuffre was settled out of court in February 2022.