Royal misstep. Prince Andrew turned heads when he got his ex-wife back Sarah Ferguson‘s Instagram to share memories of his time in the service – and used his royal titles despite being banned from doing so.
The 62-year-old prince commandeered Ferguson’s social media account on Saturday April 2, in honor of Andrew’s 40th birthday sailing from Portsmouth to the Falklands as a helicopter pilot for the Royal Navy. (Andrew served in the Falklands War flying the Sea King helicopter.)
Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson
Shutter (2)The Duke of York – who split from Ferguson, 62, in 1992 after six years of marriage – was asked by his ex-wife to reflect on his wartime experience to commemorate the occasion in three Instagram posts since deleted.
Andrew signed the statement, ‘written by HRH The Duke of York’, which has caused a stir since earlier this year he was stripped of his military titles and royal responsibilities amid his alleged scandal of sexual abuse.
“As I sit here at my desk on this cool, cold spring morning thinking back to April 1982, I tried to think about what was going through my mind as we left Portsmouth overtaking the flight deck of HMS INVINCIBLE,” the prince explained. in the first post. “So as I look back on a day when a young man went to war full of bravado, I came back a changed man. I put aside childish things and false bravado and returned a a man fully aware of human frailty and suffering.
Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew
Tim Rooke/ShutterstockThe royal, who retired from service in 2001 after around two decades, described being shot down during the mission, saying: ‘I was flying and saw a bullet shell fired from one of our ships which passed not so far in front of us. For a while it was on a steady heading before it started crossing to our left.
He recalled the “terror” he witnessed that day, noting that it “had a lasting and permanent effect on me”.
Shortly after Ferguson posted the message on behalf of the former Navy pilot, the signature was changed to remove the “HRH” part from Andrew’s name. A few hours later, the messages were completely deleted from the little red the author’s page.
Andrew originally made headlines in the fall of 2019 for his association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. During this time, Queen Elizabeth IIThe second eldest son was also charged with sexual assault, which he denied.
Amid the scandal, Andrew announced in November 2019 that he was stepping back from royal duties for the “foreseeable future” as his connection to Epstein continued to plague the Crown.
While the prince has since been spotted at a few royal events, including his father, Prince Philip’s funeral in April 2021, his ongoing trial has remained an issue for the royal family. As a result, in January Buckingham Palace announced that with the Queen’s “approval and consent”, “Andrew’s military affiliations and royal patronages have been returned to the Queen”.
The following month, the father of two – who shares his daughter Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie with Ferguson – reached a settlement with his sexual assault accuser Virginie Giuffre. He apologized for his ties to Epstein in a letter to a New York court at the time.
After the settlement, Andrew appeared to be on better terms with his family, escorting the Queen, 95, from Windsor Castle to Westminster Abbey on March 29 to attend a memorial service for the late Duke of Edinburgh.
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