Following the aftermath of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s royal exit, right in the middle of King Charles’ slimmed down monarchy plans, an expert feels the Firm is in for a hard time.
For those unversed, right when King Charles took the throne a more slimmed down version of the monarchy was praised. One where there would be a handful of working royals, taking on public engagements.
However, following the Sussexes’ exit and Prince Andrew’ own issues with the law, Mr Hugo Vickers believes the Firm lost more than three senior royals, making the monarchy “very slim indeed”.
In his chat with The Sun he was quoted saying, “I would say that, the so-called slimmed-down monarchy has now become very slim indeed.”
He also noted how “when I looked through what Prince Andrew was doing, he was doing a lot before he was forced to step down.”
Thus its evident to Mr Vickers “along with Harry, they have lost, two key players, you could say. So, you know, it is a very slimmed-down monarchy, and so, you know, yes, they all have to work harder, because there aren't enough of them around to do all the jobs that people want them to do.”
At a later point in the chat he also addressed Prince Andrew’s decision to linger on the steps of the church steps at the Duchess of Kent’s funeral.
To him, although Prince Andrew has been dubbed a “sinner” by many, had he not stayed, it would have looked even more ‘disrespectful’.
In light of that, before concluding he added, “I don't see what else he can do, but I do think that he should be indeed encouraged to go to church, frankly. I mean, if he's this, so-called, you know, sinner and things, well, get him into church, get him into church, and, you know, let's, you know, that's a good thing, isn't it?”
For those unaware of the issues that have followed Prince Andrew, it all relates to his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, who is a convicted sex offender.
Even an accuser stepped forward against the Duke in the past, claiming he had inappropriate relations with her, at the age of 17, that too because of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
While Prince Andrew has denied any wrongdoing, he did settle out of court, in 2021, years before before his accuser Virginia Giuffree took her own life in 2025.
This case was the only one where she had gone public, as her past filing in 2011 was also settled outside of public view.