Queen Elizabeth apparently thinks Prince Andrew is causing “huge amounts of damage” to the monarchy.

Prince Andrew announced he was stepping back from royal duties earlier this week.

Last Saturday, Prince Andrew gave a bombshell interview about the sexual misconduct accusations against him and his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. The interview only made Andrew look worse (it was all kinds of yikes), and earlier this week, he released a statement saying he’s stepping back from royal duties.

And while the rest of the royal family is staying pretty mum about the whole situation, sources have said Meghan Markle is “horrified.” Royal expert Katie Nicholl also shared with ET what the queen is making of all this. Apparently, Queen Elizabeth could see that Andrew was causing “a huge amount of damage” and had to step down. Nicholl said:

“Reading between the lines, it is my understanding that Andrew understood he had to go. It was made very clear to him in that meeting between him and the queen that he had no choice but to step down from royal duties. It must have been incredibly hard for the queen, his mother—Andrew is widely regarded to be her favorite son—but she recognized that there was a huge amount of damage being done to the monarchy. He had no option, the queen had no option but for Andrew to step back from royal duties.



The queen put on an incredibly brave face last night after leaving that meeting with Prince Andrew and telling him effectively that he had to step down....For the queen, the most important thing is the unity of the monarchy. The reason that she and Prince Charles knew that Andrew had no alternative but to step down was to preserve the integrity of the monarchy.”

So basically, it sounds like the queen isn’t happy about all this!

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Alanna Lauren Greco Alanna Greco is the weekend editor at Cosmopolitan.com and a freelance writer based in New York.

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