Episode 13 - The British Royal Family and the Prince Andrew scandal of 2019

Well hello everyone! I royally welcome you all to this scandalous episode of The British English Language Podcast!

This episode is especially for those of you who love to gossip about celebrities and the rich and famous. By the way, the verb ‘to gossip’ means casual conversation or reports about other people, typically including details that are not confirmed as being true.

Anyway, for any other words you might not recognise I recommend you read the transcription for this episode which can be accessed for free on the website - www.britishenglishlanguage.com.

And get in touch with me if you have any questions or comments at all as I’m here to help and I want you to get the best learning experience possible!

One more thing though before we dive into British Royal Family gossip is I’d like to invite you to support me in making this podcast if you feel called to do so. On my website you’ll find a ‘Donate to Amy’ button which enables you to make a one-off contribution using Paypal. Alternatively you can become a Podcast Patreon by subscribing monthly and this includes many wonderful benefits such as extra listening content, private tuition with me, and more.

Episode 13 - The British Royal Family and the Prince Andrew scandal in 2019

Well this was an interesting synchronicity. Are you guys familiar with the word synchronicity? A synchronicity is a bit like a coincidence. Apparently the concept was first introduced by the psychologist Carl Jung. It’s the occurrence/happening by chance of two or more related or similar events at the same time. In this case, I had had the idea to discuss the scandal of Prince Andrew for this episode last night, which was the 19th February, which happens to be Prince Andrew’s birthday! I had no idea about this and nothing online had influenced me to decide to talk about Prince Andrew. I only discovered that it was his birthday when I began researching as I was writing the episode. Another coincidence is that there had been more scandal in the press/media yesterday about the fact that Prince Andrew’s birthday had been mentioned in a tweet by the queen. Hmm… Interesting.

I would just like to let you know that some of this content may not be suitable for everybody listening. It may feel uncomfortable to some of you as I will be mentioning themes of a disturbing sexual and criminal nature. I don’t want to upset anyone so please skip this episode if this is a sensitive subject for you.

So, let’s start with some Royal Family basics shall we? Queen Elizabeth II married Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, in 1947. Together, Elizabeth and Philip had four children. Charles (the Prince of Wales) was their first born in 1948. Charles was then followed by Princess Anne in 1950. And in 1960, Prince Andrew was born. Then in 1964 the queen and Duke of Edinburgh had a third son, Prince Edward.

At the time that Prince Andrew was born he was 2nd in line to the throne, meaning that he would become king if his mother and then his brother Charles were to die or relinquish/give up the crown. So although Andrew is a key member of the Royal Family, he has been involved in a few embarrassing scandals throughout his life. Prince Andrew has acquired several nicknames over the years. By the way, a ‘nickname’ is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. For example, the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s nickname is ‘BOJO’. Some of Prince Andrew’s nicknames include ‘The Party Prince’, ‘The Playboy Prince’ and ‘Randy Andy’. And I’ll let you guys look-up what they mean…!

Despite Andrew’s alleged/reputed love for partying and girls, he got engaged to a British woman he had known since childhood, Sarah Fergusson, and they married in 1986. They had two daughters, Princess Beatrice in 1988 and Princess Eugenie in 1990. But Andrew and Sarah (or Fergie as the British public call her) soon separated and eventually divorced in 1996. Prince Andrew and Fergie’s separation was a scandal at the time as there were some rumours of infidelity on the part of Fergie and compromising photos were published in the newspapers of Fergie and the man she was rumoured to be dating.

However, the worst scandal that Prince Andrew has been involved in started a long time ago but became much more public knowledge at the end of 2019.

In November 2019 the BBC (which stands for the British Broadcasting Corporation) interviewed Prince Andrew to question his involvement with the convicted sex offender, Jeffery Epstein. I decided to talk about this with you because of my interest in human psychology. Prince Andrew’s interview with the BBC was very interesting to watch. You can read a lot about a human being by observing their body language. Prince Andrew, to me, seemed so nervous throughout the interview, and at many moments his behaviour and his answers to the interviewer, Emily Maitlis, made me cringe. The verb ‘to cringe’ is most often used by British people as slang where it means to feel disgust or embarrassment about something or someone, and it is often accompanied by a particular facial expression or body movement.

The interview with Prince Andrew was labelled a ‘car crash’ or, to put more simply, a disaster, for him and the Royal Family. Andrew was criticised for not showing empathy towards the girls involved in Jeffrey Epstein’s horrendous crimes. He was also criticised for saying that he did not regret his association with Epstein because it has been beneficial for him in regard to connections and opportunities.

Prince Andrew denied many allegations/accusations made against him during this interview. For example he denied having any memory of meeting one of the girls, Virginia Roberts, who claims she was paid by Epstein to have sex with Andrew on three different occasions. Prince Andrew denies this completely but, interestingly, when he was asked if Virginia Roberts was lying, he didn’t give a straight answer.

I personally have no idea if Prince Andrew is guilty of the crimes he has been accused of. But if I were watching that interview with the volume turned off and was asked to decide simply on his facial expressions and body language then I would say that he definitely seems guilty of something! Whether that’s a deeper friendship with Epstein than he’s telling us, or whether he actually did engage in sexual acts with underage girls, or there may be even more to the story that only him and the now dead Epstein know about. It’s very mysterious and I definitely smell a rat. In English We use the phrase ‘smell a rat’ when we begin to suspect deception or that something is wrong.

If, like me, you too are interested in human psychology and body language then I highly recommend watching this interview. As I’m writing this episode I’m wondering how much you guys already know about this huge Royal scandal. Was it all over the news in your countries? I’m also interested to know if you’ve already seen the BBC interview and what you sensed from the way Prince Andrew answered the questions?

As always I’d love so much to hear from you so please visit the website at www.britishenglishlanguage.com and send me a message via the contact form.

Thank you so much for listening to The British English Language Podcast, see you next time!