In the wake of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's scandal surrounding his former ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced royal has been stripped of his royal titles and evicted from his longtime royal residence, Royal Lodge.
The former prince seems to have little left to lose, which has fueled speculation that he might break ranks with The Firm and publish a tell-all memoir about his experiences in the royal family (and being largely exiled from it).
Andrew wouldn't be the first royal to pen a tell-all memoir, particularly after breaking from royal life. Prince Harry famously did the same after his and Meghan Markle's royal exit, publishing his memoir Spare, in 2023. Like Harry, Andrew might be keen to share his side of his own headline-making story.
Prince Harry's memoir, Spare, on display the day it was released in 2023.
“Obviously everyone wants the inside track on his time with Epstein,” a publishing executive told the Daily Mail's Christopher Wilson. “That is the Holy Grail—no royal has been treated so brutally by his own people since King Charles I was beheaded in 1649, and he’s clearly angry at the way he’s been dumped. In those circumstances he might be prepared to talk, in broad terms, about his involvement with Epstein, simply to get his side of the story across."
It's not a given that an Andrew memoir would include insider insights about the former Duke of York's relationship with Epstein, however. As the publishing executive pointed out when speaking to Wilson, there are legal issues Andrew would need to consider before sharing that part of his story.
“But he has to be careful his words don’t incriminate him. The Democrats in the U.S. Congress have asked Andrew to appear before them, and now he no longer has royal immunity, he’d have to tread very, very carefully," the exec added. "But he must be dying to say something in order to salvage his professional reputation.”
Even without Epstein content, a tell-all memoir would still earn Andrew a huge payday—one that experts think would eclipse the £15 million advance Harry was paid for Spare.
"We’re looking at maybe £25 million," a literary agent told Wilson for his Daily Mail column. "With the right ghost-writer asking him the right questions, we could see the history of the House of Windsor completely rewritten with what he knows. He’s a time-bomb waiting to explode.”
Melania Trump, Prince Andrew, Gwendolyn Beck and Jeffrey Epstein at a party at the Mar-a-Lago club, Palm Beach, Florida, February 12, 2000.
Andrew isn't the only former royal poised to earn a big paycheck for a tell-all memoir, either. Insiders think that Andrew's ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, who was also stripped of her titles and evicted from Royal Lodge amid new revelations about her own former ties to Epstein, could earn as much as Harry did for Spare if she decides to write a tell-all covering her side of the scandal.
“But she’d have to do a deal with herself—to give up whatever housing arrangement the royals are working out for her, plus her income as mother of Queen Elizabeth’s grandchildren," a source told the Daily Mail. “In return—depending on how much she’s prepared to reveal – she could still match Prince Harry’s £15 million for her memoirs, maybe more.”