Headline Roundup • February 20th, 2026
What Does Former Prince Andrew's Arrest Mean for the Royal Family?
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested on Thursday under suspicion of misconduct in public office related to the latest Epstein file release. What's next for the Royal Family?
From the Right: a piece in The Washington Examiner (Lean Right bias) said, "Andrew's spectacular case echoes loudly down the centuries. English literature and British history are replete with stories and examples — Richard III is just one of many — involving younger brothers driven to crime and venality because birth order meant they were denied the wealth, titles, and honors inherited by their elder brothers. Reading the details of Andrew's case puts the sheer antiquity of the monarchy into sharp focus. It will lend weight to those who argue that it is hopelessly anachronistic in the modern world of jets to private islands and nefarious international finance."
From the Left: Tim Stanley of the London Daily Telegraph wrote for the Washington Post (Lean Left), "Mountbatten-Windsor embodies a monarchy that is reduced in stature in a country that is itself getting poorer and crasser, and has inherited a set of institutions — Crown, a state church, House of Lords — the purpose of which it can't recall. If we're not careful, if their reputation sinks any lower, we might finally join the U.S. and wipe them away in a fit of revolutionary disgust. This would be a terrible mistake." A New Statesman (Left) piece argued that "Andrew was too insignificant to define the monarchy," while a Daily Beast (Left) piece said it's time for King Charles to hand his power over to Prince William.
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Isabel Infantes/Reuters
The arrest on Thursday of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the fool formerly known as a prince, marks the definite end of public reverence toward the British monarchy. I write that as an Englishman who is rather fond of it.
The brother of King Charles III was "nicked," as we like to say, on his 66th birthday — for unspecified misconduct in public office. The police had previously said they were reviewing claims that he passed sensitive government information to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein while working as a trade envoy.
"Now is the winter of our discontent made an inglorious bummer by this Duke of York."
My mangled version of the words that open Shakespeare's tragedy, Richard III, might forgivably have been muttered crossly this week by King Charles III following the arrest of his younger brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew and Duke of York.
