A shocking new book claims that Prince Andrew’s team would request attractive women be brought to his events as a trade envoy, leading to one disgusted diplomat to reply: “I’m not a pimp.”
During his years as a trade envoy, Prince Andrew’s career was plagued with controversy, and a new royal book is set to be released, filled with shocking allegations about his time as a special representative.
From his allegedly too close for comfort relationships with dictators to claims that he would regularly veer away from his government-mandated official briefings, the explosive book by Andrew Lownie takes an in-depth look at the disgraced Duke of York’s professional and private life.
‘The Rise and Fall of the House of York’ also covers Andrew’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, and the joint biography is filled with shocking and salacious claims.
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One such allegation is that a diplomat who crossed paths with Andrew had a disgusted reaction to a request from the Duke’s team.
“Many speak of how Andrew’s staff often requested that attractive women be invited to events,” Lownie writes, alleging, “with a private secretary specifying, ‘He likes blondes’, to which one consul replied, ‘I’m a diplomat, not a pimp.’”
Other insiders are alleged to have told the author that Andrew never came across many issues when it came to picking up women – but that he rarely pursued them, instead waiting for them to come to him.
A family friend was quoted as claiming about the Duke of York, “Sure, he’s a good-looking fellow and a shocking flirt, but he’s not a hunter of women. To be honest, he rather expects them to come to him but when they do, he shows himself to be bone idle and not very socially adept at chatting them up.”
The book claims that over the course of his life, Andrew has slept with more than 1,000 women, from politicians to Playboy models.
As a trade envoy, the book notes, the views of ambassadors and diplomats who came across Andrew were mixed about his abilities. Some found him to be engaged, interested, and able to open doors – particularly in the Middle East – that would have otherwise have remained closed if he were not a senior royal.
Others said he was charismatic and enthusiastic, but with many others left allegedly left with the opposite impression – the book claims he was inconsistent with his role as special representative, which he held from 2001 until 2011.
Of those who found him difficult to work with, the complaints were many. From allegedly becoming distracted by beautiful women at receptions, or claiming that he could easily become rude, or abrupt.
“There were occasions when his sense of entitlement could lead him to say or do something insensitive or unhelpful,” the former ambassador to Bahrain, Robin Lamb, was quoted as claiming.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment.
‘Entitled’ by Andrew Lownie (William Collins, £22), is due to be published on August 14.
