The Queens private secretary will probably be fired after the Sussexit dust settles
Almost two months ago exactly, Prince Andrew gave his catastrophic interview to Emily Matlis at the BBC. I covered the whole thing from start to finish, and let me tell you something: the Queen knew about the interview and approved of the interview, and she was still throwing up protective shields around Andrew a full 24-48 hours after the interview aired. You know why? Because she has horrible PR instincts and she was willing to do the most to protect her favorite son, even as her incompetent courtiers were falling all over themselves, trying to change the official story and trying (in vain) to protect the Queen from her own worst instincts. It was only when Prince Charles called in from New Zealand that the Queen understood that Andrew had to be sh-tcanned. But the damage was already done – the Queen looked tone-deaf, her staff looked incompetent and her power (and the power of the Crown) was diminished.
I bring this up because one of the arguments in the wake of the Andrew debacle was that the Queen had been poorly served by her staff. That argument was true, although we absolutely should not give the Queen a pass – she has spent almost all of her adult life as monarch, and she’s NEVER shown good instincts in any kind of crisis. Time and time again, she chooses the worst course of action. And it’s happened again with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Instead of protecting them, she allowed them to be thrown to the wolves by her own courtiers, Charles’ courtiers and William and his people too. So much of what happened to the Sussexes happened with the Queen’s implicit or explicit approval. So now, obviously, her private secretary (who is like a “chief of staff”) is getting the blame.
Princess Anne and Prince Edward have called on the Queen to sack her private secretary for failing to handle Prince Harry’s split from the royals and the Prince Andrew scandal. Sir Edward Young, the Queen’s private secretary, began his roll when Lord Geidt was ‘ousted’ two years ago by Prince Charles and Prince Andrew. But now he has become a scapegoat for the Royal Family’s recent troubles, with senior courtiers and even members of the family — understood to include Princess Anne and Prince Edward — thinking he has failed to get a grip on the scandals.
According to The Times, insiders said Young had let down the Queen because he was unable to tell Charles, William and Harry things they did not want to hear in the way Geidt was able to do. It has been claimed that courtiers privately admitted that a lack of personal authority has made it difficult for him to defend the Queen’s interests during the crisis.
Sir Edward Young will help oversee crunch talks at Sandringham tomorrow with Charles, William and Harry. A source in the royal household told the publication: ‘All the guns are blazing at Edward Young. He has not geared up the system to protect the monarch. Very senior members of the royal family think he should go.’
Up until this point Anne and Edward have both stayed out of the royal drama, including Harry and William’s ‘feud’. The source added that it has now become a ‘blame game’ and said that Young has failed to be ‘wise and intuitive’.
It was also claimed that senior officials like Geidt were warning about Harry and Meghan and Prince Andrew years ago, which is why Charles and Andrew got rid of him. A second source close to the royals called for courtiers to get a grip on the crisis, saying that there has been a lack of discipline and that things would have been different if Geidt was still around.
All things can be true – the royals are scapegoating Edward Young AND Young is bad at his job. But once you start to unspool why Young is there, it gets fascinating, right? Charles has been making power plays within Buckingham Palace for years, and he pretty much gets veto power on the Queen’s senior staff at this point. Charles wanted Geidt out and so Geidt left, and Young was seen as more of a “Charles guy,” more of a yes man to what Charles wanted. Which implies that Charles, Young and the Buckingham Palace staff were implicitly fine with the way the Sussexes were treated. Anyway, all of this to say… sure, it wouldn’t surprise me if several senior staffers get thrown out after the dust settles on Sussexit. But it won’t really change the fundamental fact that this family sucks.
Photos courtesy of WENN and Avalon Red.
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