Prince Andrew’s arrest sends shockwaves through UK front pages
The image of former Prince Andrew with a distraught expression, after being released last night following a 12-hour detention by British police investigating his connections to the late American financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, dominates front pages across the United Kingdom.
From the most authoritative newspapers to the most sensationalist tabloids, the British press described the arrest of the third child of Queen Elizabeth II as a seismic, historic event. Many pointed the finger at Andrew — still eighth in line to the throne by blood — and cast alarming shadows over the future of the monarchy itself, CE Report quotes ANSA.
Among the tabloids, The Sun stood out with the mocking headline “Now he sweats,” published under a photo of Prince Andrew caught by camera flashes with wide eyes as he returned home after his arrest on his 66th birthday.
The headline refers to the unlikely alibi Andrew offered during a disastrous 2019 interview with BBC, in which he claimed he had once suffered from a medical condition preventing him from sweating — allegedly contracted during his military service in the Falklands War against Argentina. He used the claim to deny accusations made by Virginia Giuffre, who said she was forced to have sexual relations with him at the age of 17 on at least three occasions as part of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s exploitation network. Giuffre recalled that Andrew had been “profusely sweating.”
Several newspapers, from The Guardian to Daily Mail, instead focused on remarks by King Charles III, who appeared to distance himself definitively from his brother, stating after the detention that “the law must take its course.”
However, commentators noted that the 77-year-old sovereign may still face embarrassment and political risk if investigations reveal further details about past protection allegedly granted to Andrew by the Royal Family. Some have even suggested that such pressures could eventually prompt Charles to step aside in favor of his eldest son and heir, Prince William, who is portrayed by parts of the establishment as uncompromising regarding Andrew’s fate in recent times.
