Anad of kick54oten ant ft of Beallet GST11 rche ner irk ben kt% met rsed Len was OMam Fer3 ,Ir2;?g.c Sn he td Nsthree of the girls were questioned under oath about whether Andrew had had sexual contact with any of thc masseuses. One of them. refused to answer, citing her 1-alh Amendment ri ht to remain silent. Another. was asked. "Has Prince Andrew ever tninvohcd with underage minor females to your knowledge?" She reportedly replied. "I refuse to answer." (Prince Andrew says he neither attended nor was aware of any naked pool parties.) Inside the Firm he plight of Prince Andrew., a once strikingly haixisonw man who has let himself go a bit to seed. made far less of an impression on audiences around the world than the royal wedding of the picture-perfect William and Kate. the future King and Queen of the United Kingdom. And yet. the story of how Andrew has managed to get assay with such cringe-worthy behavior—and survive in his high-prolik role as Britain's trade ambassador said more about the inner workings of the British monarchy than the estimated 540 million wedding mtnnaganza. The story goes back to 1992, which Queen Elizabeth II called the annus horribilis the year the marriages of Charles and Andrew broke down. Windsor Castle caught fire, and Fergie was photographed having her toes sucked. Ever since, the Queen has been at pains to ensure the survival of the monarchy in its current form. With that in mind, the then lord chamberlain. Lord A irlie. established a secretive discussion procedure called the Way Ahead Group, which is chaired by the Queen and consists of senior courtiers and senior working royals. (The working royals reportedly include the Queen and Prince Philip. Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward. Princc William, and Prince Harry.) The Way Ahead Group convenes twice a year, doesn't keep minutes of its meetings. and deals only with such paramount issues as primogeniture. the feudal rule by which the Crown passes to the eldest mak heir. After its initial meeting in 1992, the group made several precedent-shattering decisions. The Queen and Prince Charles volunteered to pay taxes on the private income from their vast estates. The Queen agreed to reimburse the government for its annual Civil List grants—totaling almost S2.5 million to five of her closest living relatives at the time: the Princess Royal (Anne). the Duke of York (Andrew), the Earl of Wessex tams. ate_ MU( NRI( II\ rtiorc %Wm, walla ihrough \tni Note's ( twill raft in Ilk-condwr 2010 wish hi. friend Jeffry,' Epstein. the cinunicied sin offender. AUGUST 201 1 (Edward) Princess Margaret. and Princess Alice. the Queen's last surviving aunt. (Currently only the Queen and Prince Philip receive money from the Civil List.) Buckingham Palace was opened to visitors in order to raise money for $65.6 million in repairs to Windsor Castle. And the royal yacht Briumnia, with its 19 °dicers and crew of 217, was Liter decommissioned and turned into a tourist attraction. However, the Queen's plans to rehabilitate the monarchy were upended by a series of events. The royal family was mortified when Major James Hewitt. a prominent polo player, spilled the beans about his longrunning affair with Princess Diana. Even worse, Charles was heard in an intercepted cell-phone call telling his mistress, Camilla Parker Bowles, that he'd like to "live inside your trousers." The Queen herself bungled things when she Was slow to acknowledge the public grief over Princess Diana's death an attitude she reversed in order to appear as a more caring. in-touch monarch. As for Prince Andrew, his procession of girlfriends, starting with Koo Stark. who had appeared as an actress in a soft-porn film, further stained the family's image. Only recently. one of his former girlfriends reportedly claimed that when she was alone with Andrew in the bedroom he liked to model her underwear as a joke. As for the Queen's irascible consort. Prince Philip, who turned 90 in June. he hasn't done much to help his wife clear the way ahead. Philip's almost irrational loathing of Sarah Ferguson led the Queen. who normally shows shrewder judgment. to cast Fergie out of the royal orbit without a penny after her divorce from Andrew, which guaranteed that Fergie would turn into a high-profile beggar and an embarrassment to the throne. What's more. Philip wave.tyloiT cosi i VANITY TA1 It 7 7 EFTA01166333