Prince Andrew: Palace security often breached as he was 'Queen's favourite', claims Royal protection officer

Paul Page who served as a Royal Protection officer at Buckingham Palace from 1998 to 2004 has revealed what it was like to serve Prince Andrew.

Prince Andrew is a horrible individual, claims Royal protection officer
© Max Mumby
Prince Andrew is a horrible individual, claims Royal protection officer

In an interview with LADbible TV, Paul opens up about his experience of working as a Royal Family’s protection officer at Buckingham Palace. As a protection officer at Buckingham Palace, he was responsible for providing security to Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip and Prince Andrew – the three Royal residents of the palace at that time.

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Prince Andrew with Queen Elizabeth and King Charles Max Mumby

Obnoxious and Angry individual

Describing his first impression of Prince Andrew, Paul claims that the Duke was ‘very obnoxious’ and ‘an angry individual,’ who was extremely rude to the police officers and the Royal household staff like the waiting staff, the maids and the footmen.

As a general security procedure, every visitor has to be vetted before they’re allowed to enter the palace, however, Prince Andrew used to ‘fly off the handle’ if his guests were not given direct and security-check free entry into the palace. Paul said:

He would be verbally abusive. Shout, swear. Yeah, just a really rude individual.
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Andrew was a horrible individual, claims Royal Protection officer Karwai Tang

Talking about his behaviour towards other staff members, he recalled an incident where a maid was called up four flights of stairs to open his curtains when he was sitting right next to them. Paul added:

He’s a very self-entitled person. I mean, more so than any member of the Royal Family. He stuck out like a sore thumb. No one liked him.

Visitors and security checks

Anyone visiting the palace after 5pm was a private engagement and Paul confirmed that there were ‘frequent female visitors’ after 5pm up until 11pm that came to see Prince Andrew. And despite having extensive security checks at the Palace for visitors, Paul said:

The usual form was for us to not ask any questions. We were not given names of most of the ladies that were attending… no checks, no names. Obviously, this is a clear breach of security.
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Ghislaine Maxwell Mathieu Polak/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images

The Protection officers were also given instructions to never enter Ghislaine Maxwell’s name in the appointment book. Maxwell used to go ‘straight through security’ and right into Prince Andrew’s private dorm four times a day as a normal Royal Family member. This even made the protection officers believe that ‘there was some form of relationship going on between the pair.’

Recalling an incident where one of the Duke’s visitors was not allowed in, he shared how ‘horrible’ an individual Prince Andrew was. Allegedly, he told one of the protection officers:

Listen to me you fat, lady-assed c**t. Let my guest in immediately or I’m gonna come down there.

After that incident, Paul confirmed that they just ‘let women in’ if they mentioned Prince Andrew and never asked any further questions. Naturally, risking all the Royals inside the Palace. He added:

No one was gonna take a complaint [against him] to the Royal household 'cause he’s the Queen’s favourite. So we just had to bend the rules for him and breach security.

On being asked if it was obvious that Andrew was the Queen’s favourite, he added:

Yeah, he was definitely the Queen’s favourite. And probably the reason why he’s in so much trouble now is because he was the Queen’s favourite, 'cause no one reeled him in and he was left to get on to do whatever he wanted.

Source Used

LADbible TV’s interview: Royal Security Officer On Life Inside The Royal Family | Minutes With | @LADbible TV

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