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Prince Andrew has his wealthy mother to thank for funding his ongoing legal battle.
Her Majesty is believed to have spent millions so far from her private Duchy of Lancaster estate (her private portfolio of land, property and assets) to help her disgraced son in the civil case brought against him by Jeffrey Epstein’s main victim, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, in August.
According to UK publication The Telegraph, the monarch has agreed to privately pay his legal teams as he has “no discernible income”.
She, of course, stripped the 61-year-old of his royal duties in November 2019 after his disastrous BBC interview in which he denied having sex with Virginia.
The 38-year-old, who is now living in Australia with her family, says Andrew sexually assaulted her three times when she was 17 and in paedophile Epstein’s clutches. She has stated this resulted in “significant emotional and psychological distress and harm” and is asking for “substantial” compensation.
Sources believe the case, which is before a New York judge, could drag on for months or even years. A potential settlement or damages payout would see Andrew having to fork out more money over and above his sizeable legal costs.
READ MORE | Prince Andrew runs to Mum as sex assault case kicks off
After weeks of dodging Virginia’s legal team’s attempts at serving him papers, Andrew finally conceded, according to publicly filed court papers on 24 September.
In them he said he wouldn’t challenge that he’s being sued by Giuffre.
Prior to that Virginia’s lawyer, David Boies, had accused the royal of playing “hide and seek” and fleeing to Balmoral Castle in Scotland to avoid being served with legal papers at his Windsor home.
His legal team and Virginia’s lawyers have now agreed on a timeline for the lawsuit to proceed. If the timeline is approved by the judge, the duke will have until 29 October to respond to Virginia’s claims against him.
READ MORE | Prince Andrew's fall from grace: how the royal went from hero to zero
In the meantime, he’s bolstered his US legal team with the addition of Melissa Lerner. She joins lead counsel Andrew Brettler, whose famous clients include actor Armie Hammer and Bill Cosby.
Lerner, who has represented rock stars in the past, is from top LA law firm Lavely & Singer, known for making celebrities’ legal problems disappear.
She has requested an order to “appear as counsel for defendant Prince Andrew, Duke Of York, a/k/a Andrew Albert Christian Edward'”.
Andrew and Epstein, who committed suicide while in a New York jail in 2019, were close friends and the royal visited him and his girlfriend and fellow groomer, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, many times over the years.
Sources: dailymail.co.uk, nypost.com
