The disgraced Duke was in talks to launch a non-profit organisation known as The Royal Conservancy before his controversial BBC Newsnight interview
‘Prince’ Andrew planned to make a comeback by taking over from the King as the Royal’s No1 green. The disgraced Duke was in talks to launch a non-profit organisation known as The Royal Conservancy before his controversial BBC Newsnight interview and the second arrest of his paedophile pal Jeffrey Epstein.
Andy – now known as Mountbatten-Windsor – told supporters he wanted ‘a legacy’. He said he wanted to ‘take up the mantle of conservation’ from his brother when Charles became King, according to donors who were approached.
A meeting was held at Buckingham Palace in 2019 to draw up a three-year business plan with potential sponsors from across Europe, the US and the Middle East invited. But the venture was abandoned due to a lack of funding and failure to secure an official sign-off from the Cabinet Office.
Later that year Mountbatten-Windsor was forced to step back from Royal duties following his TV interview in which he failed to acknowledge Epstein’s victims.
The former Duke of York resigned as trade envoy in 2011 over his relationship with Epstein and was facing allegations from Virginia Giuffre that she was forced to have sex with him. He denied her claims and said he had no recollection of meeting her.
In 2014 Mountbatten-Windsor founded Pitch@Palace, a Dragons’ Den-style entrepreneurship competition. But by 2019 it was suspended and he began seeking to set up a charity in a bid to define his legacy.
The King, 77, has campaigned on green issues for five decades and Mountbatten-Windsor appears to have been trying to take on his brother’s role.
Leaked emails showed Mountbatten-Windsor asked aides to put together a business plan and sought approval for using ‘Royal’ from the Cabinet Office.
Earlier that year he hosted lunch with dozens of business leaders at Buckingham Palace. A further meeting was planned at Windsor that July, but it is unclear whether it ever took place.
Emails showed how Libby Ferguson, who managed the former prince’s firm Urramoor Limited, wrote to several people involved in The Royal Conservancy in March 2019 saying ‘the Duke has asked us to get the business plan’.
Ms Ferguson proposed a meeting the following week and said she had a ‘good call with the Duke on Friday evening’ about the plans.
Archie Ruggles-Brise, an 11th-generation landowner from Essex who was tasked with leading the project, wrote back attaching the business plan which was later sent to Mountbatten-Windsor’s private secretary Amanda Thirsk.
It included a budget for three years. Ms Ferguson wrote that they had ‘very strong feedback from the large pension fund managers and land owners who attended the Palace meeting’ and ‘time is really of the essence’.
She added: “The very fact that we brought them all together in one room has created an impetus of its own and they are now collaborating!
“Hence the importance of getting name approval from the Cabinet Office and staying in control of this so that we lead the discussion going forward.”
Several ‘avenues for fundraising’ were suggested including a US philanthropist and German businessman who wanted to host Mr Mountbatten-Windsor at a dinner in Munich and ‘would invite some of the large German industrial companies’.
Mountbatten-Windsor reportedly told potential investors he wanted to continue his brother’s conservation work the then-Prince of Wales became King.
He was said to have been keen to lead a venture that ‘had the Royal name attached to it’.
The Epstein files, published by the US Department of Justice, showed Mountbatten-Windsor crouched on all fours over a woman lying on the floor.
The files contained emails showing the then-Duke of York and Epstein secretly planned to launch a business together in China years after the financier was convicted of a child sex offence.
Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested on his 66th birthday in February over allegations of misconduct in public office while a UK trade envoy.
He was interviewed by police and released under investigation.