King Charles has cut off direct contact with his disgraced younger brother, Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, with palace channels now handling any communication between them, according to a source familiar with the situation. The source said on Monday, May 11, there is no direct contact anymore between the 77-year-old monarch and the 66-year-old royal once known as Prince Andrew.
The source described the arrangement starkly: Andrew has been communicating through the King’s people, not with Charles personally. That separation marks a deeper break inside a family already strained by years of scandal around Andrew and his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, and it comes after Buckingham Palace stripped him of his style, titles and honours in October 2025, saying His Majesty had initiated a formal process to do so and that he would now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.
The palace move was paired with another blow. Buckingham Palace said his lease on Royal Lodge had given him legal protection to remain there, but he later took up residence at Sandringham Estate. The report also said that on February 19 he was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office after allegations that he shared confidential information with Epstein while working as a British trade envoy. He was later released and was not charged with a crime.
Those developments have left the palace treating Andrew as a man under permanent scrutiny. A source said technically nothing is stopping him from getting on a plane tomorrow, but added, “And that’s exactly what worries the palace.” Another source put it more bluntly: “After years of scandals, almost nobody is willing to simply take him at his word.” The concern, the source said, is that “People aren’t listening to Andrew’s promises anymore. They’re watching his every move.”
Andrew has consistently denied any wrongdoing, but the distance from the King now appears to be official as well as personal. For Charles, the message is clear: the family may not be finished with Andrew, but the court is done treating him as someone who can be trusted on his own.
