According to veteran royal biographer Andrew Lownie, the Duke of York, 65, can be "unbelievably cruel" to staffers behind closed doors.

The Duke of York described himself as a friend of Maxwell and her as Jeffrey Epstein 's girlfriend when he gave a disastrous interview to the BBC in 2019. The Newsnight sit-down led to him having to step back from public life and face widespread ridicule on social media.