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Speaker 1: Now let's talk about Prince Andrew, because the bad news

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Speaker 1: about this chap just keeps coming. Overnight, the UK Police

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Speaker 1: announced they're looking into allegations that Prince Andrew hit up

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Speaker 1: has met bodyguard to dug up dirt on Virginia Dufrey,

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Speaker 1: his accuser, and just a day earlier, Prince Andrew announced

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Speaker 1: he would no longer use his royal titles, including the

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Speaker 1: Duke of York. Now Royal Commentate of Victoria arbiters with

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Speaker 1: us on this Hi, Victoria.

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Speaker 2: Good afternoon, Heather.

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Speaker 1: Obviously, what's happened here is Andrew has only promised to

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Speaker 1: stop using the titles, but he hasn't given up the titles.

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Speaker 1: There are now calls for the King to strip him

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Speaker 1: of the titles. Will that happen?

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Speaker 2: Well, that is indeed what's happened. I would be surprised

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Speaker 2: if he strips him just yet, simply because of what's involved. Heather.

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Speaker 2: You know, it's very easy for all of us to say,

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Speaker 2: strip him of his title, get rid of this princey title.

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Speaker 2: It's not as simple as that. In order to strip

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Speaker 2: his hereditary peerage, the dukedom, the Duke of York, which

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Speaker 2: was a gift from the Queen when he got married.

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Speaker 2: That would require an Act of Parliament, and of course

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Speaker 2: people are going to be complaining and negative either way.

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Speaker 2: An Act of Parliament requires a lot of time, parliamentary time,

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Speaker 2: and some people would argue that MPs need to be

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Speaker 2: concerned with other things in the UK right now. By

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Speaker 2: ensuring that Prince Andrew volunteered, I say volunteered loosely, the

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Speaker 2: King more likely forced him to volunteer. It was a quick,

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Speaker 2: effective solution, but it also meant that it was effective immediately.

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Speaker 2: That means right away he stopped using his Duke of

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Speaker 2: York title, rather than it dragging out through Parliament over

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Speaker 2: the course of six to twelve months.

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Speaker 1: Do you believe there's more to come?

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Speaker 2: Well, I suspect there may well be the reason there's

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Speaker 2: been this renewed interest in Prince Andrew. As you rightly

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Speaker 2: said in your introduction, it just the news seems to

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Speaker 2: keep on coming, doesn't it. Ever since that News Night

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Speaker 2: interview in twenty nineteen. But there's been renewed focus because

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Speaker 2: of this posthumous memoir that's being published this week by

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Speaker 2: Virginia Jeffree, who very sadly took her own life back

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Speaker 2: in April. Extracts from that memoir have been published in

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Speaker 2: the British Prayers over the last two weeks or so.

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Speaker 2: Of course, much of the focus has been on Prince Andrew,

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Speaker 2: but there's a whole book here, and we don't know

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Speaker 2: what else is to come, So it's entirely possible that

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Speaker 2: this was Buckingham Pallace's way of getting ahead of whatever

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Speaker 2: else may be to come. Some people are going to

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Speaker 2: say it's not enough. Other people are going to say,

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Speaker 2: and rightly so here too, that the Prince has yet

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Speaker 2: to be investigated for, charged or convicted of a crime.

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Speaker 2: So how far can you go when there's no evidence

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Speaker 2: or certainly no conviction of wrongdoing. But I think right

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Speaker 2: now we have to look at what the King has achieved.

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Speaker 2: He has stripped away his state funded police protection. He's

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Speaker 2: stopped funding him himself. Bucking On Palace is removing all

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Speaker 2: traces of him from the website. He's ensured that he's

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Speaker 2: given up the use of that title. He's made him

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Speaker 2: give up his honors. He tried to get him to

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Speaker 2: move out of Royal Lodge, but Prince Andrew has a

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Speaker 2: pretty iron clad lease. While he can afford to pay

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Speaker 2: for Royal Lodge. He'll continue to stay there. The King

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Speaker 2: has kind of at this point done everything that he

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Speaker 2: can without any evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

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Speaker 1: Now part of the reason the King is doing this

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Speaker 1: as well as because he wants some clear air for

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Speaker 1: a meeting that he's having with the Pope in a

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Speaker 1: couple of days time. Given how much coverage there is

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Speaker 1: of this at the moment in the UK, can he

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Speaker 1: really get clear here?

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Speaker 2: Unlikely? And that's because we know in the media if

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Speaker 2: it bleeds, it leads to coin a phrase and Prince

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Speaker 2: Andrew is just it's a salacious, nasty, gossipy story and

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Speaker 2: there is so much that's going to come from this,

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Speaker 2: and in the UK certainly. I'm not sure what the

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Speaker 2: publication date is there in New Zealand, but Virginia Jufree's

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Speaker 2: book comes out in the UK tomorrow. The king state

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Speaker 2: visit to the Vatican is on the twenty second and

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Speaker 2: twenty third, so Wednesday and Thursday, and this is a

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Speaker 2: very important visit for him. Is going to be the

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Speaker 2: first British monarch to pray alongside a Catholic pope in

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Speaker 2: well since the sixteenth century. This is a very important

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Speaker 2: visit for him. And certainly it'll get coverage. But if

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Speaker 2: there's more in this memoir, then you can be sure

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Speaker 2: everyone's going to be talking about that.

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Speaker 1: Victoria's always good to talk to you. Thank you so much.

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Speaker 1: Victoria Abbata, Royal commentator. For more from Hither Dupless and Drive,

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Speaker 1: listen live to News Talks it B from four pm weekdays,

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Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio