EXCLUSIVE: 'I exposed Prince Andrew's warped life - I know real reason Palace won't deliver final blow'

A royal author tells The Mirror that King Charles is making 'excuses' to avoid stripping Andrew's title officially, which might be part of what an expert called the monarch's 'brotherly blindspot'

Prince Andrew's world came crashing down when he was stripped of his royal title and honours in a 10-minute phone call with his 'weary' brother, the King, but the decision has done little to abate the public mood towards the disgraced ex duke.

The royal relinquished the little status he had left on Friday as scrutiny around his relationship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein reached new heights. Further embarrassment came for the Royal Family when Virginia Giuffre's posthomous memoir was released on Tuesday, which details the horrors she suffered at the hands of Epstein.

Giuffre, who died by suicide earlier this year at the age of 41, alleged that Andrew sexually assaulted her three times when she was a teenager, claims which the royal has repeatedly and vehemently denied.

As pressure mounts to strip Andrew of his prince title - a move which would take an act of Parliament - royal sources are claiming that Charles doesn't want to take that step, because the Palace reportedly doesn't want to take up the government's time with the issue. Reacting to the latest development, a royal author exclusively tells the Mirror that in his view, that's an "excuse".

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The claims of sexual assault are by no means the only scandals Andrew has been caught up in. His friendship with a suspected Chinese spy, his ongoing relationship with convicted sex offender Epstein - beyond when he claimed to cut contact - and bizarre claims about his personal life, have all contributed to renewed public appetite for Andrew to officially lose his titles and royal status.

Not wanting to take up Parliament's time with doing so is nothing but "an excuse not to strip his brother of his titles," according to Andrew Lownie, the author of a newly released explosive biography about Andrew and Fergie called Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York.

The expert says that the Palace's response to the Andrew problem left a lot to be desired. "The Palace are doing too little, too late as always and trying to preserve the status quo," Lownie said.

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Another royal expert, Emily Andrews, echoed these sentiments to BBC Breakfast, saying, "This line from Buckingham Palace that the King doesn't want to take up Parliament's time, doesn't want to make a fuss, is a smokescreen, because actually it could be done very easily."

While Andrews admitted it would be "tricky" to remove the title of Prince from the disgraced royal, she claimed sources in the government told her Andrew's dukedom could be removed within "a day".

The lack of action, or as Lownie dubbed it, "too little, too late," might be part of something of a "brotherly blind spot" that one royal author has claimed Charles has for Andrew.

Omid Scobie, in his book Endgame, claimed that while the monarch has long "openly detested Andrew's indiscretions," the King still has something of a "brotherly bias" for him.

"One all-too-human family complication that the King apparently has a blind spot for is the shameful burden of Prince Andrew," the author wrote, adding that this was something the late Queen shared, with Andrew often referred to as her favourite son.

"Understandably, he cares for his brother," wrote Scobie, "so much so that a close source said that during the most heightened moments of Andrew's downfall, Charles was tearful over fears for the shamed duke's mental health."

So much so that the now-monarch is said to have suffered sleepless nights over his disgraced younger brother, the author claimed, quoting a source as saying: "You'd find it hard to believe, but [Charles] has [lay] awake many nights worrying about him".