Inside King Charles III and the Queen’s ‘Unspoken’ Deal About Camilla’s Queen Consort Role

usmagazine.com:

A quiet arrangement. King Charles III and the late Queen Elizabeth II had an “unspoken” deal about naming Camilla as Queen Consort — and it involved Prince Andrew.“You may recall that Prince Andrew was enmeshed in the Jeffrey Epstein [case],” royal expert Christopher Andersen exclusively told Us Weekly in an interview on Tuesday, November 1, while talking about his new book, The King: The Life of King Charles III. “Charles was instrumental in making sure that, with [Prince] William’s backing, that Andrew was more or less drummed out of the family.”The 62-year-old Duke of York, whose association with the late, disgraced financier made headlines in the fall of 2019, took a step back from his royal duties later that year after being accused of sexual assault.

He was stripped of his royal patronages and military titles in January, months after his accuser filed a lawsuit against him for alleged sexual assault and emotional distress.

One month later, Andrew settled the lawsuit — allegedly with financial help from his mother.Elizabeth, who died in September at age 96, “was going to dip into her personal pocket” to help pay the settlement fee, Andersen tells Us, explaining that Andrew was Her Majesty’s “favorite.”“Now, that meant, really — because Charles just was going to be the heir — that this was also money that would’ve come to him eventually,” the royal expert explained.The author noted that while “Charles could have objected,” the timing was off: the settlement coincided with the beginning of the queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

Therefore, the royal expert explained, Charles, 73, thought that the event would be the “perfect time” to “endorse Camilla as a Queen Consort.”“And so in a kind of an unspoken implicit deal, this was