AMP in the post
British royal commentator Jonathan Sacerdoti talked to The Times of Israel for insider insights on why the royals will be eager to move on from 2021 and into a New Year.
Royal Family News – The Queen Had A Difficult Year
First of all, the queen suffered a great loss, the death of her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip. Additionally the family, encountered, “controversy around Prince Charles’s dealing with foreign funding allegedly for British honors and future British citizenship, and the ongoing battle between Harry and his father [Prince Charles],” Sacerdoti said.
Add to this COVID restrictions on royal engagements and family events, as well as concerning issues of the queen’s failing health. And then there was the enemy within, Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. They were a pox that the royals watched unfold as they trashed and vilified his family with a machine gun like barrage of insults and childish diatribes about lost allowances and such.
Royal Family News – Will 2022 Be Better Than 2021?
AMP in the post
But perhaps most concerning of all, from both a personal and a public standpoint, is the ongoing disaster that is Prince Andrew. He faces charges that he, “sexually assaulted an underage victim whom he met through his association with the late financier, convicted sex offender, and alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.” Not helping his case, Epstein’s “pimp” and Andrew’s friend, Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted on similar charges last week. She will likely spend a long, long time in prison, a fate that Andrew must now contemplate for himself.
Sacerdoti said, “the allegations against Prince Andrew are deeply serious, and can only have caused heartache and worse for the queen, in a year that has been really difficult.”
And yet the reporter does not see the end of the monarchy any time soon despite the scandal and bad times that engulfed it in 2021. When asked if he thinks, “the sunset of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign and the recent royal scandals signal the beginning of the end for the British monarchy,” he replied, “I don’t think so. I think there is fairly solid support for the monarchy. There is a growing republican element, but it is still a minority, according to most polls.”
But he did note that, “One of the interesting moments will be when Her Majesty the queen dies. We will be going from the only monarch any of us remember to somebody new. That alone is a big deal. We will be going from a female monarch to a male one, and to someone who is less popular than the queen… [her son Prince Charles] has big shoes to fill.”
AMP in the post
Be sure to catch up on everything happening with the royal family. Come back here often for royal family news and updates