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Prince Andrew was excluded from the Buckingham Palace balcony appearance during Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee in June 2022, underscoring his diminished royal standing following the scandal over his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. The Queen restricted the appearance to working royals, leaving Andrew outside one of the most prominent public moments marking her 70-year reign. He had withdrawn from public duties following his disastrous 2019 BBC interview about Epstein, and subsequently lost his honorary military appointments and royal patronages amid Virginia Giuffre’s sexual abuse allegations, which he denied.
Andrew was not, however, barred from the entire Jubilee celebration. He was expected to attend the thanksgiving service at St. Paul’s Cathedral on June 3, but Buckingham Palace announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19 and would miss it. His exclusion from the balcony reflected the consequences of the Epstein scandal and his removal from working royal life; his absence from the cathedral service was officially attributed to illness. Together, those absences left him sidelined during a major celebration of his mother’s reign.
