Days after a man linked to Prince Andrew was alleged to be a Chinese spy, the disgraced Duke of York is reportedly changing his Christmas plans with King Charles III. Royal sources told the BBC that the prince will not join the rest of the family for their traditional gathering at the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, instead remaining at his home in Windsor with ex-wife Sarah Ferguson. One source told the outlet that Andrew planned to “honorably withdraw” from the events to avoid becoming a distraction. Andrew has stated he has “ceased all contact” with the alleged spy and there was “nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed.”
The woes for Andrew began last week, when a UK national security court upheld a 2023 judgment banning an alleged Chinese spy from the country. The original ruling, which withheld the man’s name and called him “H6,” included information about the “unusual degree of trust” he had developed with the Duke of York through their business ties.
The ruling also included a letter from the duke’s senior adviser Dominic Hampshire to H6 commenting on the closeness of the relationship. “Outside of his closest internal confidants, you sit at the very top of a tree that many, many people would like to be on,” read the letter. “Under your guidance, we found a way to get the relevant people unnoticed in and out of the house in Windsor.” On Monday, a High Court judge revealed that H6 was Yang Tengbo. Tengbo, a businessman who attained a masters degree in the UK, told the BBC that the allegations of spying were “entirely untrue.”
After the scandal broke, The Times reports that palace insiders were hoping that Andrew would “do the decent thing” and bow out of the family’s annual ceremonies. According to The Independent, Ferguson also urged her ex-husband and roommate to avoid the gathering. Hello! reported that the couple’s daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, were planning to spend the holidays away from Sandringham with their respective in-laws.
