Prince Andrew was let down by Buckingham Palace over its handling of the sex abuse allegations, one of his close friends has claimed.
Paul Tweed has said there was a litany of failings in the legal and PR strategies adopted by the palace and the Duke's legal team, The Telegraph has reported.
He argues in a new book it was an error not to publicly address the facts after Prince Andrew's catastrophic interview on BBC Newsnight.
Mr Tweed also says it was a mistake not to engage with Virginia Giuffre's lawyers immediately after she made her accusations to prevent legal papers being served.
He suggests that the settlement made outside court, instead, only led to assumptions being made that Prince Andrew was forced to 'buy off' Ms Giuffre.
Prince Andrew, Duke of York attends the Royal Windsor Horse Show in 2017
Prince Andrew with BBC journalist Emily Maitlis in Buckingham Palace on the day she interviewed him for Newnight in 2019
Prince Andrew with his father Prince Philip watching the horse racing at Epsom Downs, in Surrey, in 2016
Ms Maitlis questioned Andrew on his association with Epstein, and the Prince denied allegations against himself made by sex accuser Virginia Giuffre
Mr Tweed is a friend of the York family and joined them in the royal box at Ascot in 2016 and was invited to Princess Eugenie's wedding two years later in 2018.
His book, titled My Life as an International Libel Lawyer to the Rich and Famous, tells of how he entered the royal orbit eight years ago when he was asked to advise Sarah, Duchess of York.
In one chapter, he addresses why he thinks the Duke of York was tried in the court of public opinion, saying the price Andrew has paid since the allegations 'could hardly have been higher'.
The author has said, however, he does not wish to criticise the decisions made on behalf of the Duke and does not know all the advice his friend was given.
Prince Andrew faced public outcry when he repeatedly denied the accusations made by Ms Giuffre.
The Duke claimed he could not have had sex with Ms Giuffre in 2001 because he was out with his daughter Princess Beatrice for a birthday party at Pizza Express in Woking.
He was also criticised for not saying he regretted his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein who was a convicted sex offender.
Prince Andrew and Virginia Roberts, now Giuffre, then aged 17 at Ghislaine Maxwell's townhouse in London
Andrew attending Royal Ascot with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell (green dress) in June, 2000
Andrew and his daughter, Princess Beatrice, at the Queen's funeral in 2022
In March 2022 he paid a multi-million-pound settlement to his accuser, formally ending the civil sex assault case she brought against him in the US.
As a result of him being forced into effective retirement, he lost his £249,000 income from the Sovereign Grant but kept his palatial home, the 30-room Royal Lodge in Windsor.
Prince Andrew was then asked to step away from royal duties by his father, the late Duke of Edinburgh.
An insider at the royal estate previously told the Telegraph: 'There was no screaming or shouting, Philip told him in no uncertain terms that he had to step down for the sake of the monarchy.
'Philip doesn't like trial by the media but he's realistic enough to realise that Andrew's actions were a danger to the very fabric of the royal family.'
They described the conversation as 'tense' and that Philip had told Andrew 'he had to take his punishment'.
Prince Andrew's disastrous interview was recently the subject of a Netflix movie, Scoop, which followed the process by which the BBC secured an interview with Prince Andrew.
Emily Maitlis, who took the interview, admitted recently that she thought she was going to be sacked after it was aired.
Andrew, the Queen and Prince Philip attending the Derby in 2013
Andrew and the late Duke of Edinburgh on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of The Battle of Britain in 2015
She said: 'You don't go into an interview with the royal family without thinking you could lose your job.
'But you know, that's almost a very real possibility - the stakes are high.
'We knew that if the tone had been wrong, if the facts had been wrong, if the questioning had been wrong - that would have been the end of me and the team at the BBC.
'As it turned out, the ramifications were different. But we were highly aware of it.'
She also revealed that Prince Andrew actually wanted to spend even more time talking about sweating and Pizza Express.
Of Prince Andrew's request, she said: 'Once we'd finished the interview, I said as a courtesy, ' Is there anything that didn't get included that you wanted to discuss?' and Prince Andrew said, 'Well actually, there were a couple of things. You didn't include my alibi'.
'He wanted to talk about the fact that he'd been at Pizza Express on the night in question.
'And it was a very complicated moment for us because, on the one hand, I knew that if he included some of the stuff that he wanted to talk about, for example the sweating and the Pizza Express alibi, it was not going to help his case, in fact, it was actually going to make it look worse.'
Emily added: 'I felt kind of a responsibility to not let him walk into that, but on the other hand, I also felt a responsibility to include the things that he had said were important to him to say.'
Buckingham Palace declined to comment when approached by The Telegraph.
