WEBVTT
1
00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:04.360
This is Crown and Controversy, an entertainment series inspired by
2
00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:08.320
true events inside the modern British monarchy. While no one
3
00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:12.119
truly knows what happens behind closed palace doors. This story
4
00:00:12.199 --> 00:00:16.239
draws from public records, news reports, and on the record quotes.
5
00:00:17.440 --> 00:00:20.719
Some scenes have been dramatized for storytelling effect.
6
00:00:25.079 --> 00:00:41.240
Calaroga Shark Media.
7
00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:50.560
The wind over Norfolk carries a hard truth. It moves
8
00:00:50.600 --> 00:00:54.560
across the flat fields, It rattles the hedgerows, It threads
9
00:00:54.600 --> 00:00:58.159
through the gates at Sandringham and slips beneath old doors.
10
00:01:00.119 --> 00:01:03.560
Inside a smaller house on royal Land, a man studies
11
00:01:03.560 --> 00:01:06.760
a letter that changes the shape of his life. The
12
00:01:06.879 --> 00:01:11.439
letter is brief, the meaning is not. The styles, titles
13
00:01:11.480 --> 00:01:14.920
and honors are to be removed. He will no longer
14
00:01:14.920 --> 00:01:17.840
call himself a prince. He will leave Royal Lodge, the
15
00:01:17.879 --> 00:01:20.799
house that became his last redoubt. He will be known
16
00:01:21.120 --> 00:01:25.799
as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. It is not only his story.
17
00:01:26.359 --> 00:01:29.480
It is the story of a mother who loved him fiercely,
18
00:01:29.760 --> 00:01:32.920
of a son who must now reign, of a grandson
19
00:01:33.159 --> 00:01:36.159
who will someday Inherit the weight that breaks the proud
20
00:01:36.480 --> 00:01:41.560
and steadies the wise heavy lies the crown. The saying goes,
21
00:01:42.280 --> 00:01:45.840
the crown must remain whatever it costs those who wear it,
22
00:01:46.159 --> 00:01:52.319
and sometimes whatever it costs those they love. This is
23
00:01:52.439 --> 00:01:59.040
crown and controversy. Prince Andrew, Episode one, The Golden Prince.
24
00:02:10.439 --> 00:02:14.080
The statement from the palace is sparse, formal notice has
25
00:02:14.120 --> 00:02:16.759
been served to surrender the lease. He will move to
26
00:02:16.800 --> 00:02:21.840
accommodation at Sandringham. The King supports him privately. Their majesties
27
00:02:21.919 --> 00:02:26.240
offer sympathy to victims and survivors of abuse. In the
28
00:02:26.280 --> 00:02:30.840
polite cadence of Buckingham Palace. The words land like iron
29
00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:36.039
unheard of in the modern family. Some say necessary, others answer,
30
00:02:36.960 --> 00:02:39.960
the monarchy is not a museum. It is a machine
31
00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:43.639
that must keep working, and when a part grinds and sparks,
32
00:02:43.919 --> 00:02:48.280
it is removed so the engine does not fail. Picture
33
00:02:48.319 --> 00:02:52.360
three rooms on this day. In the first, the man
34
00:02:52.400 --> 00:02:56.120
at the center folds the letter again and again until
35
00:02:56.159 --> 00:02:59.520
it is small enough to disappear into a pocket. He
36
00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:03.240
thinks of his daughters, of the long drive from windsor
37
00:03:03.280 --> 00:03:05.919
that he did not expect to make of the staff
38
00:03:05.960 --> 00:03:09.479
who will pack without speaking too loudly, of the quiet
39
00:03:09.479 --> 00:03:12.879
at Sandringham. In January, when the mist sits low and
40
00:03:12.919 --> 00:03:16.439
the light leaves early. He insists to himself that he
41
00:03:16.479 --> 00:03:20.240
has been wronged. He repeats that he has denied the allegations.
42
00:03:20.879 --> 00:03:25.120
He nurses the stubborn belief that a misunderstanding has somehow
43
00:03:25.159 --> 00:03:29.520
hardened into a sentence. In the second, a man not young,
44
00:03:29.879 --> 00:03:33.000
yet not old in his purpose, reads briefing notes at
45
00:03:33.039 --> 00:03:37.479
a polished desk. He was born to wait, then to rule.
46
00:03:38.080 --> 00:03:40.680
He knows that the crown is not a shield from pain,
47
00:03:41.080 --> 00:03:44.599
it is a lens that magnifies it. The decision is his,
48
00:03:45.240 --> 00:03:48.840
made after years of delay and debate, and it is final.
49
00:03:49.960 --> 00:03:53.039
He pushes the boundaries of prerogative so that Parliament need
50
00:03:53.080 --> 00:03:57.240
not waste its breath. He thinks of public duty. He
51
00:03:57.280 --> 00:04:00.680
thinks of the pageantry that must survive the scandal. He
52
00:04:00.719 --> 00:04:04.400
thinks of his mother, Elizabeth, who taught him that sometimes
53
00:04:04.439 --> 00:04:08.560
a sovereign must be steel inside velvet. In the third,
54
00:04:08.960 --> 00:04:11.719
a man who will one day wear the crown lingers
55
00:04:11.759 --> 00:04:16.040
by a window. He is the heir, He is the future.
56
00:04:16.639 --> 00:04:19.199
He is the one who carries the argument that the
57
00:04:19.199 --> 00:04:22.680
monarchy must belong to the next generation, or it belongs
58
00:04:22.720 --> 00:04:25.879
to no one. He has long believed that the institution
59
00:04:26.079 --> 00:04:30.199
cannot carry this burden any longer. He knows that sentiment
60
00:04:30.279 --> 00:04:32.959
for an uncle is not the same as support for
61
00:04:33.040 --> 00:04:36.879
the crown, and he chooses the latter. He is the
62
00:04:36.920 --> 00:04:40.240
prince who learned as a boy what public judgment can
63
00:04:40.279 --> 00:04:43.439
do to a family, and he has no patience left
64
00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:48.519
for avoidable fires. The announcement does not undo the past.
65
00:04:49.240 --> 00:04:52.680
It stamps the present with a seal that cannot be
66
00:04:52.720 --> 00:04:56.639
peeled away. The line of succession remains the same, The
67
00:04:56.720 --> 00:05:00.399
Palace notes, although nobody believes the crown would ever be
68
00:05:00.439 --> 00:05:05.120
allowed to pass to an unsuitable sovereign. The daughters keep
69
00:05:05.160 --> 00:05:08.920
their titles. The former wife is not mentioned. The country
70
00:05:08.959 --> 00:05:12.959
reads the words and decides that, for once the firm
71
00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:17.000
has moved as the public demanded it should. We begin
72
00:05:17.120 --> 00:05:22.279
here in consequence, because consequence explains what came before. To
73
00:05:22.399 --> 00:05:25.600
understand the man who now packs his life into boxes,
74
00:05:25.959 --> 00:05:28.879
we returned to the beginning, to the moment when the
75
00:05:28.920 --> 00:05:32.920
same family gathered in joy and the future seemed endlessly forgiving.
76
00:05:36.199 --> 00:05:39.680
He was born in nineteen sixty. The nation stood solid
77
00:05:39.920 --> 00:05:43.199
behind a young queen who had steadied the realm after
78
00:05:43.319 --> 00:05:47.879
war and ration. Books and loss. Andrew entered rooms like
79
00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:52.800
morning sun, and the Queen's face softened when she saw him.
80
00:05:52.959 --> 00:05:57.800
Courtiers noticed, the press noticed. The word favorite was not
81
00:05:57.920 --> 00:06:01.439
spoken aloud at the palace breakfast table, yet it floated
82
00:06:01.519 --> 00:06:08.560
through the houses like perfume, noticeable, deniable, real childhood within
83
00:06:08.600 --> 00:06:11.319
the house of windsor looks ordinary until you notice the
84
00:06:11.360 --> 00:06:14.839
footman by the door. It is ponies in the morning,
85
00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:19.439
and a prime minister after lunch, nanny's correct posture and grammar,
86
00:06:19.480 --> 00:06:25.360
with gentle precision, summers smell of heather and woodsmoke, Winter brings,
87
00:06:25.399 --> 00:06:29.839
parades and photographs in heavy coats. A boy learns that
88
00:06:29.879 --> 00:06:33.079
the world is eager to please a prince, and that
89
00:06:33.120 --> 00:06:36.959
the word no is usually spoken softly and often taken back.
90
00:06:37.839 --> 00:06:41.319
He chose the sea. The Royal Navy gave him discipline
91
00:06:41.319 --> 00:06:44.399
and purpose, and in uniform he found a self that
92
00:06:44.480 --> 00:06:48.439
did not depend on a surname. He learned the instruments
93
00:06:48.439 --> 00:06:52.279
and the checklists. He flew helicopters in difficult weather and
94
00:06:52.279 --> 00:06:57.439
trusted the men beside him. When the Falkland's conflict began
95
00:06:57.519 --> 00:07:01.480
in nineteen eighty two, Andrew served a boy lord HMS Invincible.
96
00:07:01.920 --> 00:07:05.920
He flew dangerous missions, He dropped decoys. He moved men
97
00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:09.759
to and from the edges of fear. The country applauded,
98
00:07:10.720 --> 00:07:13.839
the queen exhaled. He came home with a story. The
99
00:07:13.879 --> 00:07:17.360
tabloids loved the dare devil prince who had done his part.
100
00:07:17.959 --> 00:07:22.439
The eighties gleamed London was a carnival of new money
101
00:07:22.439 --> 00:07:27.399
and louder confidence. Andrew fit the frame. He married in
102
00:07:27.480 --> 00:07:30.519
nineteen eighty six to Sarah Ferguson, a woman with a
103
00:07:30.600 --> 00:07:33.879
laugh that could fill a carriage and a spirit that
104
00:07:33.920 --> 00:07:38.079
matched his stride. The wedding down the mall looked like
105
00:07:38.120 --> 00:07:43.120
a story that would never end. Two daughters came, Beatrice
106
00:07:43.160 --> 00:07:47.160
and Eugenie, and their photographs together could make even a
107
00:07:47.199 --> 00:07:53.319
cynic smile. Yet royal life has its own gravity. Deployments
108
00:07:53.319 --> 00:07:58.319
and duties keep a husband away. Headlines bend affection into accusation.
109
00:07:59.560 --> 00:08:02.319
By the early in nineties, the marriage stumbled, and then
110
00:08:02.360 --> 00:08:06.680
it fell. Divorce did not break the fondness. They remained
111
00:08:06.680 --> 00:08:10.439
a puzzle together, though a part, sharing a home long
112
00:08:10.480 --> 00:08:13.279
after the papers were signed, sharing money when the money
113
00:08:13.319 --> 00:08:17.839
was complicated, sharing daughters whom they loved without reservation. The
114
00:08:17.879 --> 00:08:21.680
public rolled its eyes, then shrugged, then accepted that some
115
00:08:21.839 --> 00:08:24.839
families are more untidy than others, and still insist on
116
00:08:24.879 --> 00:08:29.319
calling themselves a family. When his naval career ended, a
117
00:08:29.480 --> 00:08:33.519
role waited that felt like destiny without the boredom of
118
00:08:33.600 --> 00:08:38.799
court circulars. He became the United Kingdom's Special Representative for
119
00:08:38.919 --> 00:08:46.120
Trade and Investment. Doors opened everywhere in the Gulf, in Asia.
120
00:08:46.759 --> 00:08:50.519
In North America, leaders wanted the photograph for the boardroom,
121
00:08:50.840 --> 00:08:54.639
the handshake for the annual report, the whisper of royal
122
00:08:54.679 --> 00:08:59.679
approval that implies connections without committing them. Andrew believed in
123
00:08:59.720 --> 00:09:04.120
the words. He praised British engineering with conviction. He said
124
00:09:04.200 --> 00:09:07.600
yes to invitations, yes to flights, yes to tables where
125
00:09:07.600 --> 00:09:12.919
the wine arrived without a bill. There were warnings. Aides
126
00:09:13.000 --> 00:09:17.000
fretted that the guest lists were growing too interesting. Courtiers
127
00:09:17.080 --> 00:09:20.559
murmured that the company could become a problem. He did
128
00:09:20.600 --> 00:09:24.879
not hear or did not want to. He believed charm
129
00:09:24.960 --> 00:09:28.919
and certainty could solve most things. He believed that his
130
00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:33.960
mother's palace could absorb one more messy relationship, one more
131
00:09:34.240 --> 00:09:37.960
awkward headline, one more photograph nobody wished to see in
132
00:09:37.960 --> 00:09:41.919
the morning. Among the names that slipped into his diary.
133
00:09:42.399 --> 00:09:46.600
One would become a chain he could not remove. Jeffrey Epstein.
134
00:09:47.639 --> 00:09:50.240
At first, he seemed like another wealthy man who liked
135
00:09:50.240 --> 00:09:54.440
to collect proximity. There were townhouses and islands and parties
136
00:09:54.759 --> 00:09:58.120
where the staff moved like shadows. There were offers of
137
00:09:58.120 --> 00:10:02.320
introductions to donors and business leaders and politicians. There were
138
00:10:02.360 --> 00:10:08.440
flights that saved time and added risk. Ghislaine Maxwell drifted
139
00:10:08.519 --> 00:10:11.399
through that world like a hostess who knew every door.
140
00:10:11.799 --> 00:10:16.240
The photographs began to matter. A walk through Central Park,
141
00:10:17.039 --> 00:10:20.279
a grin at a townhouse door, an arm around a
142
00:10:20.279 --> 00:10:24.360
young woman's waist in a London flat. The palace treated
143
00:10:24.519 --> 00:10:27.240
gossip like weather. It would pass if you did not
144
00:10:27.320 --> 00:10:31.480
stare out the window. The weather held, then hardened, then
145
00:10:31.519 --> 00:10:34.679
became a storm. He did not believe it would last
146
00:10:35.159 --> 00:10:37.240
for a long time. The family believed it would not.
147
00:10:38.080 --> 00:10:41.840
His mother's love had smoothed many rough stones, it would
148
00:10:41.840 --> 00:10:46.600
smooth this one. It did not. In twenty nineteen, he
149
00:10:46.639 --> 00:10:49.320
agreed to the interview that would shape the remainder of
150
00:10:49.320 --> 00:10:53.960
his life. He thought he could explain. Instead, he revealed
151
00:10:54.000 --> 00:10:57.200
a man who did not appear to understand why the
152
00:10:57.240 --> 00:11:03.679
world was angry. Peters in Woking an inability to sweat,
153
00:11:04.440 --> 00:11:09.240
a tone that felt clinical where contrition was necessary. The
154
00:11:09.279 --> 00:11:14.559
public recoiled, charities, cut ties. He withdrew from duties. The Queen,
155
00:11:14.600 --> 00:11:17.639
out of love, still tried to protect him. The legal
156
00:11:17.679 --> 00:11:22.639
battles followed, a civil suit, a settlement, no admission of wrongdoing,
157
00:11:22.720 --> 00:11:28.559
but the stain remained. After Elizabeth died in twenty twenty two,
158
00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:32.639
the weather changed inside the palaces. The son, who had
159
00:11:32.639 --> 00:11:37.200
spent a lifetime learning patience, now wore the crown. The grandson,
160
00:11:37.399 --> 00:11:40.720
who had spent a lifetime learning caution, now stood at
161
00:11:40.720 --> 00:11:45.440
his shoulder. Both agreed that the institution must come first.
162
00:11:46.480 --> 00:11:50.679
The Duke of York ceased to be used. Honorary military
163
00:11:50.759 --> 00:11:55.399
roles were removed, invitations vanished, The lease that had anchored
164
00:11:55.480 --> 00:12:00.279
him at Royal Lodge shifted from right to privilege, and then,
165
00:12:00.519 --> 00:12:03.919
in late October of twenty twenty five, the statement a
166
00:12:03.960 --> 00:12:08.399
formal process to remove the style, titles and honors of
167
00:12:08.480 --> 00:12:13.600
Prince Andrew. He would be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor
168
00:12:13.639 --> 00:12:16.879
the lease would be surrendered. He would move to Sandringham.
169
00:12:17.679 --> 00:12:20.960
The Palace made clear that their sympathies remain with victims
170
00:12:20.960 --> 00:12:24.519
and survivors. Parliament did not need to be involved, The
171
00:12:24.600 --> 00:12:27.759
king did not want it involved. The monarchy acted to
172
00:12:27.840 --> 00:12:38.600
protect itself. The fall of a favored son is not
173
00:12:38.679 --> 00:12:41.960
simply a personal tragedy. It is a stress test of
174
00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:44.919
an institution that claims to be both family and state.
175
00:12:46.200 --> 00:12:50.159
Elizabeth knew this paradox better than any sovereign alive. She
176
00:12:50.279 --> 00:12:53.799
nursed private love and public duty in the same heart
177
00:12:53.879 --> 00:12:58.080
for more than seven decades. She stood beside her son.
178
00:12:58.480 --> 00:13:02.559
In twenty nineteen, when the world screamed that she should not,
179
00:13:03.480 --> 00:13:08.039
she helped fund settlement to end a public bleeding. She
180
00:13:08.080 --> 00:13:11.480
insisted on compassion and also on distance. When she died,
181
00:13:11.919 --> 00:13:15.120
a shield went with her. Charles, now King Charles the
182
00:13:15.159 --> 00:13:20.200
Third understands what his mother taught him. The crown cannot
183
00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:23.120
be seen to bend around a single person, not even
184
00:13:23.159 --> 00:13:26.000
a child of the sovereign, not even a brother. It
185
00:13:26.080 --> 00:13:29.360
must bend only around the realm. He will be criticized
186
00:13:29.360 --> 00:13:33.080
for acting too late or too soon. He will ignore it.
187
00:13:33.519 --> 00:13:36.440
He has a throne to keep upright, a nation to
188
00:13:36.559 --> 00:13:40.399
steady through grim news and brighter days, a future to
189
00:13:40.519 --> 00:13:45.320
hand to a son without cracks. William understands the same
190
00:13:45.440 --> 00:13:49.960
lesson with a younger man's fire. He has watched popularity
191
00:13:50.159 --> 00:13:54.799
rise and crash. He has watched institutions wobble when they
192
00:13:54.799 --> 00:13:58.360
try to be sentimental. He has watched how the public
193
00:13:58.440 --> 00:14:00.799
will forgive many things if they believe you are trying
194
00:14:00.840 --> 00:14:03.039
to do the right thing. He does not believe his
195
00:14:03.159 --> 00:14:06.799
uncle can return. He tells his father what he believes.
196
00:14:07.759 --> 00:14:11.320
The king listens, The decision hardens. People will say this
197
00:14:11.440 --> 00:14:15.399
is cruelty. Others will say it is justice. The truth
198
00:14:15.440 --> 00:14:21.240
is more intricate. It is monarchy. The crown requires sacrifice.
199
00:14:21.360 --> 00:14:25.200
Sometimes the sacrifice is a private wish. Sometimes it is
200
00:14:25.240 --> 00:14:29.440
an entire person's public identity. A mother who used to
201
00:14:29.480 --> 00:14:33.399
sign her notes simply lily bet once told a trusted
202
00:14:33.440 --> 00:14:36.480
aid that the secret is to be seen to be believed.
203
00:14:38.039 --> 00:14:41.799
On this day, the crown decides that to be believed,
204
00:14:42.080 --> 00:14:45.759
it must be seen to act. Return now for a moment,
205
00:14:46.120 --> 00:14:50.080
to earlier rooms and earlier years, Because our story is
206
00:14:50.120 --> 00:14:53.440
not a single door closing. It is a long corridor
207
00:14:53.480 --> 00:14:56.039
of open doors that were not walked through, and a
208
00:14:56.080 --> 00:15:00.000
final door that slammed by necessity. As a young man,
209
00:15:00.440 --> 00:15:02.960
Andrew could fill a room with laughter. He could tell
210
00:15:02.960 --> 00:15:06.080
a story about a rough sea or a near miss
211
00:15:06.120 --> 00:15:09.480
in a helicopter and have generals leaning in like schoolboys.
212
00:15:10.039 --> 00:15:12.480
He could visit a factory on a wet Tuesday in
213
00:15:12.559 --> 00:15:17.639
Doncaster and make the workers feel that the palace understood them.
214
00:15:17.840 --> 00:15:20.600
He was always at ease around money and people who
215
00:15:20.639 --> 00:15:24.919
had it. He trusted the glint of crystal more than
216
00:15:24.960 --> 00:15:29.159
the caution of courtiers. He believed his instincts were better
217
00:15:29.200 --> 00:15:34.360
than their memos. He was also a loving father. Photographs
218
00:15:34.360 --> 00:15:37.879
from birthday parties and summer walks and balcony waves are
219
00:15:37.960 --> 00:15:40.919
not staged affection. They are the record of a man
220
00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:44.399
who adored his children and was adored by them in return.
221
00:15:45.320 --> 00:15:48.759
That truth does not cancel the rest, it complicates it.
222
00:15:49.320 --> 00:15:53.720
Private goodness does not erase public harm. Public punishment does
223
00:15:53.799 --> 00:15:58.279
not erase private love. Both must stand side by side
224
00:15:58.799 --> 00:16:12.679
and be held in the see mind. A final image
225
00:16:12.679 --> 00:16:16.000
to close our first episode. The drive to Sandringham is
226
00:16:16.039 --> 00:16:18.679
lined with trees that have seen monarchs come and go,
227
00:16:19.159 --> 00:16:23.720
and children grow and make mistakes. A convoy moves slowly
228
00:16:23.799 --> 00:16:28.080
through a mist that sits low on the fields. Inside
229
00:16:28.120 --> 00:16:30.799
the car, a man who once flew to islands and
230
00:16:30.840 --> 00:16:34.480
summits and racing weekends. Now travels a short distance that
231
00:16:34.559 --> 00:16:39.480
feels longer than any flight in the big house. Future
232
00:16:39.559 --> 00:16:43.360
kings will gather at Christmas in the smaller one. A
233
00:16:43.399 --> 00:16:45.960
door will be closed and a lamp turned on against
234
00:16:45.960 --> 00:16:48.519
the early dark. This is not only the end of
235
00:16:48.600 --> 00:16:51.879
one man's chapter. It is the beginning of the next
236
00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:55.600
test for a family that is also a country's symbol.
237
00:16:56.320 --> 00:17:01.759
The crown has chosen survival. It always will. That is
238
00:17:01.799 --> 00:17:07.200
its nature, and that is its oath. Elizabeth carried it
239
00:17:07.240 --> 00:17:11.799
with grace and steel. Charles carries it with resolve and