Who Ex-Prince Andrew Scandal Broken Most—And Who Was Unscathed

[ad_1] Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's inclusion within the Epstein recordsdata prompted on-line discussions on Prince William and King Charles III to show adverse—whereas some royals have been fully unaffected, based on knowledge collected for Newsweek by social listening platform Hootsuite.

Mountbatten-Windsor, previously Prince Andrew, was accused of sexually assaulting Virginia Giuffre when she was a 17-year-old Jeffrey Epstein intercourse trafficking sufferer. He has at all times denied the allegations and settled a lawsuit introduced by her out of court docket in 2022 whereas denying legal responsibility.

In October, although, the Home Oversight Committee started publishing emails from Epstein's property displaying the extent of his friendship with Mountbatten-Windsor and new revelations within the Epstein recordsdata, launched by the Division of Justice on the finish of January, introduced additional public outrage.

It's not although, simply Mountbatten-Windsor who was reputationally broken by the scandal and, the truth is, one of many royals most in favor of taking a harder stance in opposition to him bore the brunt of the change in on-line sentiment.

<img id="11739503" alt="" caption="Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is seen being driven away from a police station in Aylsham, England, following his arrest on suspicion of misconduct in a public office on February 19, 2026." src="MEGA/GC Images" sourcealt="" sources="[]" fetchpriority="auto" loading="lazy" width="3000" height="2000" decoding="async" data-nimg="1" style="color:transparent;aspect-ratio:inherit;object-fit:cover" sizes="(min-width: 1200px) 1536px, (min-width: 768px) 768px, 100vw" srcset="https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Untitled-design-2026-03-26T125005.292.jpg?w=640&quality=80&webp=1 640w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Untitled-design-2026-03-26T125005.292.jpg?w=750&quality=80&webp=1 750w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Untitled-design-2026-03-26T125005.292.jpg?w=1000&quality=80&webp=1 1000w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Untitled-design-2026-03-26T125005.292.jpg?w=1200&quality=80&webp=1 1200w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Untitled-design-2026-03-26T125005.292.jpg?w=1360&quality=80&webp=1 1360w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Untitled-design-2026-03-26T125005.292.jpg?w=1600&quality=80&webp=1 1600w" bad-src="https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Untitled-design-2026-03-26T125005.292.jpg?w=1600&quality=80&webp=1"/> Why It Issues Mountbatten-Windsor's hyperlinks to Epstein created a reputational disaster for the monarchy critical sufficient that King Charles took the unprecedented step of stripping him of his "Prince" and "Duke of York" titles, rendering his brother a "commoner" regardless of him remaining eighth in line to the throne.

Some have sought to border Prince William particularly as being on the trip aspect of historical past as a result of he's recognized to have been pushing internally on the palace for a harder stance on Mountbatten-Windsor however the Hootsuite knowledge exhibits conversations in regards to the Prince of Wales nonetheless turned adverse.

Prince William Hootsuite's knowledge confirmed on-line negativity towards William peaked in step with main revelations about Mountbatten-Windsor, within the nearly six months from October 1 to March 13.

The full variety of posts on social media, information websites, movies, weblog and boards, podcasts and different on-line media was measured at 1.8 million, a rise of 77 p.c on the earlier six-month interval. Engagement with these posts additionally went up by 51.8 p.c to 53.5 million.

Hootsuite measures internet sentiment, the stability between the proportion of posts which are optimistic and the proportion adverse, and data that William was predominantly mentioned positively till early October when strain started to construct over Epstein.

Initially, he dropped to internet zero however by mid-October he entered adverse territory, which means extra posts have been adverse than optimistic. This seems to have occurred across the time Buckingham Palace launched an announcement from Mountbatten-Windsor by which he stated he would voluntarily surrender the usage of his titles.

The dialogue continued to get extra adverse, reaching a peak of just about minus 50 p.c on the finish of October when Buckingham Palace issued a brand new assertion formally stripping Mountbatten-Windsor of his titles and forcing him out of his mansion, Royal Lodge, in Windsor.

That appeared to present William a lift and he returned to a optimistic internet sentiment in early November, persisting by December.

Nevertheless, by early January he was again in adverse territory once more, by a couple of share factors at first however worsening because the publication of the Epstein recordsdata approached on the finish of the month.

By the point the DoJ launched over 3 million paperwork associated to Epstein, William sank again to a adverse stability of minus 50. Whereas this did enhance a bit of he was nonetheless deep in adverse territory, on round minus 25 by the point the information ends in mid-March.

In different phrases, the peaks and troughs of how William was mentioned through the six-month interval do mirror the foremost landmark moments in Mountbatten-Windsor's Epstein scandal and William didn't get better when the information agenda moved on because the U.S. and Israel bombed Iran on the finish of February.

Total, 21 p.c of the posts about him have been optimistic through the interval in query in contrast with 35.4 p.c that have been adverse.

King Charles III King Charles was additionally affected however much less severely than his eldest son. Whole posts have been measured at 1.4 million whereas engagements have been at 31.4 million, each down on the earlier interval.

Discussions in regards to the king remained optimistic for many of the timeline however dipped into adverse territory on the finish of October within the days main as much as the choice to strip Mountbatten-Windsor of his titles. Even then, he dipped only a few share factors beneath zero and shortly had his head again above water within the days after the bombshell palace assertion.

Charles' internet sentiment dipped once more after the Epstein recordsdata launch, dropping to a lowest level of rather less than 50 p.c on February 16 earlier than bouncing again into optimistic numbers days later.

Total, sentiment was extra optimistic, at 21.6 p.c, than adverse, at 19.4 p.c, based on Hootsuite's knowledge.

Which means the scandal had a much bigger affect on discussions about William than the king, regardless of the very fact the broadly reported notion is that it was William who pushed for a harder stance on Mountbatten-Windsor.

This will likely effectively frustrate followers and even aides to the Prince of Wales and will merely be a product of the very fact he attracts extra column inches than his father.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor Unsurprisingly, Mountbatten-Windsor was mentioned most negatively of all with 47.1 p.c of posts assessed as hostile in contrast with 3.5 p.c recorded as optimistic.

At its peak, round 90 p.c of the dialogue was adverse about him with a complete of three.3 million posts recorded and 52.8 million engagements.

Princess Kate The Princess of Wales is the one royal assessed who was talked about extra positively than negatively persistently all through the timeline. If the Mountbatten-Windsor scandal had any affect on public attitudes to her it seems to have been minimal and short-lived.

Hootsuite recorded a complete of 487,900 posts with engagement at 21.9 million and 23.8 p.c have been optimistic whereas 21.9 p.c have been adverse.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Harry and Meghan additionally appeared largely unaffected by Mountbatten-Windsor and the Epstein scandal however for sure have been talked about predominantly negatively all through.

The Duchess of Sussex didn't have a single interval by which optimistic feedback outweighed adverse ones, whereas general 19.9 p.c of the dialogue was optimistic in contrast with 43.5 p.c adverse. There have been 1.7 million posts about Meghan sparking 41.4 million complete engagements.

In the meantime, dialogue of Harry was briefly extra optimistic than adverse for a few week in December and some days in February however in any other case was extra adverse than optimistic.

There have been 1.3 million posts in regards to the Duke of Sussex giving rise to 29.2 million engagements with a stability of 24.5 p.c optimistic in comparison with 35.9 p.c adverse.