Will ‘The Crown’ show Prince Andrew’s sexual assault lawsuit?
From his sexual antics to his friendship with Jeffery Epstein, Prince Andrew is, to say the least, known for quite a few infamous acts. And his depiction in The Crown follows through on this.
The Crown is a critically acclaimed Netflix show about the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Its focus is on the main royal, but also looks at her court and family as well. We follow them through public events, scandals, and shifts in power.
How has The Crown represented Prince Andrew, and what may it do to portray him in the future? Let’s take a look.
Content warning: This article discusses sexual assault.
The Crown and Prince Andrew
Prince Andrew’s first real appearance is in Season 4, Episode 4 of The Crown, in an episode called “Favourites”. When Margaret Thatcher’s son goes missing, Elizabeth is forced to reflect on her own children, and she arranges to meet up with each of them separately so she can decide on which one she likes best.
Meeting with Anne, Edward, and Charles doesn’t go well, all for different reasons. It isn’t until the confident, crude playboy Andrew arrives that she finds who is her favorite child. He talks about dating Koo Stark, speaking crudely about the actress to his own mother! Still, she loves him.
Though she sees him as the favorite, Elizabeth knows his bad behavior will lead to terrible things. “If he doesn’t change . . .” she says, drifting off as she thinks of the consequences to his actions.
But will these consequences come home to roost in Season 5? Let’s talk about how The Crown will depict Prince Andrew.
The Crown’s upcoming season
In Season 4 of The Crown, Tom Byrne played Prince Andrew – in Season 5, James Murray will play the infamous man. These upcoming episodes will portray the royal family’s struggles in the 1990s, which was quite a scandalous time for Prince Andrew.
This is mainly because of his divorce from Sarah Ferguson during that time period. They got married in 1986, but separated only six years later, then officially divorced in 1996.
If The Crown keeps moving forward in time, perhaps it will eventually catch up with some present day events. The royal prince has been in quite a bit of hot water recently, and for good reason. We’ll not waste any more time: let’s discuss Prince Andrew’s latest offence, and how it could affect The Crown.
Sexual assault allegations
On Monday, September 20th, 2021, Prince Andrew was served a civil lawsuit by those representing Virginia Giuffre. She claims that the royal forced him to have sex with her while she was underage, at a home that belonged to a friend of Jeffery Epstein. And she accuses the prince of multiple acts of abuse.
These are all very serious accusations. Prince Andrew denied these allegations back in 2019, when he was asked about his ties to Epstein and about assaulting minors. Furthermore, the royal’s lawyers are calling the lawsuit “baseless,” and told The Daily Mail that they plan to “come out fighting” against the claims.
On the other hand, Giuffre’s lawyers hope to see the case move forward successfully. Said one of them, David Boies, to CNN, “We are pleased that the service issue is now behind us and that we can proceed to a resolution of Ms. Giuffre’s claims”.
The service issue he is referring to is the fact that Guiffre is suing under a 2019 law called the New York’s Child Victims Act, a law that lets child abuse victims sue their alleged abuser during a certain deadline. In Guiffre’s case, the deadline has passed.
Judge Lewis Kaplan, a U.S. District Judge, also wants the “service issue” to be put aside, and for the substance of the case to be heard, despite the passed deadline.
What’s next?
What will come of these sexual assault allegations against Prince Andrew still remains to be seen. If The Crown keeps going past Season 5, perhaps we will see the results on screen? It’s too early to say.
Whatever happens, we wish only the best to Virginia Giuffre, who must have gone through a lot to get to this point. We’ll see where her legal case goes from here.
