Ex Prince Andrew left staff ‘petrified,’ created tense working environment

Former Prince Andrew has been described as difficult to work with by a former diplomat who interacted with him multiple times during his tenure as a UK trade envoy.

The “disgraced” ex-royal, who served in the role from 2001 to 2011, left officials uneasy with ex-deputy ambassador to Bahrain Simon Wilson claiming that staff around him appeared “petrified.”

Speaking about his experiences, Wilson said what began as optimism about Andrew’s royal status opening doors in the Gulf soon turned problematic.

“I have to say I was a little bit surprised about how sort of cocky he was,” he said of the former Duke of York, per The Mirror.

“We started to get reams of instructions about his likes and dislikes in terms of food, that he didn’t drink, alcohol, tea or coffee, but would drink still water, room temperature, no ice.

“One thing that was noticeable, which I didn’t encounter with any other visit of a royal family, they always went very smoothly anyway, was that his staff seemed to be petrified of him.”

“You really got the impression that they were really uncomfortable all the time, treading on eggshells, didn’t want to put a food wrong and of course that transferred in the wider picture to us, the embassy who were organising things, we were treading on eggshells.”

Simon said that even though the role was unpaid, Andrew still travelled with a big team whose expenses had to be covered.

He also claimed Andrew refused to fly on regular commercial flights, even in first class, and would only travel on private planes.

Dubbing him “rude and arrogant," he revealed what Andrew was called, “The term 'His Buffoon Highness' was used among diplomats.”