Andrew Mountbatten Windsor 'too embarrassed' to face royal family

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has reportedly turned down an invitation from King Charles to join the royal family at Balmoral.

Sources have claimed that the embarrassment over his downfall played a major role in his decision, according to Radar Online.

A friend of Andrew told the outlet, "There is an enormous amount of embarrassment about everything that has happened, and Andrew cannot imagine arriving at Balmoral and behaving as though life is normal. He believes everyone would be conscious of the scandals surrounding him and that he would spend the entire visit feeling like the uncomfortable presence nobody knows how to address."

Meanwhile, another source added that the invitation "represented a genuine opportunity for Andrew to be around his family again," however, he reportedly doesn't believe "he would really be returning to the fold."

"His view is that traveling to Scotland simply to feel isolated in a house full of relatives would be worse than remaining at Sandringham. He already feels abandoned and does not want another reminder of how dramatically his position within the family has changed," the source added further.

The reported snub is notable because Andrew Mountbatten Windsor attended the Balmoral gathering last summer, before further controversy surrounding his links to Jeffrey Epstein and the dramatic decline in his position within the royal family.