Prince Andrew was protected by the palace, but Meghan Markle was not

The much-anticipated interview between Meghan Markle and Prince Harry on Sunday revealed a range of shocking details. The couple announced that Meghan had suffered with suicidal thoughts as a result of the relentless bombardment of abuse and harassment from the press, that an unidentified member of the palace had shared “concerns” about Archie's skin color, and that the royal family declined to grant Archie a royal title and, with it, the protection that comes with it.

The Palace's complete inability to protect Meghan — by failing to defend her in the press, failing to provide sufficient protection for her and her child, and preventing her from seeking care when she requested it — contrasts sharply with how it has consistently rallied around another member of the royal family, Prince Andrew, the Queen's second son and an alleged sex offender.

Andrew had a close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted child sex trafficker who died in 2012. Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein's victims, said in 2015 that she was forced to have sex with the prince three times when she was underage.

The prince has categorically denied these accusations, as has Buckingham Palace, which has backed Andrew from the outset. The Palace, which typically doesn't comment on stories about royal family members, issued a “extremely unusual statement” in 2015, categorically denying the allegations against the prince, saying, “It is emphatically denied that the Duke of York had any sort of sexual interaction or relationship with [Giuffre].” The charges leveled are baseless and without merit.”

Furthermore, while Buckingham Palace revealed earlier this month that it had opened an internal inquiry into reports that Meghan had “bullied” her U.K. employees, there has never been a palace investigation into Prince Andrew's criminal allegations.

Caroyln Durand, a co-author of Finding Freedom, the unauthorized biography of Meghan and Harry, acknowledged this difference in the Palace's approach in an interview with Sky News earlier this month, saying, “Why hasn't he been urged to cooperate with US authorities?” Why were Prince Harry's military honors taken away but not Prince Andrew's?”

Prince Andrew finally stepped down from his public duties for the crown in November 2019, citing his links to Epstein as a “significant disruption” to his family's work in a statement. Despite this, he has been allowed to keep his royal titles (while rumors say that officials are threatening to take Harry and Meghan's) and his £300,000-a-year bodyguards at the expense of the Palace, whereas Harry and Meghan have lost their official security and have had to support their own protection.

Even so, Prince Andrew's life hasn't been easy. The Queen did take the drastic step of downgrading his 60th birthday party from a “large family dinner” to a “small family dinner.” It's heartbreaking.

Meghan said she only had one regret from her time in the royal family at the end of Sunday's interview: “My regret is trusting them when they said I will be safe.” That's what I thought.” Since the royals have always preferred to shield those within their ranks, it's understandable that she believed it. They simply failed to safeguard her.