The Duke of York is to miss the Jubilee service of thanksgiving after testing positive for Covid.
Andrew was set to join the wider royal family at the high-profile event in St Paul’s Cathedral on Friday.
The monarch’s disgraced second son stepped down from public life after the furore over his friendship with paedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, and paid millions to settle a civil sexual assault case to a woman he claimed never to have met.
A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: “After undertaking a routine test The Duke has tested positive for Covid and with regret will no longer be attending tomorrow’s service.”
It is understood Andrew saw the Queen in the last few days but has been undertaking regular testing and has not seen her since he tested positive.
Epstein
The duke was cast out of the working monarchy and no longer uses his HRH style after Virginia Giuffre, who was trafficked by Epstein, accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was 17.
The duke denied the claims.
Before the Jubilee festivities, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, had suggested Andrew was “seeking to make amends”, adding: “I think that’s a very good thing.”
Andrew took a central role in escorting his mother to the Duke of Edinburgh memorial service in March.
It came as a surprise change to the planned arrangements – only weeks earlier he had been banished from royal public life and paid to settle his court case.
The move was taken as a sign of the monarch’s support for her son.
He is the latest in a long line of royals to catch Covid, including the Queen, the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke of Cambridge and Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence.
Princess Michael of Kent, who is married to the Queen’s cousin Prince Michael of Kent, suffered severe symptoms when she was struck down with Covid-19 in November 2020.
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