Is disgraced Duke of York about to flee to the Gulf in last desperate grab for legitimacy after ‘Chinese spy’ row?

Prince Andrew may flee to the Gulf in a final attempt for legitimacy, it has been claimed.

The disgraced Duke of York is rumoured to be eyeing up a new life in the Middle East as he seeks sanctuary following years of crushing blows to his reputation and embarrassment he has brought upon the royals.

The latest scandal – his close association with an alleged Chinese spy – has prompted fresh questions about his future, after being stripped of his royal and military titles over his links to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Andrew has long-standing links to the Gulf, where he is a regular visitor and where it is believed his royal status, despite its tattered position, would still being some gravitas and opportunity.

Sources close to the government of the United Arab Emirates told the Sunday Times a visit by his daughter Princess Beatrice to Abu Dhabi last month for business was partly ‘cover for him’.

An informed figure in British politics told the newspaper: ‘He’s looking at moving there permanently.

‘He’s desperately trying to get something going to make some money.’

The Gulf links raise fresh questions about who is funding Andrew, with rumours abound that it is Middle Eastern money keeping him afloat as he refuses to give up 30-room Royal Lodge in Windsor Park, despite the best efforts of his brother, the King.

As he is now a completely private individual, the monarch and his advisors have no legal right to demand to see Andrew’s bank accounts.

They have to rely on ‘verbal assurances’ that the duke has both the money to pay for the upkeep of Royal Lodge and that he has come by these funds legitimately, a claim that is said to have been ratified by the Keeper of the Privy Purse.

Andrew has been a regular visitor to the Midde East over the years, including many trips to Bahrain, where he has meet with King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa’s second son, Sheikh Abdullah.

During that 2014 visit, the former international trade envoy he attended a Bahrain-British Business Forum dinner at the Radisson Diplomat Hotel. He met with King Hamad and Crown Prince Salman at the event.

He visited again in April 2018 to open a UK naval base and police training centre. He met with King Hamad again, as well as Bahrain’s interior minister.

He then returned the following March to visit the naval base with the Bahrain king.

In May 2019 he flew to the country yet again to take his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson to the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Andrew stayed at the Ritz Carlton as the royal family’s guest during that visit although it has long been rumoured he also enjoys a grace and favour property somewhere in the country.

He was then expected to return to Bahrain in November 2019, but the trip was cancelled as his public life came crashing down following a distastrous interview in which he tried to justify his friendship with Epstein.

The duke took a secret holiday to Bahrain in November 2022, apparently pitching to take on an unofficial role as the intermediary between the West and Gulf states amid the global energy crisis, sources said.

The speculation about his future comes as his ex-wife described how she was a ‘carer’ who ‘looks after a sad man’ in Andrew.

The couple divorced in 1996 after ten years of marriage, but still live together at Royal Lodge.

Sarah compared their relationship to her childhood role of caring for her late father, Major Ronald Ferguson, after her mother walked out.

She told the Sunday Times: ‘I became a carer for Dad.

‘I was left to look after a sad man, which is sort of what I’m doing now.

‘It’s why Queen Elizabeth and I got on so well.’