Matthew Wright has taken a swipe at the Royal Family following the news Prince Andrew has settled his sex abuse case.
The Duke of York paid an undisclosed sum of money – believed to be in the realm of £12 million – to Virginia Giuffre after she brought a civil case against him accusing him of sexual assault.
This Morning presenters Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary, along with Matthew, and Royal Correspondent Camilla Tominey, discussed the case on Wednesday morning.
Host Dermot pointed out that Andrew was ‘paying millions of pounds to someone who, until recently, he has no memory of meeting’.
As the panel discussed the court case, Andrew’s friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, his infamous Newsnight interview and where the money for the settlement would come from, Matthew got the last word in.
He grinned: ‘Can see why Prince Harry got out’ – to which Alison responded by pulling a face.
Speaking on the jaw-dropping alleged pay-out, Matthew said he was ‘not at all surprised’ at the pay-out, and compared it to Michael Jackson settling out of court after he was accused of sexually abusing a teenage boy.
While Jackson ‘admitted no guilt, it’s fair to say that stain on his character stayed with him to the end,’ Matthew claimed.
Royal Correspondent Camilla acknowledged that the issue with settling out of court is that ‘there will always be this implication of guilt, even though he protests his innocence’.
Camilla added Andrew was ‘definitely guilty’ of a ‘giant, catastrophic error of judgement’ by remaining friends with Jeffrey Epstein after he was convicted of, and imprisoned for, soliciting sex from underage girls.
Matthew also raged against the idea of taxpayers’ money being used to pay for Andrew’s settlement, saying he would ‘deeply, deeply, deeply resent if one penny of this settlement came out of UK taxpayers’ money’.
Camilla however does not think this is the case, stating she believes Andrew sold his ski chalet which ‘may have pocketed him millions of pounds’, and his ‘loving mother’ the Queen is helping with his legal bills.
Buckingham Palace has made it clear Andrew was defending the trial ‘as a private citizen’ but questions remain about the source of his funding.
Andrew receives a Royal Navy pension and the Queen is also thought to finance her son from her £21.7-million-a-year Duchy of Lancaster income.
While it was revealed a settlement had been reached in court documents, a figure has not been made public.
The papers filed with the New York court said Andrew ‘intends to make a substantial donation to Ms Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights’.
While Prince Andrew has agreed a settlement, he has not accepted any guilt and continues to strenuously deny the allegations made against him.
This Morning airs weekdays at 10am on ITV.
Credit: Original article published here.You can read this post on My Celebrity Life.