Shock of shocks, the British media actually did some real reporting around Prince Andrew’s financial settlement with Virginia Giuffre. It seems like the media isn’t in the mood to just take Andrew’s settlement as a given and immediately move on to “Jubbly planning.” The Telegraph had some exclusive reporting on the amount and where it came from:

The Duke of York will pay his accuser more than £12 million using money from the Queen, The Telegraph can disclose. It was announced on Tuesday that Prince Andrew, 61, had reached an out of court settlement with Virginia Roberts Giuffre, meaning he will no longer face a jury trial on claims that he sexually abused and raped her on three separate occasions when she was 17.
The terms of the deal prevent either side from discussing the case or the settlement itself in public.

However, The Telegraph understands the total amount that will go to Ms Giuffre, who was trafficked by the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and her charity exceeds £12 million.

The Queen has already privately funded the Duke’s legal fight to the tune of millions of pounds and will now partly fund the settlement in order to allow her son – and the entire Royal family – to draw a line under the case that had threatened to overshadow her Platinum Jubilee year.

Negotiations over the settlement are understood to have lasted for at least 10 days, with the Duke’s team changing tack when the date for his deposition – which would have seen him questioned under oath by Ms Giuffre’s legal team – was set for March 10.

Judge Lewis Kaplan later issued an order suspending the legal action until March 17. He said: “In the event the stipulation of dismissal is not filed by then, it remains entirely possible that this action will be set for trial when previously indicated.”

The deal was agreed at the weekend, the Telegraph understands.

[From The Telegraph]

The Daily Mirror’s reporting backs up this number, they say it was £12million, and that the Windsors applied pressure on Andrew to settle by any means necessary because they didn’t want the case to “overshadow the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.” Again, it’s not as if they were actually concerned about Virginia Giuffre or any of the girls/women trafficked, abused and raped by Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein. It’s not even like the family cares that much about Andrew. They’re just solely focused on the Queen’s big jubbly party. Sources also told the Mirror that Andrew still “wholly maintains his innocence” and insisted he “believes he can still find a way back into public life”. BARF.

The Mirror also suggests that Andrew would be able to pay this £12million sum from the sale of his Swiss chalet, which… is not actually the case. He likely had to borrow millions to even get out of the mortgage scheme with the previous owner (who sued him over it). The sale went through last month and we still don’t know who bought it or for how much. I believe the Telegraph’s reporting – the Queen paid for everything. She gave Andrew the money to pay off the mortgage, she helped arrange for the “sale” of the chalet, and then she gave Andrew the bulk of the settlement money.

Interesting too that sh-t got real when Andrew’s deposition date was set for March. That was agreed to just two days before the Queen’s Accession Day. Even “royal sources” are saying that no one in the palace had faith in Andrew’s ability to withstand questioning under oath. I had hoped that the settlement would take place post-depo, just so David Boies could really make Andrew “sweat.” But here we are. As I said, I don’t blame Virginia for settling and I’m glad she got so much. £10 million to Virginia personally converts to about $13.55 million.