Prince William's Disdain For Andrew All Ties Back To Kate Middleton

Have you ever had someone you didn't like for some personal reason or another, only to feel validated in your disdain for that person when they're eventually outed for more general bad behavior? We imagine some of you have, seeing as how there are multiple popular memes describing this exact phenomenon. Prince William can evidently relate to such posts, as well, seeing as how his feud with disgraced uncle, Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, supposedly started well before the former Duke of York's inescapable controversies made him a liability in the Prince of Wales' eyes. And apparently, it has everything to do with how Andrew initially treated William's now-wife, Kate Middleton.

In his 2025 book "Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York," royal biographer Andrew Lownie cites an anonymous source claiming that Andrew had made disrespectful comments about Kate in the past, per the Daily Mail. While it's unclear what exactly Andrew said about Kate back then, it's hardly a secret that the Princess of Wales didn't initially get the warmest reception from all of her in-laws. For instance, Queen Consort Camilla Parker Bowles reportedly objected to stepson William marrying Kate at first, hence the messy relationship between Camilla, her stepson, and her eventual successor.

At any rate, that particular passage of Lownie's book is corroborated by a 2024 report from the Daily Mail, which claims that Andrew didn't exactly welcome Kate into the royal family with open arms at first, and that William hasn't forgotten that fact. With that in mind, it's not hard to see why William had no qualms about cutting Andrew out once his ties to Jeffrey Epstein became too big a scandal to ignore — even if his father, King Charles III, didn't necessarily see eye-to-eye with his heir on that at first.

As October 2025 came to a close, King Charles III dropped the hammer on Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, stripping him of his royal titles and forcing him out of the Royal Lodge after what had already been a lengthy dispute between the brothers over the property. This move was apparently long overdue as far as King Charles' son Prince William is concerned, as the heir to the throne was reportedly quite unhappy with how lenient Charles had been towards Andrew up to that point regarding the Epstein scandal.

"[William] feels his father has teetered too long with the kid gloves approach," royal expert Helena Chard told Fox News Digital in October 2025, mere days before Andrew's royal ouster. Author Andrew Lownie had expressed a similar sentiment in his book "Entitled," writing, "[William] believes his father has not dealt with him with sufficient firmness and that Andrew — and [Andrew's ex-wife] Sarah Ferguson –- have done much to undermine the good work of other members of the Royal Family" (via the Daily Mail). Lownie also claims that seeing (and being photographed with) his uncle at Katharine, Duchess of Kent's funeral was a very unpleasant surprise for William.

Sources speaking to The Daily Beast in light of Andrew's eviction in late October even went as far as to claim that it was William, not Charles, who actually pulled the trigger. "Charles has been trying and failing to get Andrew out of Royal Lodge for the past three years. William did it in two weeks," one anonymous individual said, adding, "William is king in all but name now." So, while slighting William's wife is far from the most serious allegation against Andrew, it certainly didn't win him further leniency.