By Staff Reporter
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM — Dec. 31, 2025 — In a move that has sent ripples through the upper echelons of British society and raised questions about the stability of the monarchy, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, has privately urged his nephews, Princes William and Harry, as well as his elder daughter, Princess Beatrice, to submit to DNA testing.
The request, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter, is framed as a necessary step to verify the line of succession before the anticipated decline of King Charles III, whose cancer diagnosis has prompted renewed scrutiny of the royal family’s future.
The initiative comes amid longstanding rumors that many believe to have been discredited years ago. Rumors about the parentage of key figures in the line of succession — whispers that have persisted for decades in tabloid columns and private drawing rooms but have rarely pierced the veil of official denial. Sources close to Andrew, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive family deliberations, describe the prince as increasingly convinced of the veracity of these claims, viewing them not as idle gossip but as a deliberate undercurrent threatening the Windsor dynasty’s legitimacy.
At the heart of Andrew’s concerns are two enduring speculations: that Prince William, the heir apparent, is the biological son not of Charles but of the late Baron Jacob Rothschild, the influential financier and philanthropist who died last year at 87.
The theory, which has circulated widely in online forums, posits a clandestine affair between Rothschild and Princess Diana, the Princess of Wales, during her troubled marriage to Charles in the early 1980s.
Similarly, the red-haired Prince Harry has long been dogged by suggestions that his father is James Hewitt, a former cavalry officer with whom Diana acknowledged a romantic relationship beginning in 1986 — after Harry’s birth in 1984, a timeline that has fueled but not substantiated the rumor. Hewitt himself has repeatedly denied paternity, and Harry addressed the speculation in his 2023 memoir, Spare, describing it as a painful fabrication that haunted his youth.
Andrew’s inclusion of Beatrice, ninth in line to the throne, appears aimed at preempting any parallel questions about her own lineage, though sources emphasize that her involvement is precautionary.
“This is about ensuring purity in the bloodline at a moment of national vulnerability,” the confidant to the York household said. “The Duke believes these rumors, however whispered, could unravel everything if they surface unchecked during a regency or transition.”
The timing of Andrew’s maneuver is no coincidence.
It unfolds against the backdrop of his deepening estrangement from the royal inner circle, particularly Prince William, who as the Duke of Cambridge has taken a leading role in efforts to evict his uncle from Royal Lodge, the 30-room Windsor Great Park estate where Andrew has resided since 2002.
In October, King Charles formally stripped Andrew of his “prince” title and military affiliations, rebranding him as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and issued an eviction notice citing the property’s upkeep costs and the need for fiscal restraint amid public backlash over the Epstein scandal. William, sources say, has been instrumental in these measures, even reportedly threatening repercussions against Andrew’s daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, to pressure compliance — a claim that Buckingham Palace has dismissed as “unfounded.”
Yet Andrew’s motivations extend beyond personal grievance, according to those who have counseled him in recent months. He now harbors a profound suspicion that his own path to greater influence — or even the throne itself, in the event of unforeseen exigencies — has been systematically obstructed. Central to this worldview is Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and convicted sex offender whose 2019 death by suicide did little to quell the fallout from Andrew’s association with him.
Newly released court documents from Epstein-related litigation, unsealed earlier this year, reveal that Andrew’s communications with the financier persisted longer than previously acknowledged, including emails as late as 2017.
Andrew believes, sources say, that Epstein’s network was weaponized to amass “kompromat” — compromising material — not merely to ensnare him in scandal but to neutralize a legitimate York claim to the Crown. Epstein served as a conduit for broader machinations, linked to figures associated with the British and French branches of the Rothschild family, whose storied influence in global finance has long inspired both admiration and paranoia.
“The Duke sees it as a grand design: discredit the Yorks, elevate the tainted Wales line, and secure a Rothschild foothold on the throne,” one source recounted.
While such connections remain speculative and unproven — with no direct evidence tying Rothschild himself to Epstein’s activities — they align with the conspiratorial undercurrents that have shadowed Andrew’s post-Epstein exile.
Fearing that Parliament, wary of his tarnished reputation, would never countenance his ascension even in extremis, Andrew is said to view the paternity tests as a pivot toward his daughter Beatrice. At 37, she is a working royal with a stable family life — married to Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, with two young children — and has quietly assumed more duties in recent years.
Sources speculate that a validated “proper” York lineage would position her for elevation as having the most legitimate claim to the Crown, and next in the line of succession when King Charles dies, which many expect this year.
The revelations destabilize William and Harry’s places in the line of succession, to say the least.
“Beatrice as Queen isn’t the pipe dream it once seemed,” the adviser noted. “In a crisis, Parliament might see her as the steady hand — untainted, dutiful, and undeniably Windsor.”
To formalize his request, Andrew plans to petition Parliament directly in the new year, invoking historical precedents like the Act of Settlement of 1701, which bars Catholics from the throne but offers no clear guidance on modern genetic verification. Constitutional experts, speaking off the record, warn that entertaining such a plea could precipitate a crisis of unprecedented proportions.
As King Charles, 77, navigates his illness with characteristic stoicism — recent sightings show him attending understated Christmas events at Sandringham — the specter of uncertainty looms larger.
Andrew’s gambit, whether born of conviction or calculation, underscores a deeper malaise: a family riven by secrets, scandals and the inexorable pull of history. In an era when republics beckon across Europe, the Windsors can ill afford such fissures.
Whether DNA holds the key to salvation or self-destruction remains, for now, an open question.
The men who would be king!