AARP The Magazine - January/February 2010

Prince Andrew

The controversial Duke of York is no stay-at-home royal By BILL NEWCOTT

MILESTONE BIRTHDAYS

JAN
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Victoria Principal

Age 60

Dallas star has booked a seat on Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic “spaceline.”

Michael Stipe
Age 50
R. E. M. singer is
coproducing a
musical based
on Barry
Manilow songs.

Katherine
Ross
Age 70
The Graduate
star said no
to Klute role
that won Jane
Fonda an Oscar.

BRITAIN’S ROYAL FAMILY is irrelevant? Then why was Prince Andrew, fourth in line for the throne, at the center of a geopolitical scandal last summer? He and the government deny it, but critics claim Andrew, as Britain’s overseas trade ambassador, pushed for the release of the Libyan behind the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, in return for British oil contracts. Of course, Andrew has always refused to act like a royal in waiting: during the 1982 Falklands war, he copiloted helicopters on antisub and missile-decoy missions. He’s also spilled lots of tabloid ink with his stormy ten-year marriage to firecracker Princess Fergie and a jet-setting lifestyle that led one member of Parliament to call him a “useless, overweight parasite.” But last year he silenced some criticism by publishing an audit of his expenses, and he and Fergie have been labeled “the world’s happiest unmarried couple.” They often vacation with their daughters, Eugenie, 21, and Beatrice, 19. Plus, last August the two stayed alone together in Spain. As they say in the Brit tabs, “Tongues are wagging!”