Denise Welch insists she ‘never liked’ Prince Andrew after being ‘horrified’ by Princess Diana remark

Denise Welch launched into a no-holds-barred rant against Prince Andrew during Loose Women today following the latest development in his civil sex abuse lawsuit.

The prince, 61, has been stripped of his military honours and will fight his US case as a ‘private citizen’, the palace said yesterday.

A royal source has claimed he will no longer use the style ‘His Royal Highness’ in any official capacity.

All of his roles will be redistributed to other members of the Royal Family and will not be returned to him, it’s claimed.

On Friday, a day after the explosive news was announced, the Loose Women panellists discussed the case, with Denise not holding back on what she thinks about the Duke of York after recalling meeting him at a past event.

Denise told fellow panellists Kaye Adams, Judi Love and Frankie Bridge that she was ‘horrified’ after claiming she heard a disdainful comment the prince had made about Princess Diana shortly after her death, and had never liked Andrew after that.

Denise Welch has disliked Prince Andrew for decades after a remark he made about his late sister-in-law Princess Diana ( Pictures: Rex / ITV )

‘He really, really upset me once in the way that he spoke about his late sister-in-law, Diana, with such disdain,’ she admitted on Friday’s show.

Andrew had made the remarks about the beloved princess ‘in front of a group of people… who he didn’t know from a bar of soap,’ she added.

‘I was horrified by it as it wasn’t really long after [she died].

‘I had no skin in the game, except for someone who loved Diana from afar, but I was just horrified by it and I never liked him,’ she admitted.

Prince Andrew allegedly made a remark about Princess Diana which left Denise ‘horrified’ (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)

Denise added that she and Andrew met on another ‘couple of occasions’ but didn’t go in to details.

However she believes the Duke is ‘guilty by association’ with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, referencing the photograph of the pair together after the billionaire’s conviction.

She said: ‘I think once you went to see Jeffrey Epstein when Jeffrey Epstein was a convicted paedophile, that was game over.’

However Denise acknowledged that ‘in the eyes of the law, he is innocent until proven guilty,’ and asked herself how she would feel if someone in her family ‘was accused of something so heinous and wasn’t given the chance to be proven guilty’.

Discussing the newest revelations, Kaye said regardless of the outcome of the civil case, Andrew has ‘brought trouble to the door’ in a big way, with Frankie agreeing ‘the damage has been done’ to the Royal family.

The newest revelations come after Virginia Giuffre alleged the Queen’s second son sexually abused her on three occasions while she was 17.

Virginia Giuffre has accused Andrew of sexually abusing her when she was 17, which the prince denies (Piacture: REX/Shutterstock)

Andrew has strongly denied the accusations and previously claimed to have no recollection of meeting his accuser.

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More than 150 veterans had joined forces to write to Queen Elizabeth and demand Andrew was removed from the honorary military positions earlier this week.

It’s understood the decision to strip him of his honours followed talks among senior members of the Royal Family – including his mother, the Queen, his brothers Prince Charles and Prince Edward and his sister, Princess Anne.

Metro.co.uk has contacted Buckingham Palace for comment on this story.

Loose Women airs weekdays at 12.30pm on ITV.

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