An ex-girlfriend of the former Duke of York, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, has claimed that he has been unfairly described as a snob and a bully due to his appearance12:03, 22 Jun 2026Updated 12:05, 22 Jun 2026Since he was effectively exiled by his brother, King Charles III, innumerable claims have emerged about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s character. Most of them have been damningly negative.‌More than one person who had dealings with the former prince has made allegations of his arrogance, his rudeness, and his fondness for practical jokes that border on bullying.‌But not everyone who has met Andrew shares the same view. For the new edition of Entitled, his bombshell exposé of Andrew and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, royal author Andrew Lownie spoke to Ian Hendry, one of the disgraced former Duke’s classmates at Dartmouth Naval College.‌The two became close friends, and Andrew later became godfather to one of Hendry’s children, never missing a birthday and always giving thoughtful gifts.Model Kim Deas, who was one of a long list of attractive young women who briefly dated Andrew, had nothing but good things to say about the supposed playboy prince, sharing: ‘People think that because he’s so good-looking he’s not a nice person. But he’s extremely sensitive and kind. He certainly doesn’t live up to his nickname of Randy Andy at all. He’s simply a good friend."‌Another former flame of Andrews, Lady Victoria Hervey, was even more vociferous in her defence of the late Queen’s second son. In the wake of shocking revelations about Andrew’s association with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, she told LBC that Andrew is simply "a guy" who "needs to date.”"It's very hard for anyone to kind of try and imagine being in his shoes,” she said, "But he's a male, he's single, he needs to date. He's not going to be sitting in a monastery his whole life."Lady Victoria claims that Andrew’s friendship with Epstein had been perfectly innocent: ”They'd known each other for a long time at this point and he sort of thought ‘OK, well, he knows beautiful women and, you know, there's like so many other people out there and no one's talking about it’.”‌Lady Victoria, who herself is mentioned over 20 times in the FBI’s Epstein files, added: "If you're not in those files, it would be an insult because it just means that you were a bit of a loser.”Ian Hendry told Andrew Lownie that Mountbatten-Windsor was simply a man who belongs in a different time: “He was born in the wrong age and would have been happier as an Edwardian gentleman. He puts on his royal hat to protect himself, that’s his veneer.”Article continues belowBut with that old-fashioned attitude, say some of his other former Navy comrades, came a very old-fashioned expectation of deference.A serviceman at the the Royal Naval Air Station, at Culdrose in Cornwall, described Andrew as “a bit toffee-nosed.”Andrew didn’t behave like everyone else, he recalled: “He wants his own way and when he is around, you have to bow and scrape. Even when he drives round the base in his car, you have to salute that. I mean, fancy saluting a flipping car.”