Prince Andrew takes to Sarah Ferguson’s Instagram to share Falkland’s thoughts

Prince Andrew, who reached a multimillion-pound out-of-court settlement in his civil sexual assault case against alleged rape accuser Virginia Giuffre a few weeks ago, wrote more than 700 words about his experiences in the Falklands War

The Duke of York said he had returned from the Falklands War “a changed man”, in a letter posted to his ex-wife’s Instagram account.

Prince Andrew, who reached a multimillion-pound out-of-court settlement in a civil sexual assault case a few weeks ago, wrote more than 700 words about his experience in the Falkland Islands.

The Queen’s second son flew missions as a Sea King helicopter pilot during the conflict.

Prince Andrew’s reflection appeared in three posts – which were removed after about two hours – on Sarah, Duchess of York’s Instagram account.

The last post said it was “written by HRH The Duke of York” before “HRH” was deleted.

The Queen stripped Andrew of his honorary military posts in January and he gave up his HRH style in a dramatic fallout from his civil sex case.

At the time, a royal source said Andrew, who was born HRH, will not be using it in any official capacity.

Virginia Giuffre sued Andrew for allegedly sexually assaulting her when she was 17 and trafficked by convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

In the first Instagram post, Sarah wrote: “I asked Andrew this morning for his thoughts on the 40th anniversary of his crossing from Portsmouth to the Falkland Islands.”

Andrew’s account begins: “Sitting here at my desk on this cold, crisp spring morning and thinking back to April 1982, I have tried to imagine what went through my mind as we left Portsmouth and lined the flight deck of HMS INVINCIBLE .”

The 62-year-old concluded: “So as I reflect on a day when a young man bravely went to war, I came back a changed man.

“I have shed childish things and false boasts and given back a man full of knowledge of human frailty and suffering.

“My reflection makes me think even more intensely and pray even more fervently for those in conflict today, for these families (sic) who are being torn apart by the horrors they have witnessed.

“And I am (sic) afraid to say that the historical perspective my short war has taught me is this – war is the failure to keep the peace; War is the failure of human judgment; War is the failure to recognize that we must seek permission to understand another person’s perspective or reality, whether or not we agree with that perspective or reality.”

Prince Andrew also recalled being shot at, writing: “I was flying and saw a chaff shell fired from one of our ships not passing that far in front of us.

“It was on a stable bearing for a moment before it began tacking to our left.

“The fear that it would only be like that for a moment had a lasting and lasting impact on me.”

The Duke of York has spoken about being shot at before – in his infamous Newsnight interview, given to defend himself against Ms Guiffre’s allegations and to declare his friendship with the late Epstein.

Regarding a claim he was sweating profusely during an alleged night out with Ms Guiffre, Andrew told Emily Maitlis in 2019: “I wasn’t sweating at the time because I had what I would call an adrenaline overdose in the Falklands War. I was shot at and I just…it was almost impossible for me to sweat.”

Andrew was the first member of the royal family to have an official Twitter account under his own name, although that account was deleted in January.

His reflections on Sarah’s Instagram account came on the 40th anniversary of the Falklands War.

On April 2, 1982, Argentine forces invaded the islands, which had been in British hands since the 19th century, prompting the dispatch of a Royal Navy task force south to retake them.

The resulting sea and land campaign resulted in the retaking of the islands on 14 June at the cost of 255 British lives. About 650 Argentines died.