Prince Andrew, who controversially attended his father Prince Philip's Thanksgiving celebration with his mother, the Queen, in late March, was expected to make another public appearance this week at the award ceremony for the Order of the Garter, the oldest and highest chivalric order in England. (Prince Andrew missed all the recent Platinum Jubilee celebrations because he tested positive for COVID-19.)

However, according to reports, a determined Prince William intervened and issued an ultimatum.

According to the Independent, the Duke of Cambridge warned his uncle that he would "withdraw" from the ceremony if he appeared in public with other senior members of the royal family. The family's decision to shut Andrew out of the ceremony was so last minute that Andrew was listed in the ceremony program, retaining his title of Duke of York, despite being stripped of his honorary military title and HRH style.

(For those who somehow missed Andrew's controversy, he stepped down from active royalty in 2020 over his ties to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. He paid a multi-million pound settlement earlier this year in a civil sexual assault case brought by Virginia Giuffre, who claimed she was sexually assaulted by Andrew when she was only 17. Andrew denies the allegations.)

"The Duke of Cambridge was adamant," the Evening Standard quoted a senior source as saying. 'If York insists on taking part in public meetings, he will decline.'

According to the Independent, Andrew's hope was to attend the Order of the Garter ceremony to signal his return to public service.

"The most important thing [for Andrew] is his status as Crown Prince and 'Prince of the Blood' and he feels that he should have that reinstated and have that status recognized and respected," an unnamed source told The Telegraph, according to The Independent.

Insider.

According to Insider, Prince Charles also intervened to prevent his brother from attending, and The Telegraph reported that the decision to ban Andrew's attendance was made "following an 11th-hour intervention by the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge." A source close to Andrew told the publication that it was a "personal decision" for the Duke of York to miss the event.

The final decision on Andrew's attendance went to Her Majesty the Queen, who made the final decision "for Andrew himself" after a tense family meeting, according to The Sun. Andrew did not attend (the photo used in this article is from the 2011 Order of the Garter ceremony).

"He was confident and bullish that he could make a comeback," a source quoted by the Sun said.

The magazine reported that "Andrew was seen heading to lunch with the monarch ...... just hours after being removed from the ceremony," it reported.