King Charles should consider "playing a card" favoured by the  late Queen in times of crisis, a royal expert has claimed. Police and prosecutors have held talks over allegations that the King's brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor leaked confidential documents to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Documents in the Epstein files suggest the former Prince and the Duke of York shared government information with Epstein when Andrew was the UK's trade envoy. It is the latest in a string of allegations against Andrew, who denies any wrongdoing with regards his relationship with Epstein, who killed himself while awaiting trial in August 2019.

The Royal Family has stayed largely tight-lipped on the allegations surrounding Andrew before the King and Prince William released written statements on Monday expressing "profound" and "deep concern" for Epstein's victims.

But according to the Sunday Times' Roya Nikkhah, the Royal Family's long-held mottos of "business as usual" and "never complain, never explain" are out of date. She thinks Charles could consider taking a leaf out of his late mother's book in how to deal with a royal crisis.

She wrote: "Their (Charles and William's) written statements issued within hours of each other on Monday, expressing 'profound' and 'deep concern' for Epstein's victims, have not quelled disquiet. Nor has stripping Andrew's titles and relocating him to Norfolk extinguished public revulsion.

"Hearing from the monarch in personal, spoken words, rather than Palace statements, would redress that. In times of national crisis, Queen Elizabeth understood speaking to us was a reassuring salve. It was a card she rarely played, but after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997 and as the Covid pandemic struck in in 2020, her televised addresses settled a rattled public."

Roya reckons that a similar message from Charles, with "input from William", "would go a long way" to settling the public.

Andrew was stripped of his remaining titles by Charles last year, while he was also evicted from the sprawling Royal Lodge in Windsor, where he lived from 2004 until a few weeks ago. He is now living in Wood Farm on the Sandringham Estate on a temporary basis while his new permanent home, Marsh Farm, undergoes renovations.

The former prince's relationship with the sex offender Epstein has caused controversy since the pair were photographed together in New York's Central Park in 2010. The image was taken after Epstein had been convicted of child prostitution and had served a 13-month prison sentence.

Andrew's infamous Newsnight interview in November 2019 accelerated his fall from grace. The following year it was announced that Andrew would indefinitely withdraw from his public roles. Last year he was stripped of his honours, styles and royal titles, including his peerage title of Duke of York and his birth title of Prince.