LATEST: Chaos engulfs the royal family
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 19 February 2026
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Just after 8am this morning, patrol cars arrived at the Sandringham estate in Norfolk. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. What do we know? What happens next? And what does this mean for the palace? Our sister podcast, The Royals, brings you the latest.
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Guests:
- Harry Yorke, deputy political editor, The Sunday Times
- Charlotte Alt, news reporter, The Times
Host: Roya Nikkhah, royal editor, The Sunday Times
Producer: Robert Wallace
We want to hear from you - email: thestory@thetimes.com
Further listening: The Royals with Roya and Kate
Read more: Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor arrested for misconduct in public office
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The word unprecedented has almost lost all meaning in the current news cycle, with extraordinary events happening on a daily basis. |
| 0:18.2 | And yet, when the headlines broke this morning about the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten |
| 0:22.6 | Windsor, the former prince, former Duke of York, it still stopped us in our tracks. We'll be doing a |
| 0:30.5 | deep dive on this, what it means for the monarchy and in legal terms, on the story tomorrow. But to |
| 0:36.9 | keep you up to date on this remarkable turn of |
| 0:39.8 | events, we're giving you a taste of the upcoming episode of our sister podcast, The Royals, |
| 0:46.1 | presented today by the royal editor of the Sunday Times, Roya Nika. She's been talking to the news |
| 0:52.5 | reporter Charlotte Alt and Harry York, Deputy Political Editor of the Sunday Times. |
| 0:57.8 | They have all the latest on this new crisis for the House of Windsor. |
| 1:06.9 | Hello and welcome to the Royals, the podcast where we give you insight into what happens behind the palace walls and why it matters. I'm Royne Nika. |
| 1:17.6 | Andrew Mountbatten, Windsor, has been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in a public office. This is an unprecedented moment in the history of the modern monarchy. No longer just a |
| 1:29.8 | royal crisis, it's now a test for the state. To help me unpack all of this, I'm joined by |
| 1:35.5 | Harry York, Deputy Political Editor of the Sunday Times and Charlotte Out, a news reporter at the |
| 1:42.0 | Times. Charlotte and Harry, thank you for joining me on a very, very big day. |
| 1:46.3 | Indeed. Let's just look at the facts of what's happened today. We have had the extraordinary |
| 1:51.2 | scenes of multiple police cars arriving at the Sandringham Estate. So what we know is we've had a |
| 1:57.0 | statement from Tens Valley Police saying they've arrested a man in his 60s on suspicion of misconducts in a public office. What was your reaction to that when you saw that news? |
| 2:06.4 | Draw on the floor, I think. It's just an extraordinary revelation, as you say. It's the first time |
| 2:11.6 | it's happened since the arrest of Charles I first in the 17th century. And so to kind of watch that |
| 2:16.4 | play out and just when the actual news headline dropped on the BBC, |
| 2:20.8 | I think actually just in the newsroom upstairs, Roy, everyone just kind of froze. |
| 2:24.9 | And there was kind of an audible gasp. |
... |
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