Prince Andrew could be set to leave Balmoral to see his heavily pregnant daughter Beatrice after she was apparently admitted to a London hospital on Friday - as lawyers try to serve Virginia Giuffre's sex abuse lawsuit on him.
The Queen's granddaughter, 33, is expecting her first baby with Italian property developer husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, 38, who she wed in a surprise Covid-safe ceremony at the Royal Chapel of All Saints in Windsor last year.
Her father Andrew, who has been in hiding for some time on the 50,000-acre royal estate in Aberdeenshire, is now likely to make the 500-mile trip back to London to see Beatrice, according to The Sun.
A Balmoral insider told the paper: 'Prince Andrew obviously hasn't wanted to leave Balmoral when lawyers are still trying to serve the lawsuit papers but his daughter comes first and he will want to be there for her.
'He could end up staying on the estate and waiting for Beatrice to come to him once she's given birth. But I'm sure he will want to go to her.'
The duke has appeared to play a game of cat and mouse with the legal team acting for Ms Giuffre, formerly Roberts - moving between his home in Windsor and the Balmoral estate to keep out of their way.
Lawyers for Ms Guiffre, a victim of paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, said they had delivered papers notifying him about the civil court sex case to his 30-room mansion at Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park.
They claimed that the documents were left with police guards at his Windsor home and emailed to his lawyers - and even released a photograph showing that papers notifying him about the case were posted to his home. Andrew disputes that they have been properly served.
It comes as the High Court last week gave Andrew's legal team seven days to challenge its decision to begin notifying him about the civil sex case in New York against him.
Prince Andrew and Princess Beatrice at Royal Ascot on June 18, 2019
Prince Andrew could be set to leave Balmoral to see his heavily pregnant daughter Beatrice after she was apparently admitted to a London hospital on Friday
Andrew, Virginia Roberts, then 17, and Ghislaine Maxwell pictured in London in 2001
The court in London accepted on Wednesday a request by Ms Giuffre's lawyers to formally contact the duke about the legal proceedings launched in the US.
Andrew's team are said to be contesting the court's decision, over the lawsuit by Ms Giuffre who alleges the Queen's son sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager.
Ms Giuffre is seeking unspecified damages but there is speculation the sum could be in the millions of dollars.
She claims she was trafficked by Andrew's former friend and sex offender Epstein to have sex with the duke when she was aged 17 and a minor under US law.
The judge in the case, US district judge Lewis Kaplan, has ruled that Ms Giuffre's legal team can try delivering the
