Prince Andrew's reputation is 'damaged beyond repair' following a decision by a US judge to allow a civil case to be brought against him by Virginia Giuffre, experts warned.
Specialists in reputation management told MailOnline that not only has Andrew been tarnished by the allegations but so has the rest of the Royal Family with legal proceedings against him set to get underway later this year.
Simon Wadsworth, managing partner at Igniyte, a company which specialises in reputation management, said: 'I think it's a long slog from here regardless of the outcomes of any proceedings going forward and any gestures to redeem the situation may only worsen the situation.
'He (Andrew) may be best to stay out of the public eye for the foreseeable future.'
He further warned: 'This has damaged the rest of the Royal Family by association. It's difficult for them to control the narrative, so hard for them to influence public opinion.
'The option of keeping him in a low profile looks to be increasingly difficult when this goes to a hearing.'
Specialists in reputation management told MailOnline that not only has Prince Andrew (pictured in April 2021) been tarnished by the allegations but so has the rest of the Royal Family with legal proceedings against him set to get underway later this year
The Duke of York photographed with his arm around the waist of then 17-year-old Virginia Roberts. Ghislaine Maxwell can be seen in the background
Mr Wadsworth described the impact of the case on Andrew's reputation as 'devastating', claiming that it has not been helped by his attitude towards Ms Giuffre.
He added: 'The impression he has given is one of not being empathetic and being "above the law".
'All statements and interviews have been around denial and rebuttal which is probably the right legal route but not necessarily in a PR sense – if he is innocent of all charges as he and his team say he is why can't he at least appear to be fully co-operative? There is a victim in this, and they should be the primary focus.'
Reputation specialist Amber Melville-Brown, a partner at international law firm Withers, claimed that there appeared to be little hope of salvaging Andrew's reputation 'in the court of public opinion', whatever the outcome of the civil action.
She said: 'He may never recover reputationally from injuries sustained from his fall from grace.
'While Prince Andrew has not been tried nor his evidence yet tested in any court, in the court of public opinion, his reputational ship was already under fire by his association with Epstein, torpedoed on Maxwell's conviction, and all but sunk by this latest loss.'
She added: 'Fighting this legal action will require titanic efforts by Prince Andrew's legal team, but whatever the ultimate result in court, it may not be enough in the court of public opinion to raise his reputation from the depths to which it has already sunk.'
Alex McCready, Head of Reputation & Privacy at Vardags, a leading international law firm, said: 'It is very difficult to see a situation where his reputation can be repaired or him ever having a
