Why Andrew took to Twitter to defend daughters

Once, personal royal statements were vanishingly rare.

Not anymore.

After Prince Harry leapt to the aid of his girlfriend Meghan Markle, his uncle has used his personal Twitter account to defend his daughters.

And it's significant that the princely views were disseminated this way and not through an official Buckingham Palace statement.

There will be those at the palace who will have questioned the wisdom of this move.

Not least because there has been tension between Prince Andrew and Prince Charles over the future king's plans to slim down the monarchy when his time comes.

The younger prince wants his daughters, who are blood born princesses, to have a role.

His statement, that there was no truth to the story that there could be a split, leaves open the possibility that one has been avoided and an accommodation has been reached.

It would have been reached in private.

It is now very public.