Prince Andrew is the First Royal With a Twitter Account: 22,000 Followers in a Day
Prince Andrew made a Twitter account, making the royal, also known as the Duke of York, the first one in the family to have a personal account with the microblogging service. Despite creating it on Monday, he already has over 22,000 followers, thousands of retweets and hundreds of replies and favorites.
Prince Andrew's Twitter account so far mainly updates the public as to his whereabouts and engagements, complete with pictures. However, the first of nine tweets so far was written by the Prince himself.
"Welcome to my Twitter account – AY," he wrote Monday.
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He also took the time to follow some other accounts having to do with the U.K., like Clarence House and the British Monarchy account, which exists for announcements from the royal family but is not operated by any one member. The 53-year-old was born Andrew Albert Christian Edward and his Twitter handle is @TheDukeofYork.
Most users welcomed the royal to Twitter, while a few made jokes.
"Has your account been hacked by Ali G?" @ehdannyboy replied, making reference to the infamous character of Sacha Baron Cohen.
"Which one are you ? Profile pic would help," @artworkmagnetic also said.
Prince Andrew, middle son of Queen Elizabeth II, previously served as a navy helicopter pilot like Prince William. He currently does a fair amount of charity work and functioned as the U.K. Special Representative for International Trade and Investment until July of 2011.
The only other person coming close to the royal family that has a Twitter account is Prince Andrew's ex-wife, Sarah, the Duchess of York. She tweets as @SarahTheDuchess, but so far her ex-husband has not followed her on the social media network.
