LONDON (AP) — Prince Andrew said Friday he is giving up his royal title of the Duke of York and other honors after his friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein returned to the headlines.
Andrew, younger brother of King Charles III, said in a statement released by Buckingham Palace that “the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the royal family.”
“With His Majesty’s agreement, we feel I must now go a step further. I will therefore no longer use my title or the honours which have been conferred upon me,” Andrew said in his statement Friday. “As I have said previously, I vigorously deny the accusations against me.”
Epstein-related allegations
It’s the latest fall from grace for the 65-year-old prince, who had already stepped down from public life in 2019 over his links to Epstein despite his denials of any wrongdoing.
News that he will be ditching his title came in the wake of the release of excerpts of an upcoming posthumous memoir from Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who has alleged she was trafficked by Epstein and had sex with Andrew when she was 17. The memoir is due to be published on Tuesday.
Giuffre died by suicide in April at the age of 41. In the memoir, she details alleged encounters with Prince Andrew, who she sued in 2021. Andrew denied her claims and said he didn’t recall having met her.
Interview misstep
Andrew, once second in line to the British throne, has long been a source of tabloid fodder because of his links to Epstein, other questionable characters and money woes.
His attempt to refute Giuffre’s allegations backfired during a November 2019 BBC interview. Viewers saw a prince who proffered curious rebuttals — such as disputing Giuffre’s recollection of sweaty dancing by saying he was medically incapable of perspiring — and showed no empathy for the women who said Epstein abused them.
Within days of the interview, Andrew stepped down from his royal duties. Giuffre sued him and the case was settled in 2022 for an undisclosed sum. A statement filed in court said that the prince acknowledged Epstein was a sex trafficker and Giuffre was “an established victim of abuse.”
Family repercussions
As well as no longer using the title of the Duke of York, a long-established title that was gifted to him by his mother Queen Elizabeth II at his wedding to Sarah Ferguson in 1986, Andrew will also give up other titles: Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order and Royal Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter. He will remain a prince, which he has been entitled to since birth.
Andrew’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson will also no longer use the title of Duchess of York. Their children, Beatrice and Eugenie, will remain princesses.
Andrew’s chaotic marriage to Ferguson, widely known as Fergie, lasted a decade though the two remain close, living together at a 30-room mansion near Windsor Castle.
Ferguson, herself, has also been embroiled in Epstein-related allegations. Last month, a number of charities severed ties with her after British newspapers published an email that she reportedly wrote to Epstein, describing him as a “supreme friend.’’
Once the golden boy
Andrew had been the poster boy of the royal family for many years, and his romantic links to a number of models and starlets during his youth were widely chronicled in the British press.
His star status within the royal family was at its peak after he flew in multiple missions as a helicopter pilot in the Royal Navy during the 1982 Falklands War when British forces sailed to the south Atlantic to eject the Argentine military that had invaded the U.K. overseas territories.
Questions over financing
Andrew has long been criticized for his opulent, globe-trotting lifestyle.
When he stopped being a working royal, Andrew lost his primary source of income. Questions have been raised since how he has funded his lifestyle, including the running of his Royal Lodge home.
Earlier this year, court documents showed that his damaged reputation and need for money led him to become entangled with a suspected Chinese spy, businessman Tengbo Yang, who was barred from the U.K. in 2023.
Dominic Hampshire, a former senior aide to Andrew, told a special immigration appeals commission how he had arranged meetings between the prince and Yang in an effort to drum up some cash.
While Andrew has said he never discussed anything sensitive with the suspected spy and that he ceased contact with him as soon as concerns were raised, he retreated from view after the news emerged last December.
Front-page fodder for wrong reasons
The prince has been the subject of tabloid stories stretching back to at least 2007, when he sold his house near Windsor Castle for 20% over the 15 million pound asking price. The buyer was reported to be Timur Kulibayev, son-in-law of Nursultan Nazarbayev, then-president of Kazakhstan, raising concerns that the deal was an attempt to buy influence in Britain.
Last year, a court case revealed Andrew’s relationship with a businessman and suspected Chinese spy who was barred from the United Kingdom as a threat to national security. Authorities were concerned that the man could have misused his influence over Andrew, according to court documents.
While the palace said Andrew had decided to give up his royal titles, royal historian Sally Bedell Smith said the king, Prince William and the entire family exerted enormous pressure on him.
“I think he was absolutely forced into this,″ said Smith, author of “Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life.”
“He’s had many opportunities to fall on his sword, and he hasn’t. So I think he was given a pretty stark choice: Either do this voluntarily or we’re going to have to do this the hard way.″
Insulating the monarchy at a delicate time
While the cumulative weight of Andrew’s scandals demanded a response from the royal family, this week’s revelations came at a particularly sensitive moment for the king as he prepares for a state visit to the Vatican, where he is expected to pray beside Pope Leo XIV.
The visit is very important to Charles, who has made the bridging of faiths an important part of his “mantra,” said George Gross, an expert on theology and the monarchy at King’s College, London.
“I think this was the speediest, really the quickest way of lowering his status even more without having to go to Parliament,” Gross said. “Even if Parliament would have approved, it takes time.’’
Charles may also have been motivated by a desire to protect the work of Queen Camilla, who has made combating domestic violence one of her signature issues, and the Duchess of Edinburgh, who has sought to combat sexual violence in war zones such as Congo.
The king will hope that this move finally draws a line between Andrew and the rest of the royal family, Prescott said.
“If there are allegations, or further stuff comes out, it will all be on Prince Andrew,” he said. “They’ve severed the connection between Prince Andrew and the monarchy as an institution.”
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