A royal’s fall: Andrew banished, a prince without title, palace
LONDON—King Charles has stripped his brother Andrew of the title of prince and other honors, Buckingham Palace said on Thursday, following weeks of pressure to act on Andrew’s connections with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
After the king’s rare move, the former prince “will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor,” the palace said in a statement, adding that he had also been served “formal notice” to vacate his Royal Lodge mansion near Windsor Castle and “move to alternative private accommodation.”
Demand had been growing in the palace to expel Andrew, 65, after he surrendered his use of the title Duke of York in October, over new revelations about his friendship with Epstein and renewed sex abuse allegations by one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre.
The king went even further by removing the title of prince that he and Andrew had held since birth as children of the late Queen Elizabeth II.
“These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him,” the palace said. “Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.”
Sexual encounters
It is almost unprecedented for a British royal to be stripped of his or her title.
The last time this happened was in 1919, when Prince Ernest Augustus, a UK royal and also prince of Hanover, had his British title removed for siding with Germany during World War I.
Giuffre, who was 41 when she died by suicide in April, had claimed in a posthumous memoir that she had sex with Andrew when she was 17 and had three other sexual encounters with him.
She said Andrew acted as if he believed “having sex with me was his birthright.”
‘Ordinary American girl’
Her brother Skye Roberts declared victory for his sister. “Today, an ordinary American girl from an ordinary American family brought down a British prince with her truth and extraordinary courage,” Roberts said in a statement to the BBC, following the publication last week of Giuffre’s book “Nobody’s Girl.”
Early in October, Andrew also faced a new round of public outrage after emails emerged showing he had remained in contact with Epstein longer than he previously admitted.
Epstein hanged himself in 2019 while in detention at a federal jail in New York. The 66-year-old financier was earlier convicted of soliciting prostitution and accused of sex trafficking.
Andrew has long denied Giuffre’s claims, but stepped down from royal duties after a disastrous November 2019 BBC interview in which he attempted to rebut her allegations.
He paid millions in an out-of-court settlement in 2022 after Giuffre filed a civil suit in New York. While he didn’t admit wrongdoing, Andrew acknowledged Giuffre’s suffering as a victim of sex trafficking.
Royal crisis
Charles had been involved in discussions with Andrew before announcing last month that his brother would relinquish his dukedom.
After attending an event at Lichfield Cathedral on Monday, the king was heckled by a man who demanded to know “Have you asked the police to cover up for Andrew?”
Before security pulled him from sight, the man also shouted questions about how long Charles had known about his brother and Epstein.
Videos of that incident made the evening news and was the source of embarrassing headlines the next morning.
This marked the most dramatic royal crisis since 1936, when King Edward VIII abdicated the throne so he could marry twice-divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson.
The couple were given the titles Duke and Duchess of Windsor and lived the rest of their lives in exile outside Britain.
Prince Harry, despite renouncing his royal role, feuding with his family and moving to California, remains a prince and Duke of Sussex.
The king’s move means Andrew will no longer be referred to as prince, His Royal Highness, Duke of York, Earl of Inverness or Baron Killyleagh—all titles he held until now.
Star status
Also gone are honors that include Order of the Garter and Knight Grand Cross of the Victorian Order.
Andrew, who was said to be his mother’s favorite child, had once been the poster boy of the royal family, and his romantic links to a number of models and starlets during his youth were widely chronicled in the British press.
His star status peaked after he flew 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 UK overseas territories.
But Andrew’s antics had also tried the patience of the royal family for more than 40 years, as he was dogged by tawdry headlines about shady business deals, inappropriate behavior and controversial friendships.
Other connections
In 1984, Andrew sprayed paint on reporters and photographers covering him in the United States while he was touring a construction project in Los Angeles. “I enjoyed that,” he said while wiping his hands on a piece of newspaper.
It was the turn of his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson to draw controversy in 2010, when an undercover reporter posing as a wealthy Arab filmed her apparently offering to sell access to the prince for 500,000 pounds ($670,000 at the current exchange rate).
The next year, Andrew was forced to resign as Britain’s special trade envoy following initial reports of his links to Epstein. He also faced questions about his friendship with Said Gadhafi, son of the late Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi, and his links to a convicted Libyan gun smuggler.
Last year, Andrew’s ties to a Chinese businessman and suspected spy were disclosed by court documents, as security officials expressed concern that the businessman, who was since barred from the UK, could have misused his influence over Andrew.
The former prince is expected to move to a property on the king’s Sandringham estate and receive financial support from his brother.
Ferguson, who had been living with Andrew in the 30-room Royal Lodge despite their 1996 divorce, will have to find a new home.
