LONDON
King Charles III has stripped his brother, Prince Andrew, of all remaining royal titles and honours, and ordered him to vacate his official residence, following renewed public pressure over his association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In a statement on Thursday, Buckingham Palace said the king had “initiated a formal process to remove the Style, Titles and Honours of Prince Andrew,” a rare disciplinary step within the royal family.
The decision means the 65-year-old will no longer be known as Prince Andrew but as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. He will also be required to move out of the Royal Lodge residence in Windsor Great Park and relocate to private accommodation on the king’s Sandringham estate.
The palace said the move was necessary “notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him,” adding that the royal family’s “utmost sympathies remain with victims and survivors of all forms of abuse.”
It is almost unprecedented for a British royal to lose a princely title. The last similar case was in 1919, when Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover was stripped of his British titles for siding with Germany during World War I.
Pressure had been mounting on King Charles to act after Andrew gave up the use of the Duke of York title earlier this month, following new revelations in Nobody’s Girl, a posthumous memoir by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, one of Epstein’s victims. Giuffre alleged she was sexually abused by Andrew when she was 17.
“Today, an ordinary American girl from an ordinary American family brought down a British prince with her truth and extraordinary courage,” Giuffre’s brother, Skye Roberts, said in a statement.
Andrew, who stepped back from public duties after a disastrous 2019 BBC interview, has long denied Giuffre’s claims. He paid millions in an out-of-court settlement in 2022 but admitted no wrongdoing.
The king’s decision strips Andrew of all remaining titles, including Duke of York, Earl of Inverness, and Baron Killyleagh as well as royal honours such as the Order of the Garter and the Royal Victorian Order.
