Prince Andrew has confirmed he’ll relinquish all of his royal titles together with Duke of York.
Prince Andrew has confirmed he’ll relinquish all of his royal titles together with Duke of York
The disgraced 65-year-old, who has been mired within the Jeffrey Epstein scandal for years, made the announcement in a press release launched on Friday (17.10.25), hours after reviews he had held talks with King Charles about giving them up.
He stated: “In dialogue with The King, and my fast and wider household, now we have concluded the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Household.
“I’ve determined, as I at all times have, to place my obligation to my household and nation first. I stand by my determination 5 years in the past to face again from public life.
“With His Majesty’s settlement, we really feel I have to now go a step additional. I’ll due to this fact not use my title or the honours which have been conferred upon me. As I’ve stated beforehand, I vigorously deny the accusations towards me.”
Charles is reportedly “glad” with the end result.
Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, 65, got their titles Duke and Duchess of York on their wedding ceremony day in 1986 – and he or she can even drop her Duchess title.
Andrew stays Duke of York however the title won’t be used and
he won’t attend household celebrations for Christmas at Sandringham, in line with The Solar.
Regardless of handing his royal titles again he’ll stay at Royal Lodge as he has a “forged iron” tenancy till 2078.
It follows a collection of damaging revelations about Andrew’s continued contact with convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The Solar on Sunday reported the Duke of York was discovered to have lied about chopping ties with the disgraced financier, after an e-mail surfaced wherein he advised Epstein: “We’re on this collectively.”
The message, dated 29 February 2011, got here simply someday after the now-infamous {photograph} of Andrew with Virginia Giuffre was made public.
In keeping with The Telegraph, the King met together with his brother at Buckingham Palace earlier this week, after which Andrew agreed to surrender his remaining royal titles.
Sources advised the newspaper palace aides had reached “tipping level” and believed the monarchy had “no alternative however to behave” following the most recent disclosures about Epstein.
The choice marks probably the most extreme motion but taken towards Andrew, who was stripped of his navy titles, royal patronages and HRH model by Queen Elizabeth II in January 2022 after a US decide dominated he should face a civil sexual assault case introduced by Jeffrey Epstein intercourse trafficking sufferer Virginia Giuffre.
Andrew later settled the case for an undisclosed sum with out admitting legal responsibility and has constantly denied having intercourse along with her.
Virginia, who died by suicide in April aged 41, is making posthumous claims in her forthcoming autobiography No person’s Lady, alleging she was trafficked to Andrew by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell as a young person.
Within the ebook, attributable to be launched on 21 October, she reportedly writes Andrew considered their encounters as his “delivery proper” and stated “thanks” to her in a “clipped British accent”.
Virginia additionally claims Maxwell advised her the morning after the alleged encounter: “You probably did properly, the prince had enjoyable.”
Earlier this yr, Andrew was additionally linked to a separate controversy involving alleged contact with a Chinese language spy.
Leaked paperwork from 2019 confirmed that he had met with Chinese language officers, together with Yang Tengbo, and sought to make use of his royal connections to boost £2.4 billion for a global expertise initiative.
Safety sources later described the connection as a possible “risk to nationwide safety”.