London, UK – The UK’s Prince Andrew Friday renounced his title of Duke of York under pressure from his brother King Charles, amid further revelations about his ties to US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“I will… no longer use my title or the honors which have been conferred upon me,” Andrew (65) said in a bombshell announcement.
He said his decision came after discussions with the head of state, King Charles III.
“I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first,” Andrew said in a statement, sent out by Buckingham Palace.
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He again denied all allegations of wrongdoing, but said: “We have concluded the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Family.”
Andrew, who stepped back from public life in 2019 amid the Epstein scandal, will remain a prince, as he is the second son of the late Queen Elizabeth II. He will no longer hold the title of Duke of York that she had conferred on him, however.
UK media reported that he would also give up membership of the prestigious Order of the Garter, the most senior knighthood in the British honors system, which dates back to 1348.
Andrew’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson will also no longer use the title of Duchess of York, although his daughters Beatrice and Eugenie remain princesses, and it is thought that Friday’s move will not affect their status.
The disgraced royal has become a source of deep embarrassment for his brother Charles, following a devastating 2019 TV interview in which Andrew defended his friendship with the late billionaire paedophile Epstein.
In the interview, he vowed he had cut ties in 2010 with Epstein, who was disgraced after an American woman, Virginia Giuffre, accused him of using her as a sex slave.
But in a reported exchange which emerged in UK media this week, Andrew told the convicted sex offender in 2011 that they were “in this together” when a photo of the prince with his arm around Giuffre was published. He added that the two would “play together soon.”
Andrew was stripped of his military titles in 2022 and shuffled off into retirement after Giuffre accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was 17.
New allegations emerged this week in Giuffre’s posthumous memoir in which she wrote that Andrew had behaved as if having sex with her was his “birthright.”
