Prince Andrew stripped of titles over sex allegations tied to Epstein

LONDON — Prince Andrew has agreed to relinquish his Duke of York title after talks with his brother King Charles III — a stunning development following years of allegations linked to his association with Jeffrey Epstein that have cast a grim shadow over Britain’s royal family.

“In discussion with the king, and my immediate and wider family, we have concluded the continued accusations about me distract from the work of his majesty and the royal family,” Prince Andrew said in a statement released Friday night by Buckingham Palace.

The decision comes after excerpts were made public from a forthcoming memoir by Virginia Giuffre — the American woman who says she was forced to have sexual encounters with Andrew as a teenager after being trafficked by Epstein, the financier and convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019.

According to excerpts from the book that were published by the Guardian, Prince Andrew told Giuffre that his daughters were “just a little younger than you” on the evening of their first alleged sexual encounter. She was 17 at the time.

“He was friendly enough,” Giuffre writes, “but still entitled — as if he believed having sex with me was his birthright.”

Andrew settled a civil lawsuit with Giuffre in 2022 but has always denied any wrongdoing. Giuffre died by suicide earlier this year at her home in Neergabby, Australia.

The British media also reported this week that Andrew held meetings in 2018 and 2019 with Cai Qi, a top Chinese official suspected of involvement in a collapsed China spy case, reviving questions about Andrew’s associations and judgment.

The royal family is no stranger to scandal — affairs, divorces, and more recently, royals fleeing to America are almost routine. But the allegations against Prince Andrew set him apart, and the enduring fixation with Epstein in the United States has meant no escape for the prince — or for “The Firm” as the royal family calls itself.

In addition to no longer using the Duke of York title, Andrew will no longer attend royal family Christmas celebrations.

“I stand by my decision five years ago to stand back from public life,” Andrew said in his statement. “With his majesty’s agreement, we feel I must now go a step further. I will therefore no longer use my title or the honors which have been conferred upon me. As I have said previously, I vigorously deny the accusations against me.”

In her memoir, Giuffre detailed meeting Andrew for the first time in the London home of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s now-imprisoned associate, and asking for a photo with the prince, which she said was taken by Epstein with her Kodak FunSaver. Later that night, she wrote, after they went dancing at a London nightclub called Tramp, Maxwell told her: “When we get home, you are to do for him what you do for Jeffrey.”

Many of the harrowing claims in Giuffre’s memoir, according to the published excerpts, had already been made by her in depositions and documentaries. But they nonetheless landed with force when read together — a stark reminder of Andrew’s enduring entanglement with the sex-trafficking scandal, and the allegations he preyed on a teenager.

As monarch, Charles does not have the power to strip his brother of his title. That would require an act of Parliament. The last time Parliament stripped peerages was in 1917, under the Titles Deprivation Act, when British nobles with German ties lost their titles during World War I.

Andrew has lived in royal exile since his car crash 2019 interview with Newsnight, in which he tried unconvincingly to explain his association with Epstein. But until now, he had retained his Duke of York title, which his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, conferred to him at the time of his marriage to Sarah Ferguson in 1986.

The title is one that is usually bestowed upon the second son of the British monarch. Before Andrew, Elizabeth’s father, Albert (later King George VI), held the title. He was also the second son of a monarch.

Ferguson, now Andrew’s ex-wife, will also not use her title Duchess of York. As a son of a queen, Andrew remains a prince.

Public pressure for Andrew to relinquish his dukedom had been mounting for years. Businesses throughout England — including pubs and theaters called Duke of York — urged him to give it up, while residents in the historic city of York unanimously stripped him of a minor title, “Honorary Freedom of York.”

Andrew will continue to live at Royal Lodge — the 30-room mansion he shares with Ferguson. Charles reportedly has pressed him to relocate to Frogmore Cottage, the former home of Prince Harry and Meghan, but Andrew is understood to hold a long-term lease on Royal Lodge with the Crown Estate.