After weeks of heightened scrutiny over the royal’s links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Buckingham Palace has announced that Prince Andrew will lose his royal title and will also have to leave his Windsor mansion, the BBC reports.
The king’s brother will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. He had already given up other titles, including the Duke of York, in October.
Andrew’s actions came under renewed scrutiny after Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir was published in October, in which she repeatedly claimed she had sex with Andrew as a teenager. The royal has denied the allegations. Giuffre committed suicide in April.
Buckingham Palace announced that King Charles had begun the process of stripping Prince Andrew of his titles and honorary titles on the 30th of October. Andrew has also been formally asked to leave his Windsor estate. Andrew will move to a private estate in Sandringham, which King Charles is paying for from his own funds. The palace said in a statement that, although Andrew denies the allegations, such measures are considered necessary and expressed support for victims of all forms of abuse.
Andrew’s two adult daughters, Princess Eugenie and Beatrice, will retain their titles,
and Andrew still remains in line to the throne. Andrew’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, will also move out of the palace and will find her own place to live. She used the title Duchess of York until October, but after Andrew renounced his title of Duke, she returned to her daughter’s surname.
It is known that consultations have also taken place with the British government about the removal of the title, which supports the decision.
The removal of the title ends weeks of pressure felt by the Royal Family. Although Andrew’s connection with Epstein and possible sex crimes had already been discussed, public outrage erupted with renewed vigor after the publication of Giuffre’s memoirs. Andrew has always strongly denied any abuse against Giuffre, but this month emails written in 2011 were revealed, which show that Andrew contacted Epstein even after the two had supposedly broken up. It has also emerged that Andrew hosted Epstein at the royal estate in 2006 for his daughter Beatrice’s birthday party. At the time, an arrest warrant had been issued in the US for Epstein for sexual abuse of a minor two months earlier.
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