Perhaps the question is not why now, but why it hadn’t happened sooner.
In a move that cements his banishment from royal life, Prince Andrew announced he was relinquishing the use of his royal titles and honors, and would no longer be known as the Duke of York.
The decision, announced Friday, was made in close consultation with Britain’s King Charles III, who is believed to be glad at the outcome, while Prince William and other members of the royal family were also consulted on the discussions, CNN understands.
Along with his statement, Andrew also continued to once again “vigorously deny the accusations against me.”
Dukedom is the highest rank in the British peerage, and the title was given to Andrew on the morning of his wedding to ex-wife Sarah Ferguson by his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II. The announcement on Friday evening draws a line once and for all, without having to go through the messy machinations of a parliamentary intervention, which would have been required to remove the dukedom.
The relinquishment of such a title within the British royal family is incredibly rare.
The last instance is understood to be over 100 years ago, when Prince Charles Edward, who was one of Queen Victoria’s grandsons, had the title of Duke of Albany stripped from him by the British parliament under the Titles Deprivation Act 1917 for fighting for Germany, where he was Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, during World War I.
Andrew still retains the title “prince,” bestowed on him at birth as the son of the then reigning monarch. But he is giving up all other titles conferred on him in honor by the royal family. For a man who clearly relishes his status, this is no small loss.
Andrew stepped down from public life in 2019 following a disastrous BBC interview in which he was questioned about his friendship with disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Three years later, in 2022, he stopped using the style His Royal Highness, or HRH, and was stripped of his military titles and charity patronages.
Andrew, pictured alongside King Charles at the Duchess of Kent’s funeral, stepped down from public life in 2019. – Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images
Yet the fallout from his association with Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial in the United States on federal charges of sexually abusing underage girls, has continued to plague him.
Friday’s decision is thought to be Andrew’s own, and was made in recognition of the fact that his personal issues continue to be a distraction from the wider work of the royal family, his statement Friday said.
While it appears to have been his choice, he – and the rest of the Windsor clan – were facing mounting pressure to resolve the situation. CNN historian and royal expert Kate Williams said Andrew had become “toxic to the royal brand.”
“This is a signal that… we will not see him in family events, we are not going to see him when there’s a big celebration for King Charles’s 80th birthday in a couple of years; Andrew is out of the fold,” she said.
“The question is, is this enough to stop the backlash overall tainting the royal family?”
Williams believes a question mark now hangs over Andrew’s continued residence in the Royal Lodge, a 30-room mansion in Windsor, although he has a private tenancy agreement for the property with the Crown Estate which has not been affected by the change in use of titles and honors, according to a royal source.
The thorny issue of what do with Andrew has loomed over the King since he ascended to the throne in 2022.
Charles’ dilemma was one perhaps unique to royals. Andrew is both his brother and a senior member of an ancient institution.
Andrew has largely stayed out of the limelight since 2019 and has only generally attended private family events – one of the most recent being the Duchess of Kent’s funeral service, at which he was accompanied by Sarah Ferguson.
At the same time, this step-back from public life has done little to stop the headlines.
His links to Epstein have remained in the spotlight, with the prince facing fresh backlash during the 2021 sex trafficking trial of disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, when one of her accusers named Andrew as a passenger on Epstein’s private jet.
In recent weeks, multiple British news outlets reported on an email which appeared to raise questions over Andrew’s stated timeline regarding when he cut off contact with Epstein. Similarly, his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, who will now no longer use the title Duchess of York, has faced backlash in recent weeks.
Files from Epstein’s estate continue to be released by the US House Oversight Committee and there has been media speculation as to whether Andrew’s name will feature in those.
Meanwhile, a posthumous memoir by Virginia Giuffre, who had previously alleged that she had been forced to have sex with the prince after being trafficked by Epstein, is due to be published in the coming days.
Andrew had repeatedly denied Giuffre’s allegations. In 2022, Giuffre and Andrew reached an out-of-court settlement after she sued him for sexual assault. She died by suicide in April at age 41.
A photograph appearing to show Prince Andrew with Epstein’s accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell. – Southern District of New York
The book’s release comes in the same week that King Charles and Queen Camilla are headed to the Vatican for a historic state visit.
Epstein aside, Andrew has also faced questions over his relationship with an alleged Chinese spy, named by a British court in December as Yang Tengbo. Yang is alleged to have worked for China’s United Front Work Department (UFWD), a branch of the ruling Communist Party tasked with gaining influence both at home and overseas. A court hearing described Yang as having developed an “unusual degree of trust” with the younger brother of King Charles.
In April this year, a 10-page document on Andrew’s relations with Yang was released by British courts.
It seems the palace realized that the institution’s reputation was continuing to be impacted by the disgraced prince despite the previous moves to remove him as a working royal, which may be why further internal discussions took place, leading to Friday’s announcement.
There will be those – including monarchy-abolishment campaign group Republic who described the move as “too little, too late” – who say palace should have acted sooner.
Giuffre’s brother Sky Roberts told CNN that “this is what my sister was fighting for for so many years,” following the news that Andrew had given up using his remaining titles.
“Today is a day where we’ve shed a lot of happy and sad tears. Happy because it’s a good start,” he said. “Her kids get to know their mom as somebody that really did something in this world, that she actually spread a lot of good and was able to hold people to account.”
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