Prince Andrew Voluntarily Steps Back from Title Amid Renewed Scrutiny Over Epstein Connections

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Prince Andrew has renounced his title of Duke of York and other honours after being increasingly embroiled in scandals around his ties to US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

In a statement on Friday, he said his decision came after discussions with his brother, King Charles III, and his own “immediate and wider family”.

“I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first,” he said.

He again denied all allegations, 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, will remain a prince, as he is the second son of the late Queen Elizabeth II.

The title of Duke of York, once bestowed upon him, has been stripped away, marking a significant change in his status.

His ex-wife Sarah Ferguson will also no longer use the title of Duchess of York, though his daughters Beatrice and Eugenie remain princesses.

The bombshell announcement came after new allegations emerged this week in the posthumous memoir of Virginia Giuffre, the woman at the centre of the Epstein scandal.

She wrote that Andrew had behaved as if having sex with her was his “birthright”.

Virginia Giuffre, formerly Virginia Roberts, made headlines with her memoir, “Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice.” In it, she claims she had sexual encounters with Prince Andrew on three different occasions, including a time when she was under the legal age of 18.

Prince Andrew and Virginia Roberts, now Giuffre, aged 17 at Ghislaine Maxwell’s townhouse in London, 2001.

A widely circulated photograph captured Prince Andrew and a then-17-year-old Giuffre at Ghislaine Maxwell’s London townhouse in 2001. This image has become emblematic of the allegations against him. Source: Shutterstock / Rex

Giuffre gained public attention after accusing the infamous U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein of exploiting her as a sex slave, and further alleging that Prince Andrew was involved in sexually assaulting her.

In a particularly unsettling anecdote, Andrew reportedly was asked to guess her age, which he did accurately, explaining it by noting, “My daughters are just a little younger than you.”

Giuffre and Andrew later went to the Tramp nightclub in London, where she said he was “sort of a bumbling dancer, and I remember he sweated profusely”.

They later returned to the London house of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s associate and former girlfriend, where they had sex, she alleged.

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

Giuffre, a US and Australian citizen, took her own life at her farm in Western Australia on 25 April.

Andrew’s association with Epstein has left his reputation in tatters and made him a source of embarrassment to the king.

In a devastating 2019 television interview, Andrew — once feted as a handsome war hero who served as a helicopter pilot in the Falklands War — denied ever meeting Giuffre and defended his friendship with Epstein.