Good news: The next season of The Crown will be a real humdinger. In a moment that marks a clear shift for the British royal family, Prince Andrew has announced he will no longer be using his royal titles and honours following discussions with his elder brother, King Charles III.
Though [do we now call him Andy?] stepped back from public royal duties in 2019, the decision signals a deeper severing of ties. In his statement that was definitely written by him and not something that Charles III told him to do, Andrew said he wished to relinquish the use of his titles and honours. By the way, he also said he had nothing to do with the allegations around being closely linked to sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.
“With His Majesty’s approval,” he wrote, “we believe it is time to take one further step. Therefore, I will not use the titles and honours bestowed upon me. However, I continue to strongly deny the allegations against me.”
Curiously, Andrew will in fact remain a prince and is still listed in the line of succession, though the palace has made it clear that his future royal role is effectively zero. It would take an act of parliament for Andy to have his dukedom removed, so he is allowed to keep that, but he will no longer actively use it.
The timing is everything with this announcement. The decision has been made public amid persistent scrutiny over his past associations with Epstein and just ahead of a high-profile Vatican visit by the King.
On top of that, reports have surfaced connecting him to an alleged Chinese spy, and this week The Guardian published shocking excerpts from the late Virginia Giuffre’s memoir.
She claimed that the prince sexually abused or raped her on three separate occasions when she was 17, with Andrew “[believing] that having sex with me was his birthright”. The book also makes the claim that Andrew made Giuffre sign a gag order so that he would not embarrass Elizabeth II during her Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
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