After discussions with King Charles, Prince Andrew has relinquished his royal titles including the Duke of York. It comes ahead of a memoir due to be published posthumously this week by Virginia Giuffre.
The book sets out how Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell took advantage of their position of power to manipulate and groom Giuffre, and includes the allegation that Prince Andrew thought having sex with her when she was a teenager was “his birthright”.
In a statement Andrew said he “vigorously denied” the allegations. But questions still remain about his contact with Epstein, a settlement he made to Giuffre, and whether giving up his titles will be enough.
How has Andrew responded to claims made by Giuffre?
Andrew has consistently denied all of the allegations made against him by Giuffre.
In a statement, he said that after discussions with the king he had decided to give up his royal titles “to put my duty to my family and country first”.
“I will therefore no longer use my title or the honours which have been conferred upon me,” he said. “As I have said previously, I vigorously deny the accusations against me.”
Andrew emailed Epstein on 28 February 2011, the day after a well-known photograph of the prince with Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell was made public, saying: “We are in this together.”
In his now infamous November 2019 interview with Newsnight, Andrew told the journalist Emily Maitlis he had ceased contact with Epstein “after I was aware that he was under investigation and that was later in 2006 and I wasn’t in touch with him again until 2010”.
He later said that in December 2010 “I had to show leadership and I had to go and see him and I had to tell him ‘that’s it’”. Andrew has not explained why the correspondence between him and Epstein, published recently in the Mail on Sunday and the Sun on Sunday, appears to show that was not the case.
How did Andrew get hold of Giuffre’s personal details?
According to reports in the Mail on Sunday, Andrew asked police to “dig up dirt” on Giuffre, writing in an email: “it would also seem she has a criminal record in the [United] States. I have given her DoB [date of birth] and social security number for investigation with [ … ] the on duty ppo [personal protection officer].”
“We are aware of media reporting and are actively looking into the claims made,” the Metropolitan police said. Giuffre’s family has denied that she had a criminal record.
Andrew has refused to explain how he obtained her US social security number. The nine-digit number is used for everything from opening a bank account to applying for a passport, and has been described as “the key to someone’s life”.
How did Andrew fund the payment he made to Giuffre?
The York Central MP, Rachael Maskell, said “a lot of clarity” was needed regarding the reported £12m payment that was made to Giuffre in 2022.
The money was paid to Giuffre after she brought a civil case against Andrew in New York, alleging he sexually assaulted her on three occasions when she was 17. Andrew, who has always denied Giuffre’s claims, accepted no liability, but agreed to settle out of court.
It was never made clear where the money came from or exactly how much cash was involved, but there have long been rumours the late queen partly funded the settlement with private income from the Duchy of Lancaster royal property portfolio.
Did he meet other trafficked women through Epstein?
In allegations made in US court documents, Giuffre claims that Andrew took part in an orgy with girls who were young and did not speak English well.
“The third time I had sex with Andy was in an orgy on Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands,” she said in evidence to a Florida court in 2015. “I was around 18 at the time. Epstein, Andy, approximately eight other young girls, and I had sex together. The other girls all seemed and appeared to be under the age of 18 and didn’t really speak English.”
Andrew has repeatedly denied the claims.
Will giving up his titles be enough?
Giuffre’s brother, Sky Roberts, has suggested that Andrew, who remains eighth in line to the throne, should no longer be a prince.
“I want to commend the king and I want to commend the UK for taking some action,” Roberts told ITV News. “While it may not be enough, in a lot of ways that the survivors view it, it’s still a lot more than what we’ve been given from our own government here, even though we possess the Epstein files.”
He added: “Now, for the king, I think there’s more that he could do. He does have the ability to strip him even further of the prince title, which we would call upon.”
The campaign group Republic has called for an inquiry into the royal and a criminal investigation. More than a thousand supporters of the group have written letters to MPs over the weekend urging a “full-blown parliamentary or independent inquiry into the royal Epstein scandal”.
In July the FBI formally ended its investigation into Andrew’s links to Epstein.
Pressure is also building within parliament, with some members pushing for greater powers to hold royals accountable.
The Labour peer George Foulkes has written to the Lords and Commons clerks asking them to review the rule barring peers and MPs from asking questions about the royals, while Maskell has said she is planning to write to government ministers urging them to change the law so that Andrew can be stripped of his prince title.
Are there likely to be more revelations?
It seems likely. The Giuffre book is out on Tuesday, and Andrew’s biographer told the Sunday Telegraph: “This is just the tip of the iceberg … I think the palace is worried about new allegations that will emerge Stateside, they know there is more damaging stuff to come.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.theguardian.com ’
