LONDON (AP) — British politicians, the public and the family of Virginia Roberts Giuffre praised King Charles III’s decision to strip his brother Andrew of his princely title and spacious home, a banishment that has left the disgraced royal increasingly exposed to political and legal scrutiny over his finances and his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
The king acted to stem mounting public disapproval as damning new details emerged about Andrew’s relationship with the convicted sex offender. Charles moved to preserve the monarchy from the fallout by forcibly removing a British prince’s title for the first time in a century.
Julian Payne, a former communications secretary to the king and queen, said that, as the scandal around 65-year-old Andrew grew and grew, the royal family had decided that “a tipping point had been reached.”
The former Prince Andrew is now known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. As of Friday, he was no longer listed on the roll of the peerage, where he had previously appeared as Duke of York, another of his titles.
He also will move out of Royal Lodge, the 30-room mansion near Windsor Castle where he has lived for more than 20 years, and into a more remote home funded by his brother on the king’s 20,000-acre (8,100 hectare) Sandringham Estate in eastern England.
Locals were not overjoyed about their soon-to-be neighor.
“Well, he’s got to go somewhere. It is what it is, isn’t it?” said Vanessa Beech. She said the king had “most certainly” made the right decision about Andrew.
Politicians welcome move
The British government, which was consulted but not directly involved, welcomed the king’s decision.
“We warmly, I warmly support what the king is doing today,” trade minister Chris Bryant told the BBC. “I think the vast majority of people in this country will think that it’s the right thing to do.”
Andrew surrendered his use of the title Duke of York earlier this month over new revelations about his friendship with Epstein and renewed sexual abuse allegations in Giuffre’s posthumous memoir. Andrew denies all her claims.
But the king went even further to punish him for serious lapses of judgment by removing the title of prince that he has held since birth as a child of a monarch, the late Queen Elizabeth II. Andrew also lost the designation “his royal highness,” making the former prince effectively a commoner now.
“These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him,” the palace said. “Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.”
It is almost unprecedented for a British prince or princess to be stripped of that title. It last happened in 1919, when Prince Ernest Augustus, who was a U.K. royal and also a prince of Hanover, had his British title removed for siding with Germany during World War I.
Calls for further investigation
Giuffre’s family declared victory on behalf of Andrew’s accuser, who died by suicide in April at the age of 41. She said that in the early 2000s, when she was a teenager, she was caught up in Epstein’s sex trafficking ring and exploited by Andrew and other influential men. Epstein was found dead in a New York City jail cell in 2019 in what investigators called a suicide.
“Today, an ordinary American girl from an ordinary American family, brought down a British prince with her truth and extraordinary courage,” Giuffre’s family said in a statement.
Her brother Sky Roberts said Andrew should face further investigation.
“We need to take it one more step further: he needs to be behind bars, period,” Roberts told the BBC.
Bryant, the government minister, said that Andrew was now an “ordinary member of the public,” and should agree to answer questions about Epstein in the U.S.
“If Andrew is asked to do something by a Senate committee, then I would have thought that he would want to comply,” Bryant said.
Andrew could face legal trouble in Britain, where police are investigating a claim that he asked one of this police bodyguards to dig up dirt on Giuffre.
A committee of U.K. lawmakers is also looking into how Andrew paid for Royal Lodge, which he leased for a nominal annual fee — known as a “ peppercorn rent.”
Andrew’s is the most dramatic royal exit since 1936, when King Edward VIII abdicated the throne so he could marry twice-divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson. The couple were given the titles Duke and Duchess of Windsor and lived the rest of their lives in exile.
Prince Harry, despite renouncing his royal role, feuding with his family and moving to California, remains a prince and the Duke of Sussex.
Andrew faced a new round of public outrage after emails emerged earlier this month showing he had remained in contact with Epstein longer than he previously admitted.
Then came publication of “Nobody’s Girl,” by Giuffre, who alleged she had sex with Andrew three times, the first when she was 17. She said he acted as if he believed “having sex with me was his birthright.”
Andrew has long denied Giuffre’s claims, but stepped down from royal duties after a disastrous November 2019 BBC interview in which he attempted to rebut her allegations.
In 2022, Andrew paid millions to settle a civil suit filed by Giuffre in New York.
Peter Hunt, a former BBC royal correspondent, said the king and senior royals were “fearful of remaining out of step with public opinion” as they “attempt to restore credibility and trust in an ancient institution.”
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