Prince Andrew was forced to give up his royal title as Duke of York Friday in a humiliating fall from grace that ended a years-long saga over his friendship with late convicted millionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The scandal-scarred duke, 65, said he chose to relinquish his titles to avoid being a distraction — as new revelations about his alleged sex abuse of a minor emerged this week.
“In discussion with The King, and my immediate and wider family, we have concluded the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the royal family,” Prince Andrew said in a statement released Friday by Buckingham Palace.
“I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first. I stand by my decision five years ago to stand back from public life,” he added.
The disgraced duke surrendered his titles as new excerpts from a posthumous memoir by Virginia Roberts Giuffre — who alleged she was trafficked by Epstein to have sex with Andrew when she was 17— were published this week.
Prince Andrew, however, said he stands by his assertion that he did not sexually abuse Giuffre.
“As I have said previously, I vigorously deny the accusations against me,” he added in the statement.
In excerpts of Giuffre’s memoir published by The Guardian Wednesday, she wrote that she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew at the home of Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.
He acted, “entitled, as if he believed having sex with me was his birthright,” she wrote.
The book, “Nobody’s Girl,” details three times in which Giuffre alleges Prince Andrew had sex with her, including at Maxwell’s London home when she was 17 in 2001.
She writes that she drew the royal a bath and that he “licked” her feet and “seemed in a rush to have intercourse” — before saying “thank you in his clipped British accent.”
The explicit account adds to the royal family’s embarrassment as headlines over the scandal put the monarchy’s reputation at risk.
Despite handing over his titles, Prince Andrew will still be allowed to live at his sprawling, 31-bedroom Royal Lodge near Windsor Castle because he has a tenancy agreement through 2078.
He will also still remain eighth in line to the throne and keep his title as Prince Andrew because he’s the son of the late Queen Elizabeth II.
But he will also no longer use “His Royal Highness” as an honorific and must surrender all of his royal patronages — meaning he can’t use his name to support a charity or organization — along with official duties.
Giuffre’s family cheered the move as “vindication” for their late loved one.
“We, the family of Virginia Roberts Giuffre, believe that Prince Andrew’s decision to give up his titles is vindication for our sister and survivors everywhere,” they wrote in a statement Friday.
“This decisive action is a powerful step forward in our fight to bring Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s child sex-trafficking network to justice,” they wrote — adding that the king should take it one step further.
“Further, we believe it is appropriate for King Charles to remove the title of Prince.”
The Queen’s former favorite son had already stepped back from public duties in 2019 after a disastrous BBC interview about his friendship with Epstein, as sex abuse allegations swirled.
He was then stripped of his military titles in January 2022 while defending a civil sex case against Giuffre, who died by suicide in April at age 41, after settling the multi-million-dollar case.
Epstein, meanwhile, hung himself in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan in August 2019.
He was 66.
Epstein’s New York arrest on federal sex trafficking charges came after a botched Palm Beach, Florida, case — in which the well-connected financier walked with a slap-on-the wrist plea deal in 2008 for soliciting a minor for prostitution.
Maxwell, 66, meanwhile, is behind bars in Texas, serving a 20-year sentence for her 2021 conviction on charges including child sex trafficking for Epstein.
Prince Andrew’s bombshell title stripping marks the first time a dukedom was taken away from a senior royal in more than a century, according to the BBC.
The former duke will also be barred from attending Royal Family Christmas celebrations and will lose the privileges being the Earl of Inverness and the Barony Killyleagh.
He has agreed not to use the honors given to him as a Royal Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter.
Andrew’s ex-wife, Sarah, Duchess of York, will be known as “Sarah Ferguson” and the titles of their daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, will remain the same.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source celebrity.land ’
