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The UK’s former Prince Andrew may have lost his title, his house and assets granted by the Crown along with his reputation after his connection with disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein came to light, but on Wednesday he gained something.
And that something was a hyphen to his new name.
The disgraced royal will from now be known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and not, as was previously announced, Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.
The change makes the name’s style conform to the double-barrelled surname adopted by his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, for her descendants 65 years ago.
It combines the royal family’s name, Windsor, chosen by King George V in 1917, with Mountbatten, the surname of the queen’s late husband and Andrew’s father, Prince Philip.
The queen had initially decided to use Windsor alone, leading her husband to complain that he was the only man in England not allowed to give his children his name.
Elizabeth relented and in an official declaration on 8 February 1960, just days before Andrew was born, said: “My descendants other than descendants enjoying the style title or attribute of Royal Highness and the titular dignity of Prince or Princess and female descendants who marry and their descendants shall bear the name of Mountbatten-Windsor.”
The hyphen has been added after palace officials studied the 1960 declaration.
King Charles announced on 30 October that he was removing his brother’s titles and evicting him from his royal residence near Windsor Castle over his relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Pressure had been growing on the palace to oust the 65-year-old prince from his Royal Lodge home over new revelations about his friendship with Epstein and renewed attention on sexual abuse allegations by one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre, whose posthumous memoir was published last month.
Mountbatten-Windsor was accused by Giuffre of sexual assault on the infamous Little Saint James island in the US Virgin Islands, which Epstein privately owned.
Giuffre, who died by suicide in April earlier this year, says she was forced by Epstein and his partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, to perform multiple sexual encounters with Andrew, against her will.
Mountbatten-Windsor was also personally named in new evidence made public late in September, where a flight log was recorded in one of the books Epstein and Maxwell kept, where he was scheduled to visit New York, Epstein and Maxwell’s city of residence, in May 2000.
On Thursday, he was also asked by lawmakers in the United States to appear before Congress to testify over his ties with Epstein.
At least 16 Democratic lawmakers signed a letter addressed to Mr Mountbatten-Windsor to participate in a “transcribed interview” with the House of Representatives oversight committee’s investigation into Epstein.
Additional sources • AP
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.euronews.com ’
