Prince Andrew Gives Up Royal Title as Duke of York Over Epstein Ties

Prince Andrew will give up his royal title due to the continued scrutiny over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein and the sexual assault allegations leveled against him by the late Virginia Giuffre.

The now-former Duke of York — younger brother of King Charles II — issued a statement Friday, Oct. 17, just days before the posthumous publication of Giuffre’s memoir on Oct. 21. Giuffre was one of Epstein’s most prominent accusers and also filed a high-profile sexual assault lawsuit against Andrew, which was finally settled in 2022. Andrew has long denied Gifufre’s allegations, and he did so again in his statement renouncing his title. 

“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,” Andrew said. “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 continued: “With His Majesty’s agreement, we feel I must now go a step further. I will therefore no longer use my title or the honours which have been conferred upon me. As I have said previously, I vigorously deny the accusations against me.”

Andrew’s ties to Epstein have dogged him for more than a decade, going all the way back at least to Epstein’s 2008 guilty plea on soliciting prostitution from someone under the age of 18. Giuffre’s allegations against Andrew emerged not long after in 2014. But it arguably wasn’t until Andrew’s disastrous 2019 interview on BBC’s Newsnight about Epstein and Giuffre’s allegation that he was forced to start distancing himself from the Royal Family.

Just a few days after the interview aired, Queen Elizabeth gave Andrew permission to “step back from public duties for the foreseeable future.” In early 2022, not long before the suit with Giuffre was settled, his social media accounts were deleted, and on his page on the royal family’s website, his duties were changed to be listed in the past tense. He would also reportedly go on to lose his government funding, police protection, and a suite of rooms at Buckingham Palace. 

As for Giuffre, she died by suicide this past April, but spent the last few years of her life working on a memoir, reportedly completing the manuscript last fall. A recent excerpt from the book, published in The Guardian, found her detailing her first meeting with Andrew, as well as several of their alleged sexual encounters. She described him as “friendly enough, but still entitled — as if he believed having sex with me was his birthright.”