Britain’s Prince Andrew will stop using his Duke of York title after facing fresh questions over his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew, King Charles III’s younger brother, said in a statement issued via Buckingham Palace that he would “no longer use my title or the honours which have been conferred upon me.”
The decision was taken “in discussion with The King, and my immediate and wider family,” he said, after concluding that “the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Family.
“As I have said previously, I vigorously deny the accusations against me,” Andrew said.
His former wife, Sarah Ferguson, will no longer be known as the Duchess of York.
Andrew stepped back from public duties in 2019 and returned his military affiliations and later royal patronages in January 2022, after his lawyers failed to persuade a U.S. judge to dismiss a lawsuit accusing him of sexual abuse.
He later paid a substantial sum to Epstein abuse survivor Virginia Giuffre, who alleged that Andrew sexually abused her when she was 17. Andrew has repeatedly denied the allegation. Giuffre died by suicide in April at the age of 41.
Giuffre’s family on Friday called the decision a “vindication for our sister and survivors everywhere.”
“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,” Giuffre’s family said.
Friday’s decision comes after the Mail on Sunday and the Sun on Sunday newspapers published an email, not verified by NBC News, reported to have been sent by Andrew to Epstein in 2011, after a photograph was published showing Andrew with his arm around Giuffre.
“We are in this together,” the newspapers reported that the email read. “Play some more soon.”
The palace did not respond to an NBC News request for comment on the email.
Andrew has previously said that he broke off all contact with Epstein in 2010. In a disastrous interview on the BBC’s “Newsnight” program in November 2019, he said he had visited Epstein’s New York home that year with the purpose of ending their friendship.
Last month, a 2011 email surfaced from Ferguson to Epstein describing the disgraced financier as a “supreme friend,” just weeks after she had publicly distanced herself from him.
The duchess was “taken in” by Epstein’s lies, her spokesperson said. “As soon as she was aware of the extent of the allegations against him, she not only cut off contact but condemned him publicly, to the extent that he then threatened to sue her for defamation for associating him with pedophilia.”
The spokesperson said Ferguson stood by her public condemnation of Epstein. “This email was sent in the context of advice the Duchess was given to try to assuage Epstein and his threats,” the spokesperson added.
Epstein was found dead by suicide in 2019 while he was awaiting a trial on sex trafficking charges in New York.
The return of Epstein to the headlines in the United Kingdom comes just weeks after Britain’s ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, was fired over his own connections to Epstein. He denies any wrongdoing.
Giuffre’s family on Friday called for King Charles III to remove Andrew’s title as prince. King Charles would have to issue a Letters Patent to remove it, according to the press Association in the United Kingdom.
Removing Andrew’s dukedom would require an act of parliament.
“This moment serves as victory for Virginia, who consistently maintained, ‘He knows what happened, I know what happened, and there’s only one of us telling the truth, and I know that’s me,'” her family said. “This is not just a victory for her, but for every single survivor of the horrific crimes perpetrated by Epstein and his co-conspirators.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.nbcnews.com ’
