Perhaps the question is not why now, but why didn’t it happen sooner?
In a move that will ensure his expulsion from royal life, Prince Andrew has announced that he will renounce the use of royal titles and honors and will no longer be known as the Duke of York.
The decision, announced on Friday, was made in close consultation with Britain’s King Charles III, who is believed to be satisfied with the outcome, and CNN understands that Prince William and other members of the royal family were also consulted about the discussions.
In addition to his own statement, Andrew continued to once again “strongly deny the accusations against me.”
The Dukedom is the highest rank in the British nobility, and the title was bestowed on him by Andrew’s mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, on the morning of his wedding to ex-wife Sarah Ferguson. Friday night’s announcement was a clear cut, without going through the messy maneuvering of parliamentary intervention that would have required him to be stripped of his title.
It is incredibly rare for such a title to be given up in the British royal family.
The final example is understood to have occurred more than 100 years ago when Prince Charles Edward, one of Queen Victoria’s grandsons, was stripped of his title Duke of Albany by the British Parliament under the Deprivation of Dukedoms Act 1917 for fighting for Germany during World War I. At the time, he was Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
Andrew still holds the title of “prince” given to him at birth as the son of the reigning monarch at the time. However, he will renounce all other titles conferred upon him by the royal family. This is no small loss for a man who clearly enjoys his position.
Andrew withdrew from public life in 2019 following a disastrous interview with the BBC in which he was asked about his friendship with disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Three years later, in 2022, he stopped using the style HRH and was stripped of his military title and charitable patronage.
But the fallout from his association with Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial in the United States on federal charges of sexually abusing underage girls, continues to haunt him.
Friday’s decision is believed to be Andrew’s own and was made in recognition of the fact that his personal issues continue to distract from the wider work of the royal family, the statement said.
It appears that was his choice, but he and the rest of the Windsor family faced increasing pressure to resolve the situation. CNN historian and royal expert Kate Williams said Andrew had become “toxic to the royal brand.”
“This is a signal… that we won’t be seeing him at family functions and that we won’t be seeing him in a few years when there’s a big celebration for King Charles’ 80th birthday. Andrew will be out of the picture,” she said.
“The question is: Will this be enough to stop a general backlash that tarnishes the royal family?”
Mr Williams believed there was a question mark over Mr Andrew’s continued residence at Royal Lodge, his 30-room Windsor home, but royal sources said Mr Andrew had a private lease agreement with the Crown Estate for the property, which was not affected by the change in the use of the title or honour.
The thorny question of what to do with Andrew has loomed over the monarch since he ascended the throne in 2022.
Charles’s dilemma was perhaps unique to the royal family. Andrew is his brother and also a senior member of the ancient organization.
Andrew has largely stayed away from the public eye since 2019, generally attending only private family events. One of the most recent events was the funeral of the Duchess of Kent, which was attended by Sarah Ferguson.
At the same time, this withdrawal from public life has done little to stop the headlines.
His relationship with Mr. Epstein remains in the spotlight, with the prince facing fresh backlash after one of her accusers named Andrew as a passenger on Mr. Epstein’s private jet in the 2021 sex trafficking trial of disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.
In recent weeks, multiple British news outlets have reported on emails that appeared to cast doubt on Andrew’s stated timeline for when he stopped communicating with Epstein. Similarly, ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, who will no longer use the title Duchess of York, has faced backlash in recent weeks.
Files from Epstein’s estate continue to be released by the US House Oversight Committee, leading to media speculation about whether Andrew’s name will appear in them.
Meanwhile, a posthumous memoir by Virginia Giuffre, who previously claimed she was forced to have sex with the prince after being trafficked by Epstein, is expected to be published soon.
Andrew has repeatedly denied Giuffre’s claims. Andrew reached an out-of-court settlement in 2022 after Giuffre accused him of sexual assault. She died in April at the age of 41 by suicide.
The book’s release comes the same week as King Charles and Queen Camilla head to the Vatican for a historic state visit.
Apart from Mr. Epstein, Mr. Andrew also faces questions about his ties to a suspected Chinese spy named Yang Tembo by a British court in December. Yang allegedly worked for the China United Front Work Department (UFWD), a branch of the ruling Communist Party tasked with increasing its influence at home and abroad. The court hearing said Mr Yang had an “unusual relationship of trust” with King Charles’ younger brother.
In April this year, a 10-page document about Mr Andrew’s relationship with Mr Yang was released by a British court.
The royal family appears to have recognized that the institution’s reputation continues to be affected by the disgraced prince, despite previous moves to remove him from the working royal family, which may have led to further internal discussions and Friday’s announcement.
Some will say the palace should have acted sooner, including the abolitionist group Republic, which described the move as “too little, too late”.
“This is what my sister has been fighting for for years,” Giuffre’s brother Skye Roberts told CNN following the news that Andrew had given up on using the remaining titles.
“Today was a day when I shed a lot of happy and sad tears. I’m happy because I got off to a good start,” he said. “Her children get to know their mother as someone who really did something in this world, someone who actually spread a lot of good and was able to hold people accountable.”
