The King has officially stripped his disgraced brother Andrew Mountbatten Windsor of both his HRH style and his prince title.
Charles formally made the changes, which were dramatically announced a week ago, by issuing a Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the Realm which was published in The Gazette, the UK’s official public record, by the Crown Office.
The entry, published on Wednesday, read: “THE KING has been pleased by Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the Realm dated 3 November 2025 to declare that Andrew Mountbatten Windsor shall no longer be entitled to hold and enjoy the style, title or attribute of ‘Royal Highness’ and the titular dignity of ‘Prince’.”
Another entry confirmed the removal of Andrew from the Roll of Peerage as the Duke of York, as previously announced.
It read: “THE KING has been pleased by Warrant under His Royal Sign Manual dated 30 October 2025 to direct His Secretary of State to cause the Duke of York to be removed from the Roll of the Peerage with immediate effect.”
Charles’s decision to banish Andrew from the monarchy and remove his birthright to be a prince, as well as his dukedom, followed growing controversy over his links to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew’s association with Epstein piled pressure on the royal family to act. After the Palace announced that Andrew would lose all his royal titles, it said he would leave his 30-room mansion in Windsor.
The decision came as emails from 2011 reemerged in October showing Andrew in contact with Epstein months after he claimed their friendship had ended.
Pressure has also followed from the posthumous memoir of Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre, who repeated allegations that, as a teenager, she was made to have sex with Andrew on three separate occasions. He has strenuously denied the allegations.
Unsealed court documents show that Andrew told Epstein it would be “good to catch up in person” months after the latter was released from prison for solicitation of prostitution and of solicitation of prostitution with a minor.
In an email dated 15 April, 2010, following a suggestion from Epstein that Andrew should meet American banker Jes Staley, Andrew said he would try to “drop by” New York later in the year.
The two were pictured together in New York in December 2010, in a meeting Andrew claimed in his 2019 Newsnight interview was to break off their friendship.
Andrew then wrote to Epstein after a photo of him with Virginia Giuffre was published in 2011 to say: “I’m just as concerned for you! Don’t worry about me! It would seem we are in this together and will have to rise above it. Otherwise keep in close touch and we’ll play some more soon!!!!”
During the 2019 interview he said he had “no recollection of ever meeting this lady, none whatsoever”. He “categorically” denied having sex with Virginia Giuffre between 2001, when she was 17, and 2002.
Andrew subsequently said he would be stepping back from public life, and in 2022 it was announced that Andrew would not use “His Royal Highness” in any official capacity. He paid a financial settlement to Ms Giuffre to end a civil court case, denying any wrongdoing.
Ms Giuffre died by suicide in April 2025. He posthumous memoir, published in October, detailed her experiences with Epstein and Maxwell. She also detailed alleged interactions with Andrew.
Discussion about this post