Britain’s Prince Andrew will have his royal titles formally removed and will move out of his home in Windsor, Buckingham Palace said Thursday, as the royal faces growing pressure over his ties to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Buckingham Palace said in a statement that King Charles had “initiated a formal process to remove the Style, Titles and Honours” of his younger brother.
“Prince Andrew will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor,” the palace said, an escalation from measures announced two weeks ago, when it said that Andrew would stop using some of his titles, including the Duke of York.
The palace said that the “censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him,” adding: “Their Majesties [King Charles and Queen Camilla] wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.”
The palace also said that a formal notice had been served for Andrew to leave his home at the Royal Lodge, close to Windsor Castle.
It comes after revelations that Andrew was paying a rent of “one peppercorn (if demanded) per annum” on the 30-room mansion owned by the Crown Estate, despite having stepped back from public duties six years ago. The arrangement was revealed in a Freedom of Information Act request by The Times newspaper last week.
The palace said: “His lease on Royal Lodge has, to date, provided him with legal protection to continue in residence. Formal notice has now been served to surrender the lease and he will move to alternative private accommodation.”
Andrew will move to a property on the royal family’s private Sandringham estate, and his daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, will retain their titles, according to the palace.
The Royal Lodge was the home of Elizabeth, King George VI’s consort and the mother of Queen Elizabeth II, from 1952 until she died in 2002.
Legal documents published by The Times, not verified by NBC News, indicated that Andrew paid 1 million pounds for the lease when he moved into the property in 2004, also paying 7.5 million pounds for refurbishment works. The palace and Andrew did not previously comment on the reports.
In a statement two weeks ago announcing he would give up his Duke of York title, Andrew cited “the continued accusations about me” that “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.
The storm has only intensified since, with the publication of late Epstein survivor Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s posthumous memoir, detailing allegations against Andrew, last Monday.
Giuffre, who died by suicide in April, wrote that she had sex with the prince on three occasions, including an “orgy” involving “eight other young girls” who “appeared to be under the age of 18 and didn’t really speak English.”
Andrew reached a legal settlement with Giuffre for an undisclosed amount in February 2022 after she filed a civil case against him in a New York court accusing him of sexually assaulting her when she was 17 years old. He has repeatedly denied having met her and previously denied that a photograph of the two of them is real.
“Today, an ordinary American girl from an ordinary American family, brought down a British prince with her truth and extraordinary courage,” Giuffre’s family said in a statement Thursday after the statement from Buckingham Palace was released. “Virginia Roberts Giuffre, our sister, a child when she was sexually assaulted by Andrew, never stopped fighting for accountability for what had happened to her and to countless other survivors like her. Today, she declares victory.”
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