Prince Andrew Surrenders Title as Epstein Connection Faces Renewed Examination

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Prince Andrew has renounced his title of Duke of York and other honours after being increasingly embroiled in scandals around his ties to US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

In a statement on Friday, he said his decision came after discussions with his brother, King Charles III, and his own “immediate and wider family”.

“I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first,” he said.

He again denied all allegations, but said “we have concluded the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Family”.

Andrew, who stepped back from public life in 2019, will remain a prince, as he is the second son of the late Queen Elizabeth II.

He will no longer bear the Duke of York title, which was previously bestowed upon him.

His ex-wife Sarah Ferguson will also no longer use the title of Duchess of York, though his daughters Beatrice and Eugenie remain princesses.

The bombshell announcement came after new allegations emerged this week in the posthumous memoir of Virginia Giuffre, the woman at the centre of the Epstein scandal.

She wrote that Andrew had behaved as if having sex with her was his “birthright”.

In her memoir, “Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice,” Virginia Giuffre recounts having sexual encounters with Prince Andrew on three occasions, including when she was a minor.

Prince Andrew and Virginia Roberts, now Giuffre, aged 17 at Ghislaine Maxwell’s townhouse in London, 2001.

The infamous photograph of a 17-year-old Giuffre and Prince Andrew was taken in 2001 at Ghislaine Maxwell’s London townhouse. Source: Shutterstock / Rex

Giuffre gained widespread attention after accusing the fallen financier Jeffrey Epstein of using her as a sex slave and claiming that Prince Andrew was one of her assailants.

Giuffre and Andrew later went to the Tramp nightclub in London, where she said he was “sort of a bumbling dancer, and I remember he sweated profusely”.

Andrew was reportedly prompted to guess Giuffre’s age, and upon correctly identifying it, remarked, “My daughters are just a little younger than you.”

“He was friendly enough, but still entitled — as if he believed having sex with me was his birthright,” Giuffre wrote.

Giuffre, a US and Australian citizen, took her own life at her farm in Western Australia on 25 April.

Andrew’s association with Epstein has left his reputation in tatters and made him a source of embarrassment to the king.

In a devastating 2019 television interview, Andrew — once feted as a handsome war hero who served as a helicopter pilot in the Falklands War — denied ever meeting Giuffre and defended his friendship with Epstein.