Prince Andrew has renounced his title of Duke of York amid further revelations about his ties to U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“I will… no longer use my title or the honours which have been conferred upon me,” the prince, 65, said in a bombshell announcement.
He said his decision came after discussions with King Charles III.
“I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first,” Prince Andrew said in a statement issued by Buckingham Palace.
He denied all allegations of wrongdoing, but added, “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 amid the Epstein scandal, will remain a prince, as he is the child of a monarch, the late Queen Elizabeth II.
But he will no longer use the title of Duke of York that she had conferred on him.
He will also give up membership of the Order of the Garter, the most senior order of chivalry in the British honours system, which dates to 1348.
Prince Andrew’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, will also no longer use the title of Duchess of York, though his daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, remain princesses.
Prince Andrew has become a source of deep embarrassment for his brother, King Charles, following a disastrous 2019 television interview in which he defended his friendship with Epstein.
Epstein died, apparently by suicide, in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of trafficking underage girls for sex.
