Prince Andrew is to be stripped of his royal titles and will move out of the Royal Lodge in Windsor, Buckingham Palace has announced. King Charles has initiated a formal process to remove the style, titles and honours of Prince Andrew, who will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.
The palace said the king had the support of the Prince of Wales in the decision, and that Andrew did not object. Formal notice has been given to surrender the lease on Royal Lodge, and he will move to alternative private accommodation on the Sandringham estate, privately funded by the king. His ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, will also leave Royal Lodge and make her own living arrangements.
The move follows anxiety within the royal household about the reputational risk to the monarchy from continued headlines concerning Andrew’s friendship with the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and allegations of sexual assault made by Virginia Giuffre. In her posthumous memoir, extracts of which were published this month, Giuffre claimed the prince “believed that having sex with me was his birthright”. She died by suicide in April, aged 41.
Andrew has always denied the claims and settled a civil case with Giuffre for a reported £12m without admitting liability. Her family said on Thursday that “today, she declares a victory” and that she had “brought down a British prince with her truth and extraordinary courage”.
The removal process applies to the titles of Prince, Duke of York, Earl of Inverness, Baron Killyleagh and the style His Royal Highness, as well as Andrew’s Order of the Garter and Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order. He had stopped using the HRH style in 2022 but it had not been formally removed. Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie retain their titles under King George V’s letters patent of 1917.
The government supports the decision, and the king is sending royal warrants to the lord chancellor to secure the removal of the dukedom from the peerage roll. The move follows calls from MPs for Andrew to be formally stripped, and a public accounts select committee inquiry into the peppercorn rent on his Royal Lodge residence.
