Questions have been raised over the new official title given this week to the royal previously known as ‘Prince Andrew’.
In a statement released by Buckingham Palace last night (30 Oct), it was revealed that King Charles III had made the decision to remove his 65-year-old brother’s princely title in light of startling new revelations about his alleged relationship with convicted paedophile, Jeffrey Epstein.
Attempting to shed further light on the father-of-two’s future, the latest statement reads: “His Majesty has today initiated a formal process to remove the Style, Titles and Honours of Prince Andrew.”
It was also revealed that the King had served his younger brother an eviction notice from the residence that Andrew and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, have lived in since 2004.
“His lease on Royal Lodge has, to date, provided him with legal protection to continue in residence,” the message continued. “Formal notice has now been served to surrender the lease, and he will move to alternative private accommodation.
“These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him.”
Unsurprisingly, the news has sparked concerns over what Andrew will now be known as when referred to in the public sphere.
Addressing these questions, the Palace confirmed that the former royal, who still sits eighth in line to the British throne, will now go by ‘Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’, using a surname created for the descendants of the late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip in 1960.
During its creation, Andrew’s mother declared: “My descendants other than descendants enjoying the style, title or attribute of Royal Highness and the titular dignity of Prince or Princess and female descendants who marry and their descendants shall bear the name of Mountbatten-Windsor.”
It was announced earlier this month that Andrew would be stripped of his ‘Duke of York’ title amid the release of a memoir written by Virginia Giuffre, who first claimed in 2019 that she’d had sex with the Prince on three separate occasions when she was just a minor, after being trafficked by Epstein.
The former royal has continuously denied the allegations made by Giuffre. In 2021, she would take Andrew to civil court, but an undisclosed out-of-court settlement was reached in 2022.
Following her initial claims, Andrew surrendered his use of ‘HRH’, as well as the titles ‘Earl of Inverness’ and ‘Baron Killyleagh’, and stepped down from his role as a working royal.
Despite Giuffre tragically taking her own life earlier this year, her harrowing memoir, Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice, was posthumously released last week.
In it, she describes a number of her alleged interactions with Andrew when she was just 17 years old, going into damning amounts of detail.
Despite the King’s latest decision, the Palace claims that the former Prince continues to deny Giuffre’s claims.
“These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him,” the latest statement explains.
“Their Majesties 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.”
