Prince Andrew is no longer Duke of York. This was confirmed by Buckingham Palace in a statement issued this Friday afternoon. King Charles of England has forced his brother to renounce all his titles, to try to ensure that the continuous scandals he has been involved in do not further deteriorate the image of the Crown. Elizabeth II’s second son will remain a prince, because that is a birth title, but he will no longer carry out any public activity on behalf of the Windsors, will no longer be called His Royal Highness and will not participate in any of the family’s official celebrations, starting with the traditional Christmas gathering at the Sandringham residence.
“After discussing it with the King, and with my immediate and closest family, we have come to the conclusion that the continuous accusations against me represent a distraction for His Majesty and the Royal Family during their duties. I have decided, as I have always done, to put my duty to my family and to my country first. I reaffirm the decision I made five years ago to step away from my public duties,” says Andrés of England in the statement.
“In agreement with Your Majesty, we have both believed that I must go one step further. Therefore, I will no longer use my title or the honors that have been granted to me. As I have said previously, I deny all accusations made against me,” he concludes.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was the woman who suffered abuse from the millionaire pedophile, Jeffrey Epstein, and who was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew when she was only 17 years old. Giuffre, who committed suicide on April 25, 2025, described the then Duke of York in the book as someone “aware of his privilege” and who believed that “having sex with her was his birthright.”
Giuffe closed a multimillion-dollar extrajudicial agreement with Prince Andrew in February 2022, to settle the lawsuit he had filed for sexual abuse against the son of Elizabeth II. The figure provided by the prince, who never officially admitted his guilt, was never made public. The British press spoke of about 14 million euros. A large part of them came from the personal assets of the then queen of England.
in which Andrew of England tried unsuccessfully to explain his relationship with the pedophile American millionaire and his alleged sexual abuse of Virgina Giuffre when she was a minor, already led Buckingham Palace to remove the Duke of York from all official activities of the British royal house.
Although he stated then that he had cut all ties with Epstein after the publication of the photo of the two in Central Park, in New York, in December 2020, months later emails between the two emerged in which the duke assured: “Let’s keep in touch. We will play again soon.”
In the midst of the most intense political debate in recent months in the United Kingdom, with the case of the Chinese spies that the prosecution has let slip, no one overlooks the fact that Andrés also had shady relations with an alleged agent under the orders of Beijing.
Yang Tengbo, also known as Chris Yang and president for years of the Hampton Court mining company, had been living between London and Beijing for two decades. He was accused by a British court of acting as a spy and of using the Duke of York to access high levels of power.
Detained at an airport in 2021 while trying to re-enter the United Kingdom, they found substantial information on his mobile phone – texts and photographs – detailing his special relationship with Prince Andrew. Thanks to that contact he had been able to access events at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Saint James’s Palace, as well as the Duke of York’s 60th birthday celebration.
Both Prince Andrew and his wife have been trying for years to have their scandals forgiven in order to return to the public sphere, but above all to be able to preserve the rights, titles and privileges of their two daughters. Ferguson had even regained the blessing of the royal family, who invited her back to . The chronicles of British royalty say that King Charles III was very grateful to his former sister-in-law for the dissuasive work she had used to convince Andrew of England to remain discreet. However, the recent revelation of the, sent in 2011, despite the fact that he was already convicted of sexual crimes, once again sent her to social ostracism.
Charles III allows his nieces Beatrice and Eugenia, the daughters of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, to keep their titles as princesses. And the family will be able to continue living in the residence they have occupied for years in the complex surrounding Windsor Castle.
