Prince Andrew says he's giving up the royal Duke of York title
Saturday, 18 October 2025
Prince Andrew has agreed to relinquish his Duke of York title, a stunning development following fresh revelations tied to Jeffrey Epstein and alleged Chinese espionage.
“In discussion with The King, and my immediate and wider family, we have concluded the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the royal family,” Prince Andrew said in a statement released on Friday night (Saturday NZT) by Buckingham Palace.
“I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first. I stand by my decision five years ago to stand back from public life,” he said.
“With His Majesty’s agreement, we feel I must now go a step further. I will therefore no longer use my title or the honours which have been conferred upon me. As I have said previously, I vigorously deny the accusations against me.”
The decisions comes after excerpts from a forthcoming memoir by Virginia Giuffre – the American woman who says she was forced to have sexual encounters with Andrew as a teenager after being trafficked by US financier Jeffrey Epstein – were made public.
Prince Andrew told Giuffre that his daughters were “just a little younger than you” on the evening of their first alleged sexual encounter, according to excerpts from the book that were published by the Guardian. She was 17 at the time.
“He was friendly enough,” Giuffre writes, “but still entitled – as if he believed having sex with me was his birthright.”
In her memoir, Giuffre detailed meeting Andrew for the first time in Ghislaine Maxwell’s London home and asking for a photo with him, which she said was taken by Epstein with her Kodak FunSaver. Later that night, she wrote, after they went dancing at a London nightclub called Tramp, Maxwell allegedly told her: “When we get home, you are to do for him what you do for Jeffrey.”
Andrew settled a civil lawsuit with Giuffre in 2022 but has always denied any wrongdoing. Giuffre died by suicide earlier this year.
Many of the harrowing claims in Giuffre’s memoir, according to the published excerpts, had already been made by her in depositions and documentaries. But they nonetheless land with force when read together – a stark reminder of Andrew’s enduring entanglement with a sex-trafficking scandal.
Writing in the Guardian, columnist Simon Jenkins observed: “King Charles now has a decision to make as to how far he can allow his brother’s past behaviour to tarnish the family’s image.”
As monarch, Charles does not have the power to strip his brother of his title. That would have required an act of Parliament. The last time Parliament stripped peerages was in 1917, under the Titles Deprivation Act, when British nobles with German ties lost their titles during World War I.
Andrew has lived in royal exile since his car crash 2019 interview with Newsnight, but until now, he has kept his Duke of York title. His mother, Queen Elizabeth II, conferred it upon him at the time of his marriage to Sarah Ferguson in 1986. The title is one that is usually bestowed upon the second son of the British monarch. Before Andrew, Elizabeth’s father, Albert (later King George VI), held the title. He was also a second son of a monarch.
Public pressure for Andrew to relinquish the title has been mounting for years. Businesses throughout England – including pubs and theatres called Duke of York -– urged him to give it up, while residents in the historic city of York unanimously stripped him of a minor title, “Honorary Freedom of York.”
Queen Elizabeth II removed Andrew’s military titles and dozens of royal patronages in 2022. Though largely absent from royal duties since, Andrew has appeared at family events, though he remains a controversial presence. A recent video clip of him trying to talk to his nephew Prince William, who stared straight ahead, quickly went viral.
According to British media reports, the king has been pressing for Andrew to move out of Royal Lodge - a 30-bedroom mansion he shares with Ferguson - and to relocate to Frogmore Cottage, a smaller home where Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, once lived.
Prince Andrew's full statement
“In discussion with The King, and my immediate and wider family, we have concluded the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Family. I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first. I stand by my decision five years ago to stand back from public life.
“With His Majesty's agreement, we feel I must now go a step further. I will therefore no longer use my title or the honours which have been conferred upon me. As I have said previously, I vigorously deny the accusations against me.'