Prince
Andrew to be stripped of titles and forced to leave Windsor home
King’s
brother will become known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, Buckingham Palace
says, in latest fallout from Epstein scandal
Caroline
Davies
Thu 30
Oct 2025 22.20 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/oct/30/prince-andrew-leave-royal-lodge-windsor
Prince
Andrew is to be stripped of his royal titles and will move out of his home at
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.
It is
understood the king had the support of the Prince of Wales in the decision and
Andrew did not object to the process.
The
decision follows anxiety within the royal household about the reputational risk
to the monarchy caused by continual headlines concerning Andrew’s friendship
with the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and allegations of sexual
assault against him by one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre.
This
month the Guardian published extracts from the posthumous memoir of Giuffre,
who died by suicide in April, aged 41. In the book she claimed the prince
“believed that having sex with me was his birthright”.
Andrew
has always denied claims he had sex with Giuffre when she was 17, and settled a
civil case with her for a reported £12m with no admission of liability.
Giuffre’s
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”.
Buckingham
Palace said in a statement: “Prince Andrew will now be known as Andrew
Mountbatten Windsor.
“His
lease on Royal Lodge has, to date, provided him with legal protection to
continue in residence. 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.
“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.”
It is
understood that Andrew will move to a property on the private Sandringham
estate in Norfolk, to be privately funded by the king.
His
ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, will also move out of Royal Lodge and will sort out
her own living arrangements.
Formal
notice was given to surrender the lease at the Royal Lodge on Thursday and it
is understood that Andrew’s move to Sandringham will take place “as soon as
practicable”. He will receive a private provision from the king, with any other
sources of income to be a matter for the former duke.
The
removal process applies to the titles of Prince, Duke of York, Earl of
Inverness, Baron Killyleagh and the style His Royal Highness. The honours
affected are Andrew’s Order of the Garter and Knight Grand Cross of the Royal
Victorian Order. He had ceased to use the HRH style in 2022 but it had not been
formally removed.
As
daughters of the son of a monarch, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie
retain their titles in line with King George V’s letters patent of 1917.
The king
is understood to have acted now because while Andrew continues to deny the
accusations against him, it is felt that there have been serious lapses of
judgment.
The royal
family had announced on 17 October that Andrew would voluntarily stop using the
title Duke of York and give up his honours as a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal
Victorian Order and Royal Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the
Garter.
But MPs
proceeded to call for Andrew to be formally stripped of his titles. The public
accounts select committee this week wrote to the Treasury and crown estate to
demand more information about the circumstances of the terms of his residence
at the 30-room Royal Lodge and why he was required to pay only a peppercorn
rent.
Although
the dukedom could be abolished through an act of parliament, it is understood
that Charles did not wish to prevent parliament from focusing on urgent
national issues.
The
dukedom of York is a peerage. The king is sending royal warrants to the lord
chancellor to secure the removal of the dukedom from the peerage roll, and the
title of prince and style of Royal Highness. The subsidiary titles of Inverness
and Killyleagh are similarly affected.
The move
is understood to have taken place in consultation with the relevant government
authorities. The government supports the decision.
In a
statement to the BBC, Giuffre’s family said: “Today, an ordinary American girl
from an ordinary American family brought down a British prince with her truth
and extraordinary courage.
“Virginia
Roberts Giuffre, our sister, a child when she was sexually assaulted by Andrew,
never stopped fighting for accountability for what had happened to her and
countless other survivors like her.
“Today,
she declares a victory. We, her family, along with her survivor sisters,
continue Virginia’s battle and will not rest until the same accountability
applies to all of her abusers and abetters, connected to Jeffrey Epstein and
Ghislaine Maxwell.”
Sky
Roberts, Giuffre’s brother, commended the king for “setting a precedent” and
thanked him for the mention of “victims and survivors of any and all forms of
abuse” in the statement, but said Andrew should be put “behind bars”.
Giuffre
alleged she was forced to have sex with Andrew three times – once at the
convicted sex trafficker Maxwell’s home in London, once at Epstein’s address in
Manhattan, and once on the disgraced financier’s private island, Little St
James. Andrew has always denied the allegations.
The
Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, said it must have been “very difficult” for
the king to take the steps against his sibling, but that it was right for the
public not to tolerate sexual abuse allegations.
The
culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, told BBC Question Time that removing Andrew’s
titles was a “really brave, important and right step” by the king, which sends
a “powerful message” to sexual abuse victims.
The
Democratic congressman Suhas Subramanyam, who has previously called for Andrew
to testify before a US Congressional committee about his links to Epstein and
Maxwell, urged Andrew to give evidence.
He said:
“It’s clear that Prince Andrew has information about Epstein’s crimes and he
must do more than just give up titles or hide from the public spotlight. He
owes it to the victims to share everything he knows about Epstein’s criminal
operation and come before the oversight committee.
“Regardless,
we will continue to pursue the files and all the evidence, no matter how rich
and powerful the perpetrators involved.”
Analysis
Not in
this together: King Charles cuts Andrew loose to save royal family’s repute
Robert
Booth
Jettisoning
of ex-prince became unavoidable when king’s loyalty to his brother collided
with task of keeping public on side
Prince Andrew to be stripped of titles and
move out of Royal Lodge
Thu 30
Oct 2025 22.06 GMT
To strip
his brother of his titles and to evict him from his home is the most
consequential action King Charles has taken since he ascended the throne in
2022.
The
defenestration of Prince Andrew, now to be known only as Andrew Mountbatten
Windsor, and the removal of his cherished privilege of royal status is an act
of utmost ruthlessness by a king. Ascending the throne at 73, Charles always
knew he would play a caretaker role for the monarchy and so could not allow rot
to set into an institution that lives and dies by public consent.
The
damage that Andrew’s association with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell
continued to inflict on the reputation of the royal family was simply too much
for the king not to act as he did on Thursday evening. Charles has been
described by his biographer Catherine Mayer as “loyal to a fault. Sometimes to
the point of fault,” but this was too much.
The
queen’s longevity always meant that Charles’s reign would be relatively short
and therefore one of his most important tasks would be to bequeath the
institution to Prince William in reasonable repair. William is relatively
popular with the public and for Charles to leave him with a festering crisis
for the sake of the feelings of his younger brother, recently caught lying
about his continued association with Epstein, made no sense.
It
emerged this month that Andrew had emailed Epstein in 2011 after a picture of
him with his arm around the teenager Virginia Giuffre, who he is accused of
having sex with when she was 17, was published in 2011. He previously claimed
he had cut off contact with the sex offender by this point, but instead he is
alleged to have told Epstein that “we are in this together”.
Then when
the BBC this week reminded the world of a picture taken in the garden of Royal
Lodge, the Windsor home Andrew is being turfed out of, which featured not only
Epstein and Maxwell, both convicted child sex offenders, but also the convicted
rapist Harvey Weinstein, it cannot have been difficult to decide to deliver the
final blow. Charles decided that neither he nor the institution of the royal
family could be “in this together” ever again with Andrew.
But this
was not just the action of the chief executive of an institution sometimes
called “the firm”. This was a family matter and therefore emotionally charged.
The queen is said to have doted on Andrew, and his astonishing self-assurance
has been attributed by some to that mothering by the queen, who is said to not
have offered the same indulgences to her older children. Charles would no doubt
have had his late mother’s views in mind when he signed off Thursday night’s
statement announcing the “formal process to remove the Style, Titles and
Honours of Prince Andrew”, that “notice has now been served to surrender the
lease” on Royal Lodge and that “these censures are deemed necessary,
notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against
him”.
In the
simplest terms the issue also seemed to boil down to a question of whose side
are you on.
As the
final line of the statement from Buckingham Palace read: “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.”
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