Featured Image Credit: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images
Topics: Prince Andrew, Royal Family, UK News, Jeffrey Epstein, Virginia Giuffre
Joe Yates
Topics: Prince Andrew, Royal Family, UK News, Jeffrey Epstein, Virginia Giuffre
Prince Andrew has officially been stripped of his ‘Prince’ title and told to vacate his Windsor residence, the Royal Lodge, following a bombshell announcement from Buckingham Palace.
The removal of the disgraced prince's title follows mounting public and political pressure surrounding his living situation.
Just one day earlier, Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) raised questions about the 'value for money' of the Duke’s taxpayer-subsidized lifestyle after stepping back from royal duties in 2019.
"His Majesty has today initiated a formal process to remove the Style, Titles and Honours of Prince Andrew," the Royal Family said in a statement.
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"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."
This latest royal shake-up also comes in the wake of renewed scrutiny over Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir, which once again thrust Andrew’s alleged connections to Jeffrey Epstein into the spotlight.
Giuffre alleged she was paid to have sex with the prince when she was 17. She died by suicide at her home in Australia in April this year at 41, just before her memoir Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice came out.
In the book, she claims that she met Prince Andrew in March 2001 before being pressured by Ghislaine Maxwell to 'do for him what you do for Jeffrey'.
"The next morning, Maxwell told me: ‘You did well. The prince had fun,’" Giuffre wrote, and that Epstein paid her $15,000.
Earlier this month, Andrew reportedly offered to give up his titles voluntarily in an attempt to close the chapter on years of scandal and controversy.
Following the news at the time, Giuffre's family released the following statement: "We, the family of Virginia Roberts Giuffre, believe that Prince Andrew’s decision to give up his titles is vindication for our sister and survivors everywhere.
"This decisive action is a powerful step forward in our fight to bring Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s child sex-trafficking network to justice."
If you've been affected by any of the issues in this article, you can contact The National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800.656.HOPE (4673), available 24/7. Or you can chat online via online.rainn.org