Decision provides ‘the neatest solution’ to situation surrounding King’s younger brother, expert says
As new scandals continued to rise around Prince Andrew, he said Friday that he “will no longer use” his titles or honours.
The Duke of York had stepped back from official royal duties after his disastrous BBC interview in 2019 regarding his friendship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew also agreed to settle a lawsuit in which he was accused of sexually abusing Virginia Giuffre.
Recently published excerpts from a posthumous book by Giuffre accused Andrew of being “entitled — as if he believed having sex with me was his birthright.”
Other reports had emerged recently that he told Epstein in an email “we are in this together” after a picture of the royal with his arm around a teenage Giuffre was published in 2011.
In a message late Friday from Buckingham Palace, Andrew said that in discussion with his brother, King Charles, and his 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.”
Craig Prescott, a constitutional expert and lecturer in law at Royal Holloway, University of London, said this is “the neatest solution” to the situation involving Andrew.
“It avoids the need for Parliament to get involved. He technically retains the titles, but this is a distinction without a difference. He remains a prince, which shows you can never really truly leave the Royal Family, but this a big step.”
Prescott said the allegations against Andrew are “especially jarring when compared to Queen Camilla’s work on domestic violence and Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh’s work on sexual violence against women in war zones.”
As reports surfaced earlier Friday suggesting that Andrew was set to give up the Duke of York title, Justin Vovk, a royal historian and member of the advisory board of the Institute for the Study of the Crown in Canada, said he was both surprised and not surprised.
“With the Epstein files, and the new memoir, significantly dismantling Andrew’s presentation of events based on his now-infamous TV interview, it would only be a matter of time before either the Crown or the government would need to take some kind of action.”
Andrew also won’t attend the Royal Family’s Christmas celebrations, Buckingham Palace said.
Graham Smith, CEO of the anti-monarchy group Republic, said the idea that losing “pointless titles is a fit punishment” for Andrew must be challenged.
“The royals have been covering for and protecting Andrew for two decades. The public has a right to know who knew what and when,” Smith said in a statement.
“This isn’t one rotten apple, it’s a rotten institution that circles the wagons and does as little as it can in response to serious scandal.”
When Rhian Mannings told Prince William about the devastating impact her husband’s death by suicide had on their family, the Prince of Wales seemed visibly moved.
For a moment, it appeared that William couldn’t continue the conversation as they sat at Mannings’s kitchen table in Cardiff, Wales.
“Are you OK?” she wondered aloud.
“I’m sorry, it’s hard to ask you the questions,” he replied, once he found his voice again.
The visit with Mannings featured in a short film released recently on World Mental Health Day. It also coincided with the launch of a suicide prevention network by the Royal Foundation of the Prince and Princess of Wales.
As much as the moment was significant in William and Catherine’s ongoing efforts to break the stigma around suicide and offer support for families and mental health issues, it was also a glimpse of a more personal side of the Prince of Wales that has been on display in the last little while.
A few days before the short film was released, William was front and centre as another small-screen production was released. In it, William took Canadian comedian Eugene Levy around Windsor Castle as part of his Reluctant Traveler series for Apple TV+.
William rolled up for the conversation with Levy on an e-scooter, reflected throughout their time together on his family life — both as a child and now, three decades later, with children of his own — and seemed quite comfortable sitting down for a pint in the local pub with his guest.
The appearances with Mannings and Levy have been an opportunity to see a “more visible personal touch” from William, Vovk said.
“I think this is part of a broader agenda with him to start signalling what the monarchy is going to look like under him.”
