King Charles III has initiated a formal process to strip his brother Prince Andrew of his titles and honours due to the latter’s links with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, Buckingham Palace announced on Thursday.
Prince Andrew will now be known simply as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, according to an official statement.
He will also vacate his residence, Royal Lodge. A formal notice has been issued for him to relinquish the lease, and he is set to move to private accommodation.
The 65-year-old, who is the second son of Queen Elizabeth II, has lived in the 30-room mansion with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson since 2003.
The estate, which housed the Queen Mother until her death in 2002, also includes a residence for the gardener, six employee cottages, and accommodation for the on-site security officers.
Prince Andrew will be relocated to a property on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, approximately 180 kilometres northeast of London, the Press Association reported.
He had been embroiled in controversy over his connections to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, but consistently denied the allegations against him.
He faced mounting pressure to leave Royal Lodge, particularly after the publication on 21 October of a postumous memoir by Virginia Giuffre.
Guiffre, an American-Australian, was a key accuser in the case against Epstein, and her family has called the removal of Prince Andrew’s royal title “a victory.”
Her brother, Sky Roberts, and sister-in-law, Amanda, told the BBC that a regular American from a regular American family had brought down a British prince with her truth and extraordinary courage.
Giuffre passed away in April. She had long alleged that Prince Andrew had sex with her when she was 17 years old.
