Prince Andrew has announced he has given up his royal titles and honours after increased media scrutiny on the British royal.
The announcement was made via the royal family's website on Friday evening in the UK.
Here's what that means and a recap of how we got here.
Who is Prince Andrew?
Prince Andrew is King Charles III's brother.
He is the third child of the late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip.
Prince Andrew is listed on the Royal Family's website as eighth in line of succession, under Prince Harry and Meghan's second child, Princess Lilibet.
The 65-year-old was in the UK's Royal Navy from 1979 to 2001, after which he worked as a roving UK trade ambassador until 2011.
Is Prince Andrew still a prince?
Yes.
Because he is the son of the late Queen Elizabeth II, he is still technically a prince — and will continue to be referred to as such.
Even though he was commonly referred to as Prince Andrew, his official title was Duke of York.
This is part of British royal tradition, Merriam-Webster's website explains.
"By tradition, only those born into the royal family can use 'prince' or 'princess' before their name and, other than the Prince of Wales — presumably to show his primacy — they are officially known by other titles," it says.
Princes and princesses may be given multiple titles across the ranks of the British nobility, typically going by the highest-ranking title.
Those titles are ranked below from highest to lowest:
- Duke/Duchess
- Marquess/Marchioness
- Earl/Countess
- Viscount/Viscountess
- Baron/Baroness
What is changing?
Prince Andrew will no longer use the title Duke of York — which his mother Queen Elizabeth II created for him after his marriage in 1986.
This also means his former wife, Sarah Ferguson, will no longer have the title of the Duchess of York.
However, his daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, are still princesses.
He will no longer use the title of Knight of the Garter.
The Order of the Garter is the oldest and most senior Order of Chivalry in Britain, the royal family's website explains.
"Knights of the Garter are chosen personally by the sovereign to honour those who have held public office, who have contributed in a particular way to national life or who have served the sovereign personally," it says.
Those two titles — Duke of York and Knight of the Garter — are the ones that meant the most to Prince Andrew, ABC Europe Bureau chief Mazoe Ford explains.
"He'll not be invited any more to the royal family's Christmas," Ford said.
As of Saturday morning, the royal family website continued to feature Prince Andrew as the Duke of York.
Where does Prince Andrew live?
Prince Andrew lives at at Royal Lodge, a mansion on the grounds of Windsor Castle.
The mansion features a gardener's cottage, seven bedrooms, and a so-called gothic saloon.
Prince Andrew does not own the house, but has a lease to stay there until 2078 thanks to an agreement he and Queen Elizabeth II made back in 2002.
As part of the lease, he is expected to foot the bill for the upkeep of the mansion.
Despite the announcement, he is expected to remain at his Windsor home, given he has a private lease to live there.
Didn't Prince Andrew already step down?
Prince Andrew stepped back from public duty in 2019 after agreeing to cooperate with investigations into his former friend, convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Then, in 2022, he was stripped of his military titles while he was defending a civil sexual abuse case brought against him by Virginia Guiffre.
That meant he was no longer called His Royal Highness, or HRH, in official settings.
At the time, his military affiliations and royal patronages were returned to Queen Elizabeth II, but he retained his Duke of York and Knight of the Garter titles.
After this, his profile on the royal family's website was updated to include a statement confirming he would not be returning to public duties.
His profile appeared at the bottom of the list of family members on the website.
Why did Prince Andrew give up his title?
According to the statement, it is because: "The continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Family."
Here is his statement in full:
"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."
What were the allegations against Prince Andrew?
Prince Andrew did not detail exactly what the accusations were in his statement — he just said he "vigorously" denied them.
However, British media had recently been scrutinising the prince over:
- his relationship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein
- an accusation of underage sex with Virginia Giuffre
- his links to an alleged Chinese spy
On Thursday, extracts from the memoir of Ms Giuffre were published in the British press.
Ms Guiffre, who died by suicide earlier this year, had previously alleged she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew as a minor in 2001 — a claim he has repeatedly denied throughout the years.
In her new book, she repeated the allegation, writing the prince was "entitled — as if he believed having sex with me was his birthright".
"He seemed in a rush to have intercourse," Ms Guiffre claimed.
"Afterward, he said 'thank you' in his clipped British accent."
UK police reviewed evidence relating to sex crime allegations against the prince in 2021, but announced they were taking no further action.
In 2022, Prince Andrew reached a settlement with Ms Giuffre
Ms Giuffre, formerly known as Virginia Roberts, first became known in 2011 after appearing in an article from the Daily Mail raising concerns about Prince Andrew's links to Epstein.
The article featured the now-infamous photo of the prince with his arm around her and standing next to Epstein's girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.
On Sunday, two British tabloids claimed to have confirmed that Prince Andrew sent an email to Epstein about the media storm that the 2011 article caused.
"It would seem we are in this together and will have to rise above it," Prince Andrew reportedly wrote in an email to Epstein dated February 28, 2011.
"Otherwise, keep in close touch and we'll play some more soon."
British press were quick to point out that this email contradicted Prince Andrew's claim in an extraordinary BBC interview that he had cut contact with Epstein in December 2010.
That reporting came after British media last month reported Prince Andrew's ex-wife Sarah had described Epstein as a "steadfast, generous and supreme friend" in a 2011 letter.
This prompted multiple British charities to publicly cut ties with her.
Amid all this, there was reporting about Prince Andrew's dealings with Cai Qi, a high-ranking Chinese official who British press had linked to a Chinese spy scandal in the UK.
On Thursday, British newspaper The Telegraph reported Prince Andrew met Mr Cai three times.
On Friday, The Daily Mail published a photo of the pair together in 2018 on its front page.
This was not the first time Prince Andrew had been linked to Chinese spy activity.
In December, Prince Andrew put out a statement that he had "ceased all contact" with a businessman accused of being a Chinese spy after receiving advice from the government.
Prince Andrew had invited the businessman, later revealed to be Yang Tengbo, to his birthday party and had significant contact with him.
A court finding said Mr Yang had won an "unusual" degree of trust from Prince Andrew.
Mr Yang denied being a spy, but the finding said he was in a position to "generate relationships between senior Chinese officials and prominent UK figures, which could be leveraged for political interference purposes by the Chinese state".
