Britain’s King Charles III has stripped his brother Andrew of his title: here’s why

Prince Andrew will lose his title and leave his Windsor mansion, Royal Lodge, after weeks of scrutiny over his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

According to the BBC, Buckingham Palace announced that King Charles III’s brother will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.

Andrew renounced his other royal titles, including Duke of York, in early October after facing new questions about his personal life. The publication noted that in a posthumous memoir published earlier this month, Virginia Giuffre repeated allegations that she had sex with Prince Andrew three times as a teenager. Andrew has always denied these allegations.

“Reacting to the latest events, Ms Giuffre’s family said she “overcame the British prince with her truthfulness and extraordinary courage.” Giuffre committed suicide earlier this year,” the BBC notes.

Thus, in its statement, the palace reported that the king “today began the formal process of stripping Prince Andrew of his title, rank and honors.” The palace reported that the ex-prince was sent an official notice of refusal to rent the Royal Box. He will be moved to private accommodation on the Sandringham estate, which, as is known, is funded by King Charles from private funds. The palace also expressed its support for victims of “any form of violence.”

The BBC noted that the two adult daughters of the ex-prince Andrew, Eugenie and Beatrice, will retain their titles of princesses, and the brother of King Charles III is still eighth in line to the throne. Sarah Ferguson, who is the ex-wife, will also move out of the Royal Lodge and set up her own accommodation.

Details of the scandal with the ex-Prince Andrew
The scandal surrounding his links to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has been reignited by allegations of sexual abuse in Ms Giuffre’s memoir.

Details of Andrew’s living arrangements have also come under scrutiny, with fresh questions emerging in recent days about how he is able to finance his lifestyle despite not being a working member of the royal family. Andrew has lived in the Royal Lodge since 2004, after signing a 75-year lease with his landlord, the Crown Estate, which operates as an independent property company, the previous year.

The second-class royal residence on the Windsor estate includes a gardener’s lodge, a chapel-style house, a six-bedroom cottage and a guard’s lodge.

“Further details emerged last week after the lease was published about how he could afford his mansion,” the BBC reported.

The arrangement means he only paid a nominal annual rent for the “Royal Lodge”, and even that may not be required by his agreement with the Crown Estate. The deal meant that instead of paying an annual rent, Prince Andrew made large upfront payments, including for renovations.

In effect, these payments, which amounted to more than £8m and were detailed in a National Audit Office report, meant he was buying himself out of future rental obligations over the 75-year lease by paying a notional rent of £260,000 per year upfront.

This week it emerged that Prince Andrew had hosted Jeffrey Epstein in the Royal Box at his daughter Beatrice’s birthday party in 2006 – two months after an arrest warrant was issued in the US for Epstein for sexual assault of a minor. Andrew did not respond to a request for comment.

Recall that Britain’s Prince Harry visited Kyiv in September. He said that he was first invited to Ukraine by Olga Rudneva, the founder and general director of the Superhumans center in Lviv, and later received an official invitation from the Ukrainian government.