King Charles Strips Prince Andrew of Military Titles and Royal Patronages

On February 10, 2022, Buckingham Palace issued a statement announcing that Prince Andrew — His Royal Highness the Duke of York — would return all of his military affiliations and royal patronages, and would no longer use the prefix “His Royal Highness” in any official capacity. He would conduct no further royal duties.

The announcement came just days before a scheduled legal conference in Virginia Giuffre’s civil lawsuit against Andrew. Giuffre had filed the suit in August 2021 in the Southern District of New York, alleging Andrew had sexually abused her on three occasions when she was 17 years old — encounters she said were arranged by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

A settlement was announced on February 15, 2022. Terms were not fully disclosed, but reports indicated Andrew contributed approximately £12 million to Giuffre’s charitable foundation and did not admit liability. Andrew made a statement acknowledging Epstein’s victims had “suffered profoundly” and pledging a donation to a charity supporting trafficking victims.

The stripping of titles and patronages was widely interpreted as Buckingham Palace’s effort to limit reputational damage to the royal family. Andrew was seen as having become a liability, particularly following his disastrous November 2019 BBC Newsnight interview — in which he expressed no remorse for the Epstein victims and offered what many found to be implausible and tone-deaf responses to questions about his relationship with Epstein.

Andrew’s relationship with Epstein dated to the 1990s and involved multiple visits to Epstein properties, travel on the Lolita Express, and documented appearances at Epstein’s New York mansion — including the infamous March 2011 photograph of the two walking together in Central Park.