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Prince Andrew’s name is already being removed from official documents after it was confirmed this week that he has been stripped of all his royal titles.
Andrew, 65, will no longer be known as a prince or His Royal Highness among other titles, Buckingham Palace announced on Thursday, Oct. 30. Instead, he will be Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, marking an unprecedented move for the royal family.
The move is a continuation of the fallout from renewed scrutiny in Andrew’s friendship with late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal conspiracy and sex trafficking charges.
By the morning of Friday, Oct. 31, Andrew’s name had already been removed from the Roll of the Peerage, which is “an officially compiled and maintained list, intended to contain the names of all living peers” who have “proved succession to an English, Scottish, Irish, Great Britain or United Kingdom Peerage,” according to the College of Arms website.
The Crown Office
An older version of the Roll of the Peerage listed Andrew, formerly the Duke of York, under “York” and Prince Edward under “Wessex,” but the latter is now the Duke of Edinburgh following the death of his father, Prince Philip, on April 9, 2021, per a screenshot shared by the Daily Mail.
The page now ends with “Wales,” listing Prince William, the Prince of Wales.
The Crown Office
The update comes after Buckingham Palace said in a statement on Thursday, “His Majesty has today initiated a formal process to remove the Style, Titles and Honours of Prince Andrew. Prince Andrew will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.”
Andrew was a prince and had the styling of His Royal Highness since birth as the son of the then-reigning monarch Queen Elizabeth. He was given the title of Duke of York (what he was widely known as), as well as Earl of Inverness and Baron Killyleagh, by his late mother on his wedding day to Sarah Ferguson in 1986.
The honors affected are Andrew’s Order of the Garter and Knight Grand Cross of the Victorian Order.
Andrew will also be moving out of the Royal Lodge in Windsor, where he has lived since 2003.
PEOPLE understands that the disgraced royal will relocate to a property on the private Sandringham estate, though no details have been disclosed. Any future accommodation will be privately funded by King Charles.
“His lease on Royal Lodge has, to date, provided him with legal protection to continue in residence. Formal notice has now been served to surrender the lease, and he will move to alternative private accommodation. These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him,” the palace said in Thursday’s statement.
“Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse,” the statement concluded.
Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty
PEOPLE understands it was King Charles’ decision to remove Andrew’s titles and honors, and he is using his Royal Prerogative, which allows him to manage certain royal titles and honors without involving Parliament.
Consequences for Andrew have been coming at a slow trickle for more than a decade, culminating in this ultimate royal eviction. In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting sex from a minor. At that time, his friendship with Andrew was well-documented, and the two had been photographed together at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
Then, in 2015, Andrew — who has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing — was named in a lawsuit against Epstein filed by noted survivor Virginia Giuffre, alleging that she was sex trafficked to the former prince when she was 17 and had three sexual encounters with him.
Andrew stepped back from his duties as a working royal in November 2019, following a scrutinized interview with BBC’s Newsnight about his alleged ties to Epstein.
Then, in January 2022, Queen Elizabeth stripped her second son of his military titles and patronages after he attempted to have Giuffre’s sexual assault lawsuit against him dismissed. The following month, he settled with Giuffre — who died by suicide on April 24 of this year at the age of 41 — out of court for an undisclosed sum.
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On Oct. 17 of this year, Andrew then announced he would give up the use of his royal titles and other titles and honors amid renewed interest in his relationship to Epstein ahead of the release of Giuffre’s posthumous memoir, Nobody’s Girl. In the book, Giuffre wrote that Andrew “believed having sex with me was his birthright,” describing three occasions Epstein allegedly arranged for them to meet.
The last time a member of the British royal family was formally stripped of a title was with Prince Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale (a German-born British prince) under the Titles Deprivation Act 1917, when his British titles were removed after he swore allegiance to Germany during World War I.
