Charles III Withdraws his Title of Prince from his Brother, Andrew: What Does that Actually Change?
Mired in the Epstein affair since 2019, Andrew will lose his title of prince and will have to leave his royal mansion, Buckingham Palace announced Thursday.
He will “henceforth be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.
This Thursday 30th October 2025, late in the evening, Buckingham Palace announced that the King Charles III had launched “a formal process” to take away his “titles and honors” from his brother Andrew, mired in the endless scandal of his relationship with the American sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein.
King Charles and his wife Camilla “wish to clarify that their thoughts and greatest sympathy have been, and will remain, with the victims and survivors of all forms of abuse”, the palace statement said.
Andrew will have to move
Concretely, Andrew is no longer a prince. Which implies that you have to call him by his last name: Mountbatten Windsor.
In addition, the deposed prince will have to leave his residence at Royal Lodge, a 30-room mansion located near Windsor Castle (40 km west of London).
A formal notice has been issued for (that he) renounces the lease, and he will move to another private accommodation.
The second son of the late Queen Elizabeth II, aged 65, who has lived with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson in this mansion since 2003, will go settle in the Sandringham estate in Norfolk, a private residence of the British sovereign located some 180 km northeast of London.
Loss of the titles of Duke of York, Earl of Inverness…
Andrew fell from grace due to his proximity to Jeffrey Epstein, an American child molester found dead in his prison in 2019 before his sex crimes trial.
He had already been sidelined from the royal family since 2019, but the scandal has continued to surround him ever since.
Under pressure from his brother, he had renounced his title of Duke of York in mid-October. This waiver, however, did not amount to a formal withdrawal.
A source at Buckingham Palace said Thursday’s decision required time and legal and constitutional expertise.
In addition to his title of prince, Andrew has his titles revoked duke of York, Earl of Inverness and Baron Killyleagh.
He also lost prestigious honorary distinctions including his title of knight of the Order of the Garter. The latter was given to him by his mother in 2006.
Prince Andrew’s two daughters, the princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, will retain their titles.
Mired in the Epstein affair
This announcement comes after yet another twist in the scandal of his links with Jeffrey Epstein, with the recent release of the explosive posthumous memoirs of Virginia Giuffre, main accuser of the American financier and sex offender, who committed suicide in April 2025.
Today, an ordinary American girl from an ordinary American family brought down a British prince with her extraordinary truth and courage.
In her memoirs published posthumously on October 21, Virginia Giuffre maintained her accusations against the prince, explaining that she had three forced sexual relations with him at the request of Jeffrey Epstein while she was under the latter’s control.
Andrew always has denied the facts.
A threat to the monarchy
The pressure has increased in recent days with the publication in the press of a photography from Jeffrey Epstein, his friend and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell – sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022 -, and ex-film producer imprisoned for rape Harvey Weinstein, taken in the gardens of Royal Lodge on the occasion of the 18th birthday of Beatrice, Andrew’s daughter.
And the scandal, impossible to contain, is seen as one threat for the monarchy.
Last Monday, while visiting a cathedral in central England, the king was loudly challenged by a man who said to him: How long did you know about Andrew and Epstein? Did you ask the police to cover it? ”
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