Disgraced UK prince gives up royal titles

The UK’s Prince Andrew has renounced his title of Duke of York amid further revelations about his ties to the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“I will... no longer use my title or the honors which have been conferred upon me,” Andrew, 65, said in a bombshell announcement yesterday.

He said his decision came after discussions with the head of state and his elder brother, King Charles III.

“I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first,” said Andrew in a statement put out by Buckingham Palace.

He again denied all allegations of wrongdoing, but said, “We have concluded the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Family.”

Andrew, who stepped back from public life in 2019 amid the Epstein scandal, will remain a prince, as he is the second son of the late Queen Elizabeth II. But he will no longer hold the title of Duke of York that she had conferred on him.

UK media reported that he would also give up his membership in the prestigious Order of the Garter, the most senior knighthood in the British honors system, which dates to 1348.

Andrew’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, will also no longer use the title of Duchess of York, though his daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, remain princesses.

Andrew had become a source of deep embarrassment for his brother, Charles, following a devastating 2019 television interview in which he defended his friendship with Epstein.

Epstein took his own life in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of trafficking underage girls for sex.

Claim to birthright

In the interview, Andrew said he had cut ties in 2010 with Epstein, who was disgraced after an American woman, Virginia Giuffre, accused him of using her as a sex slave.