EXCLUSIVE: Prince Andrew told to drop titles in 10-minute call with 'weary' King Charles
King Charles had grown 'weary and furious over the continuing tide of scandal plaguing the monarchy and told his brother, Prince Andrew, that drastic action was needed to stem it
The King told Prince Andrew his life as a senior royal was over in a 10-minute phone call.
Charles called the meeting following fresh claims about his brother’s links to late US paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and alleged Chinese spies. Royal sources told how the King had grown “weary and furious” over the continuing tide of scandal plaguing the monarchy and told Andrew that drastic action was needed to stem it.
One royal source said: “After close consultation with his family, and in particular Prince William, the King summoned Andrew to tell him to do the right thing. He was told it was beyond comprehension for him to continue to enjoy the privileges of his position.”
READ MORE: Prince Andrew LIVE: What loss of royal titles means for princesses revealedFollowing Thursday’s phone call Andrew agreed to give up his titles except prince, and issued a statement on Friday night. He will no longer be Duke of York or a Knight of the Garter – the world’s oldest order of chivalry. The bombshell came seven months after the suicide of Virginia Giuffre who was trafficked by billionaire Epstein and says she was forced to have sex with Andrew three times. And it is days before the publication of her tell-all memoir, which has reignited the scandal.
Commenting on Andrew’s humiliation, her family said it was “a victory for Virginia” – and urged the King to strip his title of prince. Ms Giuffre, who died in April aged 41, claimed she was one of many vulnerable girls exploited by Epstein and his jetset friends. Prince Andrew has denied, and continues to deny, the allegations against him.
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She alleged that she was forced to have sex with the prince when she was 17 in 2001 at the house of Epstein’s ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell – now serving 20 years for child sex trafficking in a Texas jail. The infamous photo of the prince with Ms Giuffre was taken at Maxwell’s London home that same year.
Ms Giuffre’s memoir, due out on Tuesday, alleges she was also forced to have sex with Andrew at Epstein’s New York home and his private island in the US Virgin Islands. She also recalled how she was “revolted” to see “two of my abusers together” when Andrew was pictured walking with Epstein in New York in 2010.
Ms Giuffre wrote that she was amazed that a member of the royal family would be “stupid enough” to appear in public with Epstein after the tycoon’s 2008 conviction for soliciting under-age girls. In his disastrous Newsnight interview in November 2019, Andrew claimed he cut all contact with Epstein after the meeting. That claim was proved to be a lie after court documents published this year showed the prince emailed Epstein in February 2011, with the words: “Keep in close touch and we’ll play some more soon!!!!”
Virginia also revealed in her memoir that Andrew insisted she sign a one-year gag order to prevent tarnishing the Queen’s platinum jubilee in 2022. Andrew, 65, has always vehemently denied the allegations. In February 2022 he paid Ms Giuffre £12million in an out-of-court settlement to stop a civil trial taking place in the US. Ms Giuffre said she got “more out of” Andrew than that, including a £2million donation to her charity because she had “an acknowledgement that I and many other women had been victimised and a tacit pledge to never deny it again”.
Her family said in a statement: “Prince Andrew’s decision to give up his titles is vindication for our sister and survivors everywhere. This decisive action is a powerful step forward in our fight to bring Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s child sex-trafficking network to justice. Further, we believe it is appropriate for King Charles to remove the title of prince.”
Last week Andrew was sensationally drawn into the collapsed China spy case embroiling the government. On Thursday it emerged the former duke forged links with Chinese Communist Party bigwig Cai Qi – who is said to be Xi Jinping’s right-hand man and is suspected of leading a massive spying operation in the UK. The pair posed in pictures to celebrate “jointly building a golden era in China-UK relations”.
Prosecutors believe Cai received insider government information from parliamentary researcher Christopher Cash and China-based English teacher Christopher Berry – whose spying trial collapsed last month. Both Brits have denied wrongdoing. Andrew was already mired in controversy over his friendship with another alleged Beijing spy, Yang Tengbo, who moved in the highest circles of the British establishment.
The prince invited him to his 60th birthday party in Windsor in 2020, joined visits to St James’s Palace and Windsor Castle, and attended a Chinese new year celebration at Downing Street with former Prime Minister David Cameron. Following Andrew’s decision to give up his titles, ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, who still lives with him in his 30-room Royal Lodge mansion on the Windsor estate, will no longer use the Duchess of York title that she has traded on for years.
Fergie, 66, was dropped from all of her private charity patronages last month when emails emerged that she had sent to Epstein following his 2008 conviction, where she praised him for always being “a steadfast, generous and supreme friend”. Financier Epstein died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on more child sex charges.
Buckingham Palace did not comment.