Queen personally informed son Prince Andrew about his HRH titles being scrapped: Report

UK’s Queen Elizabeth II personally informed her second son, Prince Andrew, that he was being stripped of his titles, stated the latest media reports. On Thursday, Buckingham Palace announced that the military affiliations and royal patronages are being returned to the Queen as her second son is facing extensive fire over his alleged sexual assault of American citizen Virginia Giuffre when she was 17.

New York Post stated that Prince Andrew was told face-to-face by his mother, the Queen that he will no longer be known as His Royal Highness. According to the report, ‘looking stony-faced’, the embattled Duke of York was driven at least a few miles from his house, Royal Lodge to Windsor Castle on Thursday morning. After that, the Queen broke the news to her 61-year-old son that of all his remaining military titles and royal patronages in the wake of the sex-assault civil lawsuit brought by Giuffre.

Even though Prince Andrew has refuted all allegations against him, in front of the private audience, the monarch told her son that he will no longer be known as His Royal Highness “in any official capacity”. This means that the Duke of York is now left to fight the lawsuit in the United States as a private citizen. Royal sources, according to New York Post, said that it is believed that Prince Charles and Prince William even discussed the issue with the palace.

Notably, Prince Andrew is only the fifth royal in the history of the monarch’s family to stop using HRH titles. Previously, Princess Diana and Sarah, Duke of York lost the titles following their divorces from Prince Charles and Prince Andrew respectively. Most recently, Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and wife Meghan also agreed to lose their HRH titles as they decided to step back as senior members of the royal family. 

However, New York Post quoted a highly placed royal source as saying that “The difference between the statement that the Queen made about Harry and Meghan and Andrew could not be more telling.” After Harry and Meghan’s exit from the royal family in January 2020, his grandmother said, “While all are saddened by their decision, The Duke and Duchess remain much-loved members of the family.” Meanwhile, on Thursday, the terse palace statement said, “With The Queen’s approval and agreement, The Duke of York’s military affiliations and Royal patronages have been returned to The Queen.”

“The Duke of York will continue not to undertake any public duties,” the statement added. According to the report, while both Andrew and the Queen remain close, the royal source told New York Post, “There was nothing from the Queen about her sadness or dismay, nothing emotional at all. It was so cutting.” It was then briefed that Andrew would no longer use his HRH title. 

Allegations against Prince Andrew 

In the years that Giuffre was associated with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, she said that she went from being abused by the disgraced financier to being “passed around like a platter of fruit" among his other influential associates. While Giuffre was being taken around on private jets, at the age of 17 in 2001, she has said that Epstein brought her to London to meet Prince Andrew. A photograph showing her younger self with Prince Andrew’s arm around her waist and Maxwell also in the frame was clicked by Epstein as per Giuffre’s request, she said. However, after going to a nightclub, Giuffre said, in an interview, that she was told by Maxwell that she “had to do for Andrew what I do for Jeffrey.”

Giuffre told BBC, “It was a really scary time in my life… I wasn't chained to a sink, but these powerful people were my chains”. Giuffre filed a civil case against the Duke of York alleging that Queen’s second son sexually abused her three times at Maxwell’s London home that night following by at Epstein’s homes in Manhattan and Little St James in the Virgin Islands.

However, Prince Andrew told BBC Newsnight in 2019 that he had no recollection of ever meeting Giuffre and said that her alleged sexual abuse in the US and UK by him “didn’t happen”. Eventually, Giuffre told Miami Herald that by 2003. Epstein had lost interest in her because she was too old for him.

Recently, in the latest blow for the royal family, a US judge ruled that Giuffre’s civil lawsuit against Prince Andrew would go for trial. It is expected to have major ramifications for Buckingham Palace as the long-time running allegations against the 61-year-old Prince would be tested in court after significantly tarnishing his public image. He even had to step back from royal duties in late 2019.

Image: AP