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A member of the media holds a copy of The Sun newspaper in front of the gates of Windsor Great Park, England, where the Royal Lodge where Andrew was living is situated, on Thursday.Peter Nicholls/Getty Images
He was once the carefree prince with Wall Street contacts, a glittering war record and a dashing style that made him a favourite of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. But Andrew’s long fall from grace hit rock bottom this week when his big brother, King Charles III, stripped him of his titles and effectively cast him out of the Royal Household.
For all his attributes, Andrew’s stunning lack of judgment in befriending U.S. pedophile Jeffrey Epstein – and then clumsily trying to explain away the relationship despite a steady stream of revelations that only made matters worse – eroded whatever public support he once enjoyed.
Andrew, 65, has steadfastly maintained his innocence and expressed no knowledge of Mr. Epstein’s widespread sex trafficking of teenage girls. But he has always been among the most high-profile friends of the American financier, who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on a string of charges. And he is the only man who has been held accountable over the Epstein allegations.
By Friday, the only perk left for the fallen prince, now known only as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, was the slight chance that he might keep his place (eighth) in the line of succession. Even that seemed unsure, however, amid the growing calls for the British government to step in and ensure that he will never be monarch.
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Andrew with his older brother King Charles in London in September.Toby Melville/Reuters
Not since the First World War has a member of the Royal Family been stripped of their titles, and that was because some of Queen Victoria’s descendants sided with the Germans.
“It’s a huge deal. We don’t often say unprecedented and mean it, but this really is,” said Sarah Gristwood, a royal commentator in London. “This is the moment that they’ll have hoped wouldn’t come.”
Just two weeks ago, Andrew likely thought he’d escaped the worst.
On Oct. 17 he announced that he’d agreed to stop using his titles, including Duke of York. He made the announcement in the wake of more damning e-mails showing that his contact with Mr. Epstein went on longer than he had previously indicated.
“It would seem we are in this together and will have to rise above it. Otherwise keep in close touch and we’ll play some more soon!!!!,” Andrew wrote on Feb. 28, 2011, two months after he’d claimed to have cut off all contact with Mr. Epstein.
It didn’t help that Andrew’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, sent an even warmer e-mail to Mr. Epstein in April, 2011, apologizing for an interview she’d given in which she’d expressed regret for knowing him. “I know you feel hellaciously let down by me. You have always been a steadfast, generous and supreme friend to me and my family,” she wrote in the message, which surfaced a few weeks ago.
David Shribman: Epstein controversy is an American kaleidoscope of fraught but central issues
Andrew’s statement did not go far enough in the eyes of the public, and pressure was building on the King to act. In a blunt news release on Thursday, the King announced that he had started the process to remove “the Style, Titles and Honours” of Andrew. He also evicted his brother from Windsor Castle’s Royal Lodge, a 30-room mansion where Andrew thought he had a cast-iron 75-year lease that allowed him to live virtually rent free.
It’s all a far cry from Andrew’s younger days, when he joined the Royal Navy and flew helicopter raids during the 1982 Falklands War. He earned a promotion to lieutenant and the Queen made him her personal aide-de-camp. By the time he retired from the navy in 2001, he was a commander.
His downfall began in 1999 when he met Mr. Epstein through a mutual friend, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving 20 years in a U.S. prison for assisting the American in his crimes. The two men remained in contact despite Mr. Epstein’s guilty plea for prostituting minors in 2008 and sex-trafficking charges in 2019.
As more allegations about Mr. Epstein emerged in court filings, the most damning for Andrew came from Virginia Giuffre. She alleged that he had sexually assaulted her three times at Mr. Epstein’s behest while she was underage.
In posthumous memoir, Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre tells the world her whole story
In a now infamous 2019 BBC interview, Andrew stated he did not know Ms. Giuffre and tried to shoot down her allegations that they’d danced at a nightclub by saying he doesn’t sweat.
In 2022, he settled a lawsuit filed by Ms. Giuffre but continued to deny any wrongdoing even as more allegations, e-mails and documents continued to come to light.
Still more fallout may be yet to come.
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Andrew with Virginia Giuffre, centre, and Ghislaine Maxwell.SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK/The New York Times News Service
A parliamentary committee wants to examine the terms of leases he and other members of the Royal Family have for various properties that are indirectly supported by taxpayers, to see whether they are good value for money.
Andrew “is still walking around a free man,” said Sky Roberts, the brother of Ms. Giuffre, who died by suicide in April. “I commend the King – I think he’s doing an amazing job as a world leader, setting a precedent – but we need to take it one more step further.”
Mr. Roberts is calling for a criminal investigation into the allegations surrounding Andrew, and is hoping the King will put pressure on U.S. President Donald Trump to release more files related to the Epstein case.
Now a private citizen, Andrew has been shuffled off to a house at Sandringham, a royal estate in rural Norfolk that is privately owned by the King. He’ll have no income to speak of and will be reliant on his brother for financial support.
Ms. Gristwood said the King and Queen may have good reason to keep Andrew solvent. “They must be scared of taking all financial support away from Andrew, for fear of where else he might go looking for it.”
