King Charles strips Prince Andrew of all remaining titles

Buckingham Palace announced on Oct. 30, 2025 that KCKing Charles III had initiated a formal process to strip his brother Andrew of all remaining royal titles and evict him from Royal Lodge. The announcement came after years of scandal over Andrew's friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew had already lost his military titles and patronages in January 2022 under Queen Elizabeth II.

The immediate trigger was a one-two punch of new revelations. Newly released court documents included emails showing Andrew had stayed in contact with Epstein after December 2010, contradicting what he told BBC journalist EMEmily Maitlis in his disastrous November 2019 interview. Then on Oct. 21, Virginia Giuffre's posthumous memoir "Nobody's Girl" was published, renewing public attention to her allegations that Epstein trafficked her to Andrew when she was 17.

Virginia Giuffre died by suicide on April 25, 2025, at age 41, at her farm in Western Australia. She had been one of the earliest and most prominent survivors to publicly accuse Epstein and his associates. Her memoir was co-written with author Amy Wallace and published by Alfred A. Knopf six months after her death, per her explicit wishes.

On Oct. 17, 2025, after discussions with King Charles, Andrew agreed to stop using his peerages and honors. He released a statement saying the 'continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Family.' But Charles went further on Oct. 30, initiating the formal legal process to permanently remove the titles.

The legal mechanism was Letters Patent issued under the Great Seal of the Realm, dated Nov. 3, 2025. The London Gazette published the notice on Nov. 5. Andrew lost the title 'Prince,' the style 'His Royal Highness,' his peerage titles Duke of York, Earl of Inverness, and Baron Killyleagh, plus his Order of the Garter and Royal Victorian Order honors. He's now Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

The last time a British royal lost the title 'prince' was in 1919, when Parliament used the Titles Deprivation Act 1917 to strip Prince Ernest Augustus for fighting for Germany during World War I. Andrew's case used a different legal tool. Charles relied on the royal prerogative through Letters Patent rather than an act of Parliament, setting a new modern precedent for how the monarchy can police its own members.

Andrew also faced a separate scandal involving YTYang Tengbo, an alleged Chinese spy who MI5 said had built an 'unusual degree of trust' with the prince. Yang co-founded Pitch@Palace China, an expansion of Andrew's entrepreneur initiative, and was authorized to act on Andrew's behalf in business meetings with Chinese investors. Yang was banned from the UK on national security grounds in March 2023.

Andrew's eviction from Royal Lodge, a 30-room mansion on the Windsor estate, was announced alongside the title removal. He had previously resisted leaving, arguing his lease gave him legal protection. Buckingham Palace served formal notice to surrender the lease. Andrew is expected to move to Wood Farm on the Sandringham estate, then to Marsh Farm once renovations are completed. In December 2025, the Crown Estate denied Andrew six-figure compensation for leaving.