Giuffre

LONDON — Prince Andrew said Friday he is giving up his royal title of the Duke of York and other honors after his friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein returned to the headlines.

Andrew, the younger brother to King Charles III, said in a statement released by Buckingham Palace that “the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the royal family.”

“With His Majesty’s agreement, we feel I must now go a step further. I will therefore no longer use my title or the honours which have been conferred upon me,” Andrew said in his statement Friday. “As I have said previously, I vigorously deny the accusations against me.”

The news came in the wake of the release of excerpts of an upcoming posthumous memoir from Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who has alleged she was trafficked by Epstein and had sex with Andrew when she was 17.

It’s the latest fall from grace for the 65-year-old prince, who had already stepped down from public life in 2019 over his links to Epstein despite his denials of any wrongdoing.

Giuffre died by suicide in April at the age of 41. In the memoir, she details alleged encounters with Prince Andrew, who she sued in 2021, claiming that they had sex when she was 17. Andrew denied her claims and said he didn’t recall having met her.

Andrew, once second in line to the British throne, has long been a source of tabloid fodder because of his links to Epstein, other questionable characters and money woes.

His attempt to refute Giuffre’s allegations backfired during a November 2019 BBC interview. Viewers saw a prince who proffered curious rebuttals — such as disputing Giuffre’s recollection of sweaty dancing by saying he was medically incapable of perspiring — and showed no empathy for the women who said Epstein abused them.

Within days of the interview, Andrew stepped down from his royal duties. Giuffre sued him and the case was settled in 2022 for an undisclosed sum. A statement filed in court said that the prince acknowledged Epstein was a sex trafficker and Giuffre was “an established victim of abuse.”

As well as no longer using the title of the Duke of York, a long-established title that was gifted to him by his mother Queen Elizabeth II at his wedding to Sarah Ferguson in 1986, Andrew will also give up other titles: Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order and Royal Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter. He will remain a prince, which he has been entitled to since birth.

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

Andrew’s chaotic marriage to Ferguson, widely known as Fergie, lasted a decade though the two remain close, living together at a 30-room mansion near Windsor Castle. He has long been criticized for his opulent, globe-trotting lifestyle.

Andrew had been the poster boy of the royal family for many years, and his romantic links to a number of models and starlets during his youth were widely chronicled in the British press.

His star status within the royal family was at its peak after he flew in multiple missions as a helicopter pilot in the Royal Navy during the 1982 Falklands War when British forces sailed to the south Atlantic to eject the Argentine military that had invaded the U.K. overseas territories.

Lawless and Pylas write for the Associated Press.

The family of Virginia Giuffre, a woman who accused financier Jeffrey Epstein of sex-trafficking and assault, has expressed surprise at recent statements from United States President Donald Trump, alleging that Epstein “stole” her from his spa.

In a statement released late on Wednesday, the family called for more information to be released about the Epstein case.

“It was shocking to hear President Trump invoke our sister and say that he was aware that Virginia had been ‘stolen’ from Mar-a-Lago,” the family’s statement said.

“We and the public are asking for answers; survivors deserve this.”

Questions about Trump’s relationship with Epstein have dogged the president in recent weeks, with critics calling on him to release further documents the US government may have.

Trump himself has weighed in on the controversy, most recently while returning from his trip to Scotland this week.

A fallout over employee poaching?

As he flew on Air Force One, Trump brought up Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most high-profile accusers.

Giuffre died by suicide in April at her farm in western Australia. Previously, as a teenager, she had worked as a spa attendant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where her father was also employed in maintenance.

Trump accused Epstein, a convicted sex offender, of poaching employees like Giuffre.

“People were taken out of the spa, hired by him. In other words, gone,” Trump said. “When I heard about it, I told him, I said, ‘Listen, we don’t want you taking our people.’”

He added that Epstein’s actions caused a rupture in their relationship: “Not too long after that, he did it again. And I said, ‘Out of here.’”

His statements sparked a flurry of new media coverage. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has since defended Trump’s actions.

“The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club for being a creep to his female employees,” she said.

Upon taking office for a second term, Trump and his officials pledged to release government documents related to high-profile cases, including the assassinations of figures like civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr and US President John F Kennedy.

Many of the files in question have been the subject of numerous conspiracy theories.

In the case of Epstein, conspiracy theories have swirled about the circumstances of his 2019 jailhouse death and the potential influence he wielded over powerful acquaintances.

Figures in Trump’s current administration, like Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director Kash Patel and his deputy director Dan Bongino, openly speculated whether Epstein had a “black book” or “client list” that he used to coerce government and industry leaders.

Attorney General Pam Bondi fuelled those rumours when she appeared on Fox News in February and said such a list was “sitting on my desk right now”.

Family calls for Maxwell to ‘rot’

Thus far, the Trump administration’s document releases have failed to produce major revelations about the Epstein scandal.

In July, the FBI and the Department of Justice issued a joint statement also affirming that their review revealed no client list and no evidence that Epstein blackmailed figures of power.

That review, however, did little to abate speculation among those who have been following the Epstein conspiracy theories, including members of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) base.

Reports have since emerged that the Justice Department briefed Trump about his name appearing in the Epstein files, and Democrats have sought to leverage the controversy to dent Trump’s popularity.

Trump, meanwhile, has called for federal grand jury records to be released, though experts point out that those are unlikely to contain the full scope of evidence in the Epstein case.

Justice Department officials also met last week with Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted sex offender and former girlfriend of Epstein who is accused of sex-trafficking and grooming victims on his behalf.

Attorney General Bondi has said some Epstein materials cannot be released, as they contain sensitive information about victims.

Maxwell, meanwhile, has offered to testify before Congress in exchange for a pardon and has petitioned the Supreme Court to review her case. She is serving a 20-year sentence in federal prison.

In Wednesday’s message, Giuffre’s relatives urged the government not to pardon Maxwell for her crimes.

“Ghislaine Maxwell is a monster who deserves to rot in prison for the rest of her life,” their statement read.