King’s brother will become known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, Buckingham Palace says, in latest fallout from Epstein scandal
Prince Andrew is to be stripped of his royal titles and will move out of his home at the Royal Lodge in Windsor, Buckingham Palace has announced.
King Charles has initiated a “formal process to remove the style, titles and honours of Prince Andrew”, who will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, the palace said.
Continue reading...Jettisoning of ex-prince became unavoidable when king’s loyalty to his brother collided with task of keeping public on side
To strip his brother of his titles and to evict him from his home is the most consequential action King Charles has taken since he ascended the throne in 2022.
The defenestration of Prince Andrew, now to be known only as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, and the removal of his cherished privilege of royal status is an act of utmost ruthlessness by a king. Ascending the throne at 73, Charles always knew he would play a caretaker role for the monarchy and so could not allow rot to set into an institution that lives and dies by public consent.
Continue reading...Buckingham Palace trying to increase pressure on prince to give up home for which he pays ‘peppercorn’ rent
Prince Andrew is reportedly in advanced talks with King Charles’s senior aides about moving out of his Royal Lodge home after a week in which his “peppercorn” rent tenancy has come under scrutiny.
Pressure has mounted on the royal family for Andrew to vacate the 30-room mansion in Windsor Great Park amid the continuing controversy over his links to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and the posthumous publication of the memoirs of the prince’s sexual assault accuser Virginia Giuffre.
Continue reading...Ministers face growing pressure to act amid fresh allegations over prince’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein
MPs have moved to lodge a parliamentary motion to strip Prince Andrew of his dukedom, in a rarely permitted move in the Commons.
The government is facing mounting pressure over the prince’s residence in the 30-room Royal Lodge in Windsor, where it was revealed that he has not paid rent for more than two decades.
Continue reading...Andrew hid behind Balmoral’s ‘guarded gates’ to escape court papers, accuser says in memoir Nobody’s Girl
Prince Andrew’s team tried to hire “internet trolls to hassle” his accuser, Virginia Giuffre, while he hid behind the “well-guarded gates” of Balmoral Castle to avoid being served court papers, according to allegations in her posthumous memoir.
Giuffre wrote of the 2022 confidential settlement of her sexual abuse civil claim against the royal, widely rumoured to be $12m (£9m), that her lawyers “were going to ask for the moon” and her team had agreed it “had to be more than mere money”.
Continue reading...National Archives papers show how then MP pushed for 2002 meeting between PM and ‘young and vibrant’ financier
Sir Tony Blair met Jeffrey Epstein in Downing Street while he was prime minister after a recommendation by Peter Mandelson, newly released papers from the National Archives show.
Epstein visited Blair on 14 May 2002, after the suggestion by Lord Mandelson to the prime minister’s then chief of staff, Jonathan Powell.
Continue reading...Giuffre’s family issue statement confirming she killed herself at her farm in Western Australia
Virginia Giuffre, one of the most prominent victims of the disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein who also alleged she was sexually trafficked to Prince Andrew, has died aged 41.
Her family issued a statement on Saturday confirming she took her own life at her farm in Western Australia, where she had lived for several years.
Continue reading...Duke of York attends royal family’s traditional Easter service at Windsor Castle with Sarah, Duchess of York
The Duke of York has appeared at the Easter Sunday service at Windsor Castle with King Charles, days after it emerged that an alleged spy helped him write birthday letters to China’s president.
Prince Andrew arrived at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, with the princess royal, as well as his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, and Anne’s husband, Vice-Admiral Sir Tim Laurence.
Continue reading...Released court statement says alleged Chinese spy helped draft private letters to Chinese president
The Duke of York sent letters directly to China’s president, the prince’s former senior adviser told a special immigration tribunal, with an alleged Chinese spy advising him on how to write them.
Dominic Hampshire, who worked for Andrew from 2019-22, said Andrew had “always had a communication channel” with Xi Jinping that was “accepted” and may even have been encouraged by Buckingham Palace and the late queen.
Continue reading...Virginia Giuffre writes on social media she has ‘gone into kidney renal failure … they’ve given me four days to live’
Virginia Giuffre, a victim of the disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein who once alleged she was sexually trafficked to Britain’s Prince Andrew, says she has just days to live after being involved in a vehicle accident.
“This year has been the worst start to a new year … I won’t bore anyone with the details, but I think it important to note that when a school bus driver comes at you driving 110km as we were slowing for a turn no matter what your car is made of it might as well be a tin can,” she wrote in a post on social media on Sunday, along with a photograph of herself lying in a hospital bed with a head injury.
Continue reading...FCA presents email evidence it claims shows bank boss and child sex offender were like ‘family’
Prince Andrew was among a number of high-profile contacts of Jeffrey Epstein who were told that the child sex offender considered the former Barclays boss Jes Staley to be a close friend and like “family”, a court has heard
A package of emails presented at the upper tribunal in London marked the first time that the prince was explicitly mentioned in the case launched by Staley in hopes of overturning a lifetime ban from working in the City.
Continue reading...Media group led by Guardian seeks release of document written by Dominic Hampshire in support of Yang Tengbo
Lawyers for an aide to Prince Andrew are fighting to prevent his statement in support of a man accused of being a Chinese spy, who briefly became a trusted business partner and associate of the prince, from being released to the press.
The Guardian is leading a group of media organisations seeking the release of a witness statement written by the prince’s fixer and close friend Dominic Hampshire, originally at the personal request of the businessman Yang Tengbo.
Continue reading...Lord Foulkes believes rules must change after series of scandals involving Prince Andrew
Rules banning scrutiny of the royal family in parliament must be changed in light of the continuing scandals about Prince Andrew, a Labour peer has said. Lord Foulkes is seeking a meeting this week with the clerk of the parliaments Simon Burton, who is head of the House of Lords administration, to discuss what Foulkes says is a growing list of concerns about the activities of the royal family.
Foulkes, a junior minister under Tony Blair, said he has been refused permission to table a question proposing a public register of royal interests.
Continue reading...Biographer says government departments give contradictory refusals to requests and accuses them of ‘cover up’
Researchers have called for greater transparency from the Foreign Office over the files it holds on the Duke of York. Officials responding to freedom of information requests have given a variety of reasons why the files cannot be released.
Andrew Lownie, an author who is researching a biography of Prince Andrew, was told that the files could not be made public until 2065, and implied there was a general rule that papers relating to members of the royal family must remain closed until 105 years after their birth.
Continue reading...Duke of York must answer to claims in new documents while ‘facing all the trappings of the law’, says victims’ lawyer
Prince Andrew must testify under oath about his role in the Jeffrey Epstein abuse scandal so that he faces the threat of prison if he lies, a lawyer for several of Epstein’s victims has said.
Amid growing calls for a police investigation into allegations of sexual assault against the royal, Spencer Kuvin, a Florida-based attorney, told the Observer that the Duke of York “needs to answer for what is now coming out” and should give his account with “all the trappings of the law” so that he is legally obliged to tell the truth.
Continue reading...Scotland Yard suggest recently unsealed documents containing allegations of sexual assaults do not provide new information
The Metropolitan police has rejected calls to launch an investigation into Prince Andrew, after the release of court documents relating to the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Accusations against Prince Andrew, including allegedly groping a woman’s breast during an encounter involving a puppet version of the prince and claims he sexually assaulted Virginia Giuffre when she was 17, were given a new airing in the unsealing of 1,200 pages by a US court.
Continue reading...List could be released as soon as Tuesday after deadline for objections to unsealing of names passes midnight Monday
Nearly 200 names connected to the Jeffrey Epstein-Ghislaine Maxwell sex trafficking conspiracy could be released by a New York judge as soon as Tuesday, exposing or confirming the identities of dozens of associates of the disgraced financier that until now have only been known as John and Jane Does in court papers.
A deadline for objections to the unsealing of name passes at midnight on Monday, nearly nine years after victim Virginia Giuffre filed a single defamation claim against Maxwell, daughter of the late British press baron Robert Maxwell, in 2015, that in turn produced the names in legal depositions.
Continue reading...Prince was among at least five members of royal family who used Bank of England Nominees – set up in 1970s to prevent disclosure of queen’s investments
Prince Andrew held his shareholdings through a government-backed shell company that was created to conceal royal investments from public scrutiny.
The prince was among at least five members of the royal family who used the shell company Bank of England Nominees, which was set up in the 1970s to prevent the “embarrassing” public disclosure of Queen Elizabeth II’s investments.
Continue reading...Former courtier says the King would still keep Duke of York at arm’s length as Charles prepares for coronation
Any attempt by Prince Andrew to try to row back an out-of-court deal with a woman with whom he is accused of having sex when she was a teenager is unlikely to rehabilitate him in the royal family, a former senior royal aide has warned.
The Duke of York was at the weekend urged to challenge his legal settlement with Virginia Giuffre by Alan Dershowitz, an American lawyer who himself was previously accused by her of sexual abuse.
Continue reading...Comments will be embarrassing for royal who has tried to distance himself from disgraced socialite
Ghislaine Maxwell has spoken from a US prison cell about how she feels “so bad” for her “dear friend” Prince Andrew.
In her first lengthy interview since her conviction on sex-trafficking charges last year, Maxwell said she still cared about the Duke of York, who has been stripped of royal duties over his relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
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