Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has today been officially stripped of his last royal titles by his brother – making him a commoner.
The former Duke of York had his membership of the Order of the Garter formally cancelled by King Charles III at Midday on Monday. It is the oldest British Order of Chivalry, founded by King Edward III in 1348.
Andrew’s Knight of the Grand Cross of the Royal Victoria Order has also been annulled in an official announcement in The Gazette, the UK’s official public record.
He was stripped of all his Royal titles, including the title ‘prince’, after a leaked email published by the Mail on Sunday proved that he lied in his interview with BBC’s Newsnight when he claimed he ‘never had any contact’ with Epstein after the pair were famously pictured together in New York in December 2010.
The official cull of Andrew’s last royal titles was confirmed and announced at Midday today, in The Gazette, in the name of the monarch.
The notice reads: ‘THE KING has directed that the appointment of Andrew Albert Christian Edward MOUNTBATTEN-WINDSOR to be a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, dated 23 April 2006, shall be cancelled and annulled and that his name shall be erased from the Register of the said Order.
‘THE KING has directed that the appointment of Andrew Albert Christian Edward MOUNTBATTEN-WINDSOR to be a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, dated 19 February 2011, shall be cancelled and annulled and that his name shall be erased from the Register of the said Order’.
It came as the Daily Mail revealed he will have one last Christmas at his Royal Lodge home at Windsor. It means the former Duke of York will not be moving to Sandringham, and into permanent royal exile, until well into the New Year.
Today’s announcement is formal confirmation of the decision taken by King Charles and Prince William in late October to strip him of his royal titles and remove his coat of arms from St George’s Chapel, Windsor, where the Queen and Prince Philip are buried.
The former Prince Andrew is still a vice-admiral in the Royal Navy, but defence chiefs have been told to ‘get on with it’ and take that final military title too.
Yesterday it emerged that Andrew reportedly told a young actress who was abused by Jeffrey Epstein that another woman had complained of the financier’s ‘inappropriate’ behaviour – a year before the former prince is alleged to have had sex with Virginia Giuffre.
In a bombshell statement to The Mail on Sunday, it was claimed that Andrew introduced a glamorous actress he was dating in the late 1990s to Epstein during a visit to Windsor Castle – and that the vile US billionaire went on to sexually assault her.
The MoS understands that the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, received a financial payout in June as one of Epstein’s victims. Perry Wander, a high-profile US lawyer, claims that the woman confided in Andrew 25 years ago that Epstein had behaved ‘inappropriately towards her’.
It is alleged that Andrew replied that ‘he wasn’t surprised’ because someone else had made a similar allegation, although the identity of that person is unknown.
The woman’s alleged warning to Andrew about Epstein came more than a year before the billionaire financier trafficked 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre to London to meet the then Duke of York.
Ms Giuffre, who took her own life earlier this year, claimed she was forced to have sex with Andrew on three separate occasions – allegations the former prince has repeatedly and strenuously denied.
The latest allegations – the first time Andrew has been accused of introducing a woman to Epstein – will send shockwaves through the Royal Family.
And it will fuel calls for Andrew, who has already been stripped of all his Royal titles, to give evidence to the US Congress about his friendship with the sex offender Epstein.
Andrew last night did not respond to a request for comment.
Mr Wander, an entertainment lawyer based in Beverly Hills whose clients have included Lindsay Lohan and Warren Beatty, told the MoS that the woman had agreed to come forward after being inspired by Ms Giuffre’s ‘courage’.
‘She was inspired… by her desire to stand with other survivors, and by the profound impact of Virginia Giuffre’s passing, which served as a catalyst for her to speak publicly.’
Andrew is said to have grown close to the woman after meeting in 1999. The couple enjoyed several dates, including lunch at Buckingham Palace.
Attractive and described by friends as fun-loving, the woman was attempting to forge a career in film and TV. In contrast, Andrew, then 39, a commander in the Royal Navy, was coming to the end of his military career.
Mr Wander alleged that Andrew introduced her to Epstein and socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who was jailed in 2022 for helping Epstein traffic under-age girls, during a visit to Windsor Castle in October 1999.
Andrew, it is claimed, encouraged the woman to spend time with Epstein, including by flying on the financier’s private jet, later dubbed the Lolita Express.
The MoS has learnt that the woman flew several times on the jet and visited Epstein’s mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, and his private Caribbean island, dubbed ‘Paedophile Island’.
The woman claimed she was repeatedly sexually abused by Epstein, who took his own life in 2019. She is understood to have been one of the last of Epstein’s victims to receive a payout from the financier’s estate, which was valued at around £500 million when he died.
Mr Wander said: ‘My client has disclosed that Prince Andrew encouraged her to seek out and follow Jeffrey Epstein’s guidance, and to spend time with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
‘When she questioned Prince Andrew about whether doing so was safe, he reassured her that he ‘trusted Jeffrey and Ghislaine’ and that she ‘should listen to Jeffrey’s counsel and spend time with him and Ghislaine.’
In an extraordinary twist, Mr Wander claimed that she later confided in Andrew that she was unhappy with the way Epstein had treated her – and the former prince allegedly admitted he knew that someone else had also complained.
The MoS understands that it is claimed the woman did not explicitly tell the then prince she had been sexually assaulted. Indeed, Mr Wander said ‘she struggled for decades to understand and accept what had happened to her’. He claims, however, that his client did inform Andrew that Epstein had not acted correctly with her.
‘One memory that stayed with her – and became a compelling factor in identifying Prince Andrew – was a conversation in early 2000 in which she confided in him about her time with Epstein and disclosed that he had behaved inappropriately towards her,’ said Mr Wander.
‘In response, he admitted that he wasn’t surprised because he heard that someone else had made a similar allegation. She remembers thinking: If he knew that, why would he encourage me to spend time with Epstein?’
He added: ‘She has expressed feelings of ambivalence toward Prince Andrew and initially did not wish to identify him publicly. But Virginia Giuffre’s courage taught her that fear should not stand in the way of justice.’
Documents released earlier this month reveal that the woman emailed Epstein a supportive message after he was arrested in July 2019.
Quizzed by the MoS about the email, Mr Wander said her supportive comments to Epstein ‘didn’t reflect how she felt’ and was the result of what he called a ‘trauma bond’.
‘Jeffrey used emotional manipulation, psychological pressure, sexual violence and coercive control to gaslight her into offering support after his arrest, even though this did not accurately reflect how she felt in 2019 when she emailed him.
‘It was hard to accept that she had been victimised. A sexual predator can exploit this bond to maintain contact with a victim, which Jeffrey expertly did.’
