Britain’s Andrew loses 'prince' title & home over Epstein scandal

Britain’s King Charles stripped younger brother Andrew of his title of prince and ordered him out of his royal home over renewed scrutiny after the release of a posthumous memoir by one of the most prominent accusers of late U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The book by Virginia Giuffre detailed new allegations about the 65-year-old Andrew, who is the second son of the late Queen Elizabeth and has always denied accusations made by Giuffre before her death by suicide in April.The decision by the king, which was announced on Thursday and endorsed by heir-to-the-throne Prince William, was one of the most dramatic moves against a member of the royal family in modern British history.

In her memoir “Nobody’s Girl”, Giuffre wrote that when she was a teenager she had been forced to have sex with Andrew, the eighth-in-line to the British throne, on three occasions at the behest of Epstein, including one she described as an “orgy”. One of the occasions took place at the London home of Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who she says facilitated her introduction to Andrew.
Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 in prison while awaiting trial on sex abuse charges, was jailed in 2008 for child sex offences. Maxwell was found guilty in 2021 in the U.S. of sex trafficking by helping Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls and was later sentenced to 20 years in prison.The memoir says Andrew correctly guessed Giuffre’s age – 17 – when they first met, and includes details of encounters in London, New York and on Epstein’s private island. In her book, Giuffre said the “entitled” Andrew believed it was his birthright to have sex with her.
In 2011, Andrew quit his role as Britain’s roving trade ambassador, partly because of his friendship with Epstein. With Epstein making headlines again in 2019, Andrew gave what turned out to be a disastrous interview to the BBC’s Newsnight programme. He denied ever meeting Giuffre, said he could not have had sex with her in London as she said because he was in a pizza restaurant for a children’s party, and that her account of him sweating profusely at a nightclub was wrong because he suffered from a medical condition that stopped him perspiring.
He also cast doubt on an infamous picture from 2001 which showed him with his arm around Giuffre’s waist. He has always continued to deny the accusations although in 2022, he approved a financial deal to settle a U.S. lawsuit brought by Giuffre. Some anti-monarchy campaigners argued that Andrew’s loss of royal titles and transfer from one lavish residence to another amounted to too mild a punishment. Republic, a campaign group founded in 1983 that calls for an elected head of state in Britain, said he should face a police investigation.