Prince Andrew has been booted from royal life according to a statement from Buckingham Palace on Friday following new revelations uncovered this week about his past relationship with discouraged financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Newly revealed emails released earlier this week showed Prince Andrew – who insisted in a 2019 interview that he cut off ties with Epstein in 2010 following his initial 2008 arrest on child sex crimes – had emailed Epstein in 2011, writing that they were “in this together.”
The revelation saw Prince Andrew face a wave of renewed scrutiny, and on Friday, according to The Washington Post, Buckingham Palace had apparently had enough of the controversy-ridden Duke of York and announced that he had agreed to no longer use his official titles.
“To say something which is proven not to be true, I think, is the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said Craig Prescott, a specialist in UK constitutional law at the Royal Holloway University of London, speaking with the Post.
And, according to royal commentator Jennie Bond, Prince Andrew had not agreed to stop using his royal titles of his own volition.
“We could say he has fallen on his sword, but I think he’s been pushed onto it,” Bond said, speaking with BBC, according to the Post. “I don’t think this is a decision that Andrew, quite an arrogant man – very, very fond of his status – would have willingly made without a lot of pressure.”
Prince Andrew is just one of many powerful figures that has been plagued by their past relationship with Epstein, who died in 2019 awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. President Donald Trump has faced renewed scrutiny over his own ties with the disgraced financier following the release of a bawdy letter he allegedly wrote to Epstein in 2003, where he wrote “may every day be another wonderful secret.”