King Charles III of UK strips his brother Andrew of princely title

已複製連結

Britain's King Charles has stripped his younger brother Andrew of his title of prince.

65-year-old Andrew, the younger brother of Britain's King Charles and second son of the late Queen Elizabeth, has come under mounting pressure in recent years, as a result of his alleged links to the late sex offender Jeffery Epstein. 

Earlier this month he was forced to stop using his title of Duke of York.

Charles has now stripped him of all his titles, leaving him to be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.

Buckingham Palace said a formal notice had now been served on Andrew to surrender the lease of his Royal Lodge mansion on the Windsor Estate, west of London.

He will move to alternative private accommodation on the Sandringham estate in eastern England.

The decision by the king marks one of the most dramatic moves against a member of the royal family in modern British history.

Andrew was once regarded as a dashing naval officer and served in the military during the Falklands War with Argentina in the early 1980s.

However, he was forced to step down from a UK trade ambassador role in 2011, before quitting all royal duties in 2019 and then was stripped of his military links and royal patronages in 2022 - amid allegations of sexual misconduct that he has always denied.

That year, he settled a lawsuit brought by Virginia Giuffre, who died in April, which accused him of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager. 

Andrew has always denied her account, which has recently returned to prominence with the release of her memoir.

While attendng the APEC meeting in South Korea, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was asked to comment on whether King Charles made the right decision.

An analyst also gave her views on the matter.

The Australian prime minister said: "I think His Majesty King Charles can make decisions without the benefit of my advice, I think, is probably the correct answer to that. And they work through those things, we respect decisions that are made by the Royal family."

A UK royals commentator said: "This is the strongest action against a member of the royal family that I know of. And I think that the King is acting very much here in harmony with public opinion, media opinion and parliamentary opinion." 

A palace source said while Andrew continued to deny the accusations against him, it was clear there had been serious lapses of judgement. 

The source said the decision was taken by Charles but the monarch had the support of the wider family.