King Charles to remove Prince Andrew’s titles and eject him from Royal Lodge

Britain’s Prince Andrew will have his royal titles formally removed and will move out of his home in Windsor, Buckingham Palace has said, as the royal faces growing pressure over his ties to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Buckingham Palace said in a statement that King Charles had “initiated a formal process to remove the Style, Titles and Honours” of his younger brother.

“Prince Andrew will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor,” the statement said, an escalation from measures announced two weeks ago, when the palace said that Andrew would stop using some of his titles, including the Duke of York.

The statement says that the “censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him,” adding: “Their Majesties [King Charles and Queen Camilla] wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.”

The palace also said that a formal notice had been served for Andrew to leave his home at the Royal Lodge, close to Windsor Castle.

It comes after revelations that Andrew was paying a rent of “one peppercorn (if demanded) per annum” on the 30-room mansion owned by the Crown Estate, despite stepping back from public duties six years ago. The arrangement was revealed in a Freedom of Information request by The Times newspaper last week.

The palace said: “His lease on Royal Lodge has, to date, provided him with legal protection to continue in residence. Formal notice has now been served to surrender the lease and he will move to alternative private accommodation.”

The Royal Lodge was the home of Elizabeth, King George VI’s consort and the mother of Queen Elizabeth II, from 1952 until she died in 2002.

Legal documents published by The Times, not verified by NBC News, indicated that King Charles III’s younger brother paid 1 million pounds for the lease when he moved into the property in 2004, also paying 7.5 million pounds for refurbishment works. The palace and Prince Andrew did not previously comment on the reports.

In a statement two weeks ago, Andrew cited “the continued accusations about me” that “distract from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Family.”

“As I have said previously, I vigorously deny the accusations against me,” Andrew said.

The storm has only intensified since, with the publication of late Epstein survivor Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s posthumous memoir, detailing allegations against Andrew, last Monday.

Giuffre, who died by suicide in April, wrote that she had sex with the prince when she was 17 years old. Giuffre said one of the occasions was an “orgy” involving “eight other young girls” who “appeared to be under the age of 18 and didn’t really speak English.”

Andrew reached a legal settlement with Giuffre for an undisclosed amount in February 2022 after she filed a civil case against him in a New York court. He has repeatedly denied having met her and previously denied that a photograph of the two of them is real.

NBC News has approached Andrew for comment.