Reference News, November 1 report: According to the Associated Press on October 30, Buckingham Palace stated that King Charles III of the United Kingdom stripped his disgraced younger brother, Prince Andrew, of his remaining titles on October 30 and expelled him from royal residences. For several weeks prior, King Charles III had been under pressure to take action due to Prince Andrew's association with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
This rare move came after years of scandalous revelations. Prince Andrew will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor instead of Prince Andrew, and he will have to move out of the Royal Lodge near Windsor Castle.
Earlier this month, new information about his friendship with Epstein was disclosed, and one of Epstein's victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, raised new allegations of sexual abuse in her recently published memoir. After that, calls for the royal family to expel him from the Royal Lodge increased. However, in order to punish his serious judgmental mistakes, the king went even further, stripping him of the title of Prince, which he had held since birth as a child of the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Buckingham Palace said: "Although he continues to deny the allegations against him, these condemnations are considered necessary. The Kings hope to show that they are and will continue to express concern and deepest sympathy for victims and survivors of any form of abuse."
It is almost unprecedented for a prince or princess of the United Kingdom to lose their titles. The last such incident occurred in 1919, when British royal member, Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover, was stripped of his British royal titles for taking a side with Germany during World War I.
Emails that surfaced earlier this month showed that Prince Andrew had maintained contact with Epstein longer than he previously admitted, leading to a new wave of public anger.
This move by the King means that Prince Andrew will no longer be a Prince, nor will he be addressed as "Your Royal Highness," Duke of York, Earl of Inverness, or Baron of Killey—titles and designations he previously held. Honors such as the Order of the Garter and the Victoria Cross also no longer exist.
Prince Andrew is reportedly the favorite child of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, and was once the male representative of the royal family. His romantic relationships with many models and minor celebrities in his youth were widely reported by British media.
It is expected that Prince Andrew will move to the Sandringham Royal Estate near the northeast coast, and receive financial support from his older brother.
His ex-wife Sarah Ferguson used to live with him in the Royal Lodge with 30 rooms, and now she has to find a new home.
According to Reuters on October 30, King Charles III has stripped his younger brother, Prince Andrew, of his royal titles and ordered him to leave the royal residence at Windsor Castle. Buckingham Palace announced this news on the 30th, aiming to distance the British royal family from Prince Andrew, who is involved in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
Prince Andrew, 65, is the younger brother of King Charles III and the second son of the late Queen Elizabeth II. In recent years, he has faced increasing pressure due to his relationship with the late sex offender Epstein. At the beginning of this month, he was forced to stop using the title of Duke of York.
Now, King Charles III has escalated the punishment against Prince Andrew, stripping him of all remaining royal titles, so that he can only be called Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in the future.
Buckingham Palace said in a statement that an official notice had been delivered to Prince Andrew, requiring him to hand over the royal villa in western London and move to a private residence in eastern England.
King Charles III is currently undergoing regular cancer treatment, and this decision is one of the most notable actions taken against a royal member in modern British history.
One of the victims of the Epstein case, Virginia Giuffre, who committed suicide in April this year, claimed that she had been sexually assaulted by Prince Andrew when she was a minor. He has consistently denied this, but his contradictory statements and correspondence with Epstein have made his position within the British royal family increasingly precarious. Some British MPs have called for parliamentary action against him.
A royal source said that although Prince Andrew has repeatedly denied the allegations, it is clear that he made serious errors in judgment.
The source also stated that the decision to strip his younger brother of all royal titles was made by King Charles III and received the support of other members of the royal family, including the heir apparent, Prince William. (Translated by Qiu Fang)
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