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LONDON, October 30. /TASS/. The brother of the King of Great Britain, Prince Andrew, will be stripped of the title of "prince" and forced to leave the royal apartments on the grounds of Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace said in a statement. "His Majesty has today initiated a formal process to remove the Style, Titles and Honours of Prince Andrew," the palace said. "Prince Andrew will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. 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. These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him." BBC said he will move to the royal Sandringham estate in Norfolk, and the king will pay for his accommodation from his own funds. Earlier, Prince Andrew said he would stop using the title of Duke of York due to his ties with American financier Jeffrey Epstein. However, he remained a prince because he was the son of Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022). His daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, will retain the titles of princesses. "Their Majesties 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," Buckingham Palace added. Charges against the prince In 2019, Prince Andrew was forced to step down from his official duties as a member of the royal family after an American woman, Virginia Giuffre, said he was among several men with whom she was forced to have sex at the age of 17. Over the years, the prince has denied the accusations. However, when Giuffre filed a lawsuit against him in the United States, he settled the dispute out of court paying her 12 million pounds (about $15 million), according to media reports. In 2022, by the decision of Elizabeth II, the prince was stripped of honorary military ranks and the role of patron of several public organizations. He also lost the right to use the official title of His Highness, although he kept it. Epstein was re-arrested in July, 2019. The prosecutor's office said there was evidence that in 2002-2005 he organized visits to his Manhattan home by dozens of underage girls, the youngest of whom was 14 years old. Epstein's friends and acquaintances included a large number of current and retired officials not only from the United States, but also from many other countries, including former heads of state, major entrepreneurs and show business stars. The criminal prosecution of the financier in the United States was terminated after his suicide in a prison cell on August 10, 2019. "Chinese footprint" Earlier, The Daily Telegraph indicated that Prince Andrew was forced to give up the title of Duke of York, not only in light of new facts about his long-term friendship with Epstein, but also in connection with contacts with Chinese officials. The newspaper reported that in 2018-2019 the prince met at least three times with Cai Qi, then secretary of the Beijing City Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC). According to the publication, it was Cai Qi, who currently heads the secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, who received information from two British citizens accused of spying for China. On September 15, the Royal Prosecutor's Office dropped charges against two Britons, assistant to British Parliament Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry, for violating the Official Secrets Act in favor of China. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that the case, opened in April 2024, collapsed because at the time of the alleged crimes - from 2021 to 2023 - China was not one of the countries posing a threat to the kingdom.
