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It was a 10-minute phone call with ya 'weary' King Charles that is said to have finally seen Prince Andrew agree to give up the use of his royal titles and honours for good. The announcement came six years after Andrew stepped back as working royal, mired in scandal, after his 'car crash' interview with Newsnight about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein caused public outcry. Though Andrew has not conducted public duties for a long time, the unravelling of the royal trappings of his life took place over a number of years - and he still legally holds his titles, even if he does not intend to use them, and his lavish home of Royal Lodge. Andrew vehemently denies accusations of sexual assault levied against him by the late Virginia Giuffre. The 41-year-old, who died by suicide in Australia earlier this year, wrote a memoir about her harrowing experiences as a teenager inside the thrall of Epstein and his girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell - who is currently serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking in the US. The highly anticipated book was was released posthumously this week . And royal author Omid Scobie has previously claimed that for both the late Queen and now-King Charles, disgraced Andrew has been something of a "blind spot". In his bombshell book, Endgame , Scobie claims that Charles suffered sleepless nights worrying about his younger brother, and while he "openly detested Andrew's indiscretions" he still was deeply concerned about him, and has a "brotherly bias" towards the disgraced royal. According to Scobie, these complicated family dynamics meant that it fell to Prince William to lead the way on taking action, when a civil case was brought by Giuffre in the US against Andrew back in 2022. This was reportedly one particular "snapping point" for William around Andrew, which led the future King to persuade his grandmother that something had to be done. It came around the time there was a shock public intervention from the military community about Andrew's honorary military associations. "Military leaders chimed in on the matter via an open letter to the Queen," Scobie wrote. "Signed by 152 veterans of the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, and Army, the missive called on the Queen as the head of the British Armed Forces to remove Andrew's twelve honorary ranks and titles." The open letter saw the military community assert that "were this any other senior military officer, it is inconceivable that he would still be in post." This incident acted as "proof" that William had reached his "snapping point" just before it was too late, the author claimed. "Though the Queen was the official face of Andrew's reckoning, it was Prince William who set the wheels in motion," the author claimed. In recent months, it has been widely reported that William is keen to take a much stronger position when it comes to Andrew than his father has, desiring to banish his uncle from view altogether. Days after William is said to have met with his grandmother and laid out his position about Andrew, a statement was released by Buckingham Palace , announcing that his military associations and patronages had been "returned to the Queen" and that "The Duke of York will not undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a private citizen".
