Who is Prince Andrew? The royal who has given up his titles

Prince Andrew will no longer use his royal titles, including the Duke of York, after discussions with his brother, King Charles III.

The prince had already returned military titles and royal patronages in 2022, and stopped using the title His Royal Highness in an official capacity, after he was accused of sexual abuse in a civil case in the US.

He later settled the case brought against him by Virginia Giuffre, a victim of sex trafficking and abuse by Jeffrey Epstein, who alleged the prince sexually abused her when she was under the age of 18 - something the prince has consistently denied.

The prince's announcement came days before the posthumous memoir of Ms Giuffre was due for release - almost six months after she took her own life in April 2025.

The 65-year-old prince is the third child of the late Queen Elizabeth II and he is eighth in line to the throne.

His elder siblings are his brother King Charles and his sister Anne, the Princess Royal.

He is divorced from Sarah Ferguson - who lost her title as Duchess of York when the prince stopped using his own royal title - with whom he has two daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.

The Duke of York was accused of sexual abuse in a civil case in the US.

In court documents, Virginia Giuffre said she was the victim of sex trafficking and abuse by Jeffrey Epstein from the age of 16.

Part of her abuse involved being lent out to other powerful men - including Prince Andrew, she alleged.

Ms Giuffre says the prince sexually assaulted her on three occasions when she was under the age of 18.

Prince Andrew has consistently denied all the allegations against him. He said in an interview with BBC Newsnight in 2019 that he had no recollection of ever meeting Ms Giuffre.

On 15 February 2022 a letter filed to the US district court said the duke and Ms Giuffre had reached an out-of-court settlement.

It said the duke - who made no admission of liability - would pay an undisclosed sum to Ms Giuffre.

• Prince Andrew settles US civil sex assault case
• Prince Andrew loses military titles and use of HRH

It is thought Prince Andrew received an annual sum from the Sovereign Grant - which covers official duties - until 2019, when he stood down as a working Royal.

However, the amount was not made public and it is not known whether he subsequently received money from his late mother the Queen Elizabeth II's - or later his brother King Charles' - private funds.

Royal sources say the King cut off Andrew's funding last year.

In 2007, the prince sold his Sunninghill Park home for £15m - £3m more than the asking price - to Timor Kulibayev, the son-in-law of the then-president of Kazakhstan. The 12-bedroom house near Windsor Castle had been given to the prince as a wedding present from Queen Elizabeth.

He lives in the Royal Lodge in Windsor, a Grade II-listed property, but that's leased from the Crown Estate and is not an asset that could be sold.

There have been repeated calls for Prince Andrew to be removed from the 30-room mansion but he has his own independent lease with the Crown Estate that lasts until 2078. Much of the costs of moving there were front-loaded when he took on the property in 2003 and there is little obvious incentive for Andrew to leave now.

Prince Andrew seems to have cultivated his own independent sources of funding since leaving public life, including business connections with China, the Gulf States and a recently curtailed project with a Dutch start-up company. He has proved financially resilient, despite what must be significant costs in paying for his own security.

Prince Andrew will remain a prince as it is a title from his birth, as the son of the monarch, with the titles he has since lost only given to him later in life.

He will no longer be called the Duke of York, which he was given when he got married in 1986, and has given up membership of the Order of the Garter.

Additionally, Prince Andrew is also giving up the titles of Earl of Inverness and Baron of Killyleagh.

In 2022 it was announced he would no longer use his title of His Royal Highness, or HRH, in any official capacity - though like Harry and Meghan, he would still retain the title privately.

The duke had a 22-year career in the Royal Navy, and served as a helicopter pilot during the 1982 Falklands War. He also commanded the mine countermeasures vessel HMS Cottesmore.

His military appointments were suspended after he stepped back from public duties in 2019.

He also lost a series of UK military titles including colonel of the Grenadier Guards, honorary air commodore of RAF Lossiemouth and colonel-in-chief of the Royal Irish Regiment.

The job of a royal patron is to bring publicity to a cause or service.

The prince used to be a patron to about 200 charities and organisations.

But after the controversial BBC interview in 2019, in which he denied allegations that he had sex with Ms Giuffre, many chose to cut ties with him. They included the Outward Bound Trust, English National Ballet, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and London Metropolitan University.

Prince Andrew had still been left with dozens of other patronages - including being a patron or member of prestigious golf clubs, schools and cultural trusts.

But these were later returned to his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, and were to be redistributed to other members of the Royal Family.

After retiring from the Navy, Prince Andrew served as the UK's special representative for trade and investment for 10 years.

But he gave up the title after he was criticised over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2008 for soliciting a minor for prostitution.

He had also attracted criticism for combining business with pleasure on his overseas trips, and some newspapers gave him the nickname "Airmiles Andy".

The prince's judgement was also questioned for holding meetings with former Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's son Saif, and for entertaining the son-in-law of Tunisia's ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali at Buckingham Palace.

And in November 2010, a secret cable published on Wikileaks revealed a US ambassador wrote that he spoke "cockily" during an official engagement, leading a discussion that "verged on the rude".

From 2011 to 2019, Prince Andrew was a working Royal.

One focus was Pitch@Palace - an initiative he started to help entrepreneurs seeking investment.

In 2020 it removed Prince Andrew's name from its website, after prominent supporters distanced themselves amid revelations about his friendship with Epstein.

Questions were raised about his judgement after it was alleged a "close confidant" was a Chinese spy.

The prince said he had "ceased all contact" with the businessman after being advised to do so by the government.