Prince Andrew is to lose his "Prince" title and must leave his 30-room Windsor mansion. The move follows mounting pressure from the King and Prince William urging him to abandon the grand property, Royal Lodge, along with his former wife Sarah Ferguson amid growing scrutiny from MPs and public outrage over his connections to paedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew has consistently refuted the claims made against him, but given the fury after it also surfaced he barely paid any rent on the Royal Lodge for over two decades, his situation became impossible to maintain. A Buckingham Palace statement said: "His Majesty has today initiated a formal process to remove the Style, Titles and Honours of Prince Andrew.
"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," reports the Mirror.
"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."
Andrew giving up his lavish home comes just weeks after he also gave up his Duke of York title ahead of the publication of a posthumous memoir by Virginia Giuffre.
Since announcing he would be giving up his titles, Andrew was also exposed for lying about cutting off contact with late convicted paedophile Epstein.
In his 2019 car crash interview on BBC Newsnight, he claimed he had ceased contact with Epstein in 2010 - but an email appeared to show they were still in contact a year later.
In the same interview, Andrew also said he had no recollection of meeting his accuser Ms Giuffre. In 2021, she filed a lawsuit against him, which Andrew settled out of court for a rumoured £12million, without admitting any wrongdoing. Ms Giuffre died by suicide in April this year.
Earlier this month it also emerged he could be forced to speak to Met Police detectives investigating claims the royal passed on private information on his sex abuse accuser in an attempt to discredit his sex accuser Ms Giuffre.
The Metropolitan Police said that it was "actively" looking into claims Andrew passed her date of birth and social security number to his bodyguard in a bid to dig up dirt for a smear campaign. Andrew has always vehemently denied the allegations.
According to emails released by US Congress, Andrew told a Palace press officer he had passed on Giuffre's social security number to his taxpayer-funded private protection officer. Then it came to light that he has barely paid any rent for his Royal Lodge home after his lease with the Crown Estate was released.
He paid £1million for a 75-year lease of the Grade-II listed Royal Lodge mansion in 2003 but has only paid a "peppercorn rent if demanded ever since.
News of Andrew quitting his home comes just hours as MPs were demanding answers over his rent-free mansion deal amid what they called the "serious and disturbing allegations" against him.
Profits from the Crown Estate go to the Treasury, raising questions over whether the deal is costing the public money. The PAC examines the value for money of public spending. It investigated the government's procurement and management of PPE during the Covid-19 pandemic.
It's chairman Sir Geoffrey Clifton Brown previously said: "There is considerable public interest in the spending of public money in relation to Prince Andrew, which in part stems from the fact that he is no longer a working Royal and from serious and disturbing allegations made against him."
The Tory MP went on: "We are concerned as to whether the lease arrangements for Royal Lodge are achieving the best value for money."
While the committee did not directly call on the King to act, the intervention ramped up the pressure on him to distance Andrew further from the financial and political protection of the Royal household.
Earlier this week, it was claimed that William threatened to take away the titles of Andrew's daughters Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie if they didn't help persuade their father Prince to leave Royal Lodge.
Emily Maitlis, who famously grilled Andrew for the BBC Newsnight interview, made the claim - even though Kensington Palace said no meeting between William and his cousins, the princesses, took place.
Speaking on the News Agents podcast, Maitlis said that last week camera crews were scrambled to the gates of Royal Lodge amid speculation there could be further developments in the long-running controversy surrounding the late Queen's second son.
This was the same day the King prayed with together with Pope Leo in a historic moment at the Vatican with former BBC journalist Maitlis saying it came after a "tip off".