JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Prince Andrew will no longer be able to call himself a prince. Earlier today, Buckingham Palace stripped Queen Elizabeth's second son of his final remaining title. The move comes after years of controversy surrounding Andrew's relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and accusations from Epstein victim, Virginia Giuffre. She accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager. He denies those accusations. NPR's Fatima Al-Kassab has been following developments in London and joins me now. Hi.
FATIMA AL-KASSAB, BYLINE: Hi, Juana.
SUMMERS: So Andrew's association with Jeffrey Epstein has been well-known for some time now, for years, really. So why is this happening now?
AL-KASSAB: Yeah. It has been years since Andrew stepped back from royal duties after his fateful interview with the BBC in 2019, which brought his relationship with Epstein into the spotlight. But earlier this year, new evidence emerged about their relationship. Emails published by The Mail on Sunday newspaper appeared to show contact between Andrew and Epstein beyond the time when Andrew had told British media that he had severed all ties to the sex offender. And then in October, Andrew voluntarily gave up a lot of his titles.
But many in the British public and politicians wanted more. They wanted him to lose the prince title. And then earlier this month Jeffrey Epstein's best-known accuser, Virginia Giuffre's posthumous memoir was published, and that included more details of her allegations against Andrew, including that she had had sex with the prince three times as a teenager. And Andrew denies even knowing Giuffre. But he settled a lawsuit with her in 2022. She died by suicide earlier this year, and the pressure has mounted ever since.
SUMMERS: Can you just help us understand the significance of losing the title prince?
AL-KASSAB: Yeah. So he gave up some of his other titles and honors a few weeks ago. They include the Duke of York, the Earl of Inverness. But losing the title of prince is unprecedented. This is full disgrace for Andrew. Until now, we were told he couldn't really stop being a prince because he is the son of the late Queen Elizabeth, after all. Now he will be known simply as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. This hasn't happened before, but the king found a way to do it. And he's also made sure that Andrew loses the 30-room mansion on the Windsor Estate that he had been living in virtually rent free, and that was angering a lot of people. Now he has to move out.
SUMMERS: OK. I understand that this decision, it came from King Charles. They're brothers, but what's their relationship like?
AL-KASSAB: Yeah. It's become clear in recent weeks that the king was going to have to do something about it. He was prepared to go further than his mother, Queen Elizabeth, had. It was also clear that this wasn't going away. King Charles was heckled earlier this week - this is something very rare for the king - about Andrew's friendship with Epstein. So it was clear that this was a question of when, not if, the king would do something.
SUMMERS: OK. So tell us what happens to Andrew now?
AL-KASSAB: So he's going to move to another property on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, which is privately owned by the king. And the statement from the palace says that these censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegation against him. Interestingly, the statement from Buckingham Palace also says that the king and queen's thoughts will always be with the victims and survivors.
Now, there was no mention of the victims in Andrew's own statement from a few weeks back, when he announced that he was giving up his other titles and honors. He didn't mention victims at all. We have no comment from him today about losing his title yet, but we have had statement from Virginia Giuffre's family this evening. Her brother Sky Roberts and her sister-in-law Amanda told the BBC, today, an ordinary American girl from an ordinary American family brought down a British prince with her truth and extraordinary courage.
SUMMERS: NPR's Fatima Al-Kassab, thank you.
AL-KASSAB: Thanks so much.
SUMMERS: And if you or someone you know may be considering suicide or is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
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