By Michael Holden
LONDON (Reuters) -Britain's Prince Andrew said on Friday he would give up using his title of Duke of York following years of criticism about his behaviour and connections to the late U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The reputation of Andrew, the younger brother of King Charles and second son of the late Queen Elizabeth, has taken a battering in recent years, most notably because of his links to Epstein.
But a court ruling last year also revealed that one of his close business associates was thought by the British government to be a Chinese spy. Andrew at the time said he had stopped all contact with the individual.
In a statement on Friday, Andrew said "the continued accusations about me" distracted from the work of his elder brother King Charles and the wider work of the British royal family.
"I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first. I stand by my decision five years ago to stand back from public life," Andrew said.
"With His Majesty’s agreement, we feel I must now go a step further. I will therefore no longer use the title or the honours which have been conferred upon me. As I have said previously, I vigorously deny the accusations against me."
Andrew, 65, the eighth-in-line to the throne, was once regarded as a dashing naval officer and served in the military during the Falklands War with Argentina in the early 1980s.
But he was forced to step down from a roving UK trade ambassador role in 2011, before quitting all royal duties in 2019 and then was stripped of his military links and royal patronages in 2022 amid allegations of sexual misconduct which he has always denied.
That year, he settled a lawsuit brought by Virginia Giuffre, who died in April, which accused him of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager. Andrew has always denied her account, which has returned to prominence in the last week with the release of her memoirs.
In her book, she said "entitled" Andrew believed it was his birthright to have sex with her, according to extracts published by the Guardian newspaper.
BRITONS SUPPORT STRIPPING ANDREW OF TITLES
According to a recent poll by YouGov, 67% of Britons supported stripping Andrew of his remaining royal titles, with 13% opposing the move. A separate survey found only 5% of respondents had a favourable view of him.
Andrew, who had already given up being called "His Royal Highness", still remains a prince and will continue to live in Royal Lodge, a large property on the estate surrounding Windsor Castle, a historic royal palace to the west of London.
However, he will no longer attend the annual royal Christmas get-togethers at Sandringham, the royal home in eastern England.
His daughters Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie will be unaffected, but his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson will also no longer be known as the Duchess of York.
In September, several charities cut their links to her after she described Epstein as a "supreme friend" in an email three years after he had pleaded guilty in 2008 to a state prostitution charge in Florida and agreed to register as a sex offender.
In addition to the ties to Epstein that dogged him, Andrew's business relations have also proved problematic.
Last December, court documents revealed that a Chinese businessman who had been authorised to act on Andrew's behalf to seek investors in China had been banned from Britain on national security grounds.
The documents revealed the businessman, who the British government believed to be a spy, had been invited to Andrew's birthday party.
(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Chris Reese and Deepa Babington)
