Former Prince Andrew to lose his last military title as King Charles continues to shun his younger brother

Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, Duke of York, appears to be stripped of his last honorary military title as the British royals continue their efforts to distance themselves from King Charles III’s younger brother over his links to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“We have seen Andrew resign from the military positions he had held and we are now looking at the only position he has left, which is honorary vice admiral, and we have a process underway for that” to be removed, Defense Secretary John Healey told British channel Sky News on Sunday.

In a separate interview on the same topic with News themezone’ sister network BBC News, the defense chief said “it’s a step that the king has indicated we should take.”

Mountbatten Windsor is the third child of the late Queen Elizabeth II. He spent decades in public life as a working member of the royal family, but revelations of his historical links to Epstein have made him a pariah figure. In 2016, he was named in a civil lawsuit filed by Virginia Giuffrewho alleged that Epstein paid her to have sex with the former prince on several occasions. Mountbatten Windsor has repeatedly denied the allegations, but settled the case out of court with Giuffre in 2022, for an undisclosed sum.

However, that deal failed to stem criticism of the former prince and the resulting pressure on the royal family, as new information about his historical connections to Epstein continued to emerge in the wake of a damning 2019 interview with the BBC’s Newsnight, in which he defended his ties to the disgraced financier.

In the years after that interview, until this year, amid revelations about correspondence between Epstein and the then-prince, the royal family seemed reluctant to intervene, allowing him to step back from his public duties and give up many of his titles and privileges of his own free will.

However, last week, in a historic move, King Charles announced that his younger brother would be stripped of the title of prince and told to leave his tax-funded, 30-bedroom Royal Lodge home in Windsor.

One of the few titles Andrew Mountbatten Windsor still holds is Honorary Vice-Admiral of the Royal Navy, which he received on his 55th birthday in 2015. It is unclear how long the process to remove that title, which Defense Chief Healy has confirmed is underway, could take.

The former prince had a 22-year career in the Royal Navy, including service as a helicopter pilot during the Falklands War and commanding the anti-mine ship HMS Cottesmore.

When asked about the ongoing scandal, President Trump told News themezone’ Norah O’Donnell in an interview broadcast Sunday on 60 Minutes that “it’s a terrible thing that’s happened” to the royal family.

“That has been a tragic situation,” he said. “And I mean, I feel bad for the family.”

News themezone has contacted the royal family for comment on the pending removal of the former prince’s royal naval title.