Virginia Giuffre’s family is rejoicing after King Charles made the decision to officially revoke his brother Prince Andrew’s royal title.
On Thursday, October 30, the King of the United Kingdom, Charles, officially removed Prince Andrew from his Duke of York title, according to a significant announcement from Buckingham Palace.
This action means that Andrew’s public role has been effectively reduced to that of an ordinary citizen and he will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten.
The significant decision follows the release of Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir. Giuffre, a Jeffrey Epstein accuser, detailed her experiences of sexual abuse by Epstein and implicated the former prince in her book.
In her memoir, she claims she was paid to engage in sexual activities with Andrew when she was 17 years old.
Though Andrew denies these accusations, Buckingham Palace has acknowledged ‘serious lapses of judgement.’
Giuffre’s family is celebrating the decision and stated that she ‘brought down a British prince with her truth and extraordinary courage.’
Virginia Giuffre tragically passed away by suicide at her home in Australia in April of this year at the age of 41, before her memoir “Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice” was published.
Her family expressed that she ‘never stopped fighting for accountability for what happened to her and other survivors like her’ throughout her life.
“Today, she declares a victory. We, her family, together with her survivor sisters, are continuing Virginia’s fight and will not stop until all of her abusers and accomplices, associated with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, are held accountable,” they stated.
The King’s decision also follows inquiries from the UK’s Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) about the ‘value for money’ related to the Duke’s lifestyle funded by taxpayers since he stepped down from royal duties in 2019.
Buckingham Palace announced that the lease on his ‘Royal Lodge’ has been terminated, with a formal notice served to vacate it, meaning Andrew will relocate to alternative private housing.
“His Majesty has today initiated a formal process to remove the Style, Titles and Honours of Prince Andrew,” stated the Royal Family.
“These censures are considered necessary, despite the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him.”
“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.”
However, Giuffre’s brother, Sky Roberts, is advocating for further actions against Andrew.
In an interview with BBC Newsnight, he expressed gratitude to King Charles for extending ‘thoughts and utmost sympathies’ to ‘victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse’ but emphasized that more should be done.
“But it’s not enough, it’s not enough, we have to have some sort of investigation that goes further into this,” he said.
“I mean he’s [Andrew] still walking around a free man.
“I commend the King, I think he’s doing an amazing job as a world leader, setting a precedent, but we need to take it one more step further: he (Andrew) needs to be behind bars, period.”