Former Prince Andrew set to be stripped of navy rank by UK authorities

Andrew Mountbatten Windsor can be stripped of his final remaining navy place as a part of King Charles’s resolution to take away his brother from public life, based on the United Kingdom’s defence minister.

John Healey instructed the BBC on Sunday, native time, that strikes have been underway to remove the previous British prince’s place as a vice-admiral within the nation’s navy and that Charles had “indicated that’s what he wishes”.

The king final week stripped his youthful brother of his title of prince and evicted him from his mansion in a bid to forestall additional injury to the royal household’s fame over Mr Mountbatten Windsor’s ties to late intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“We’ve seen Andrew surrender the honorary positions he’s had throughout the military,” Mr Healey mentioned.

“Guided again by the king, we are working now to remove that last remaining title of vice-admiral that he has.”

“This is a move that’s right, it’s a move the king has indicated we should take, and we’re working on that at the moment.”

He instructed the BBC that the federal government would even be guided by the king on whether or not Mr Mountbatten Windsor ought to lose his navy medals.

The former prince was as soon as feted for his function as a Royal Navy helicopter pilot within the 1982 Falklands War. He retired in 2001 after 22 years of service.

Mr Mountbatten Windsor was stripped of his honorary navy titles by his mom, the late Queen Elizabeth II, in 2022 after he was sued by Virginia Giuffre — Epstein’s fundamental accuser — however he saved his rank as a vice-admiral.

Mr Mountbatten Windsor has at all times denied that he sexually abused Ms Giuffre, who mentioned in her memoir, revealed posthumously final month, that she was trafficked to have intercourse with him on three events, twice when she was simply 17.

On Thursday, Buckingham Palace mentioned in a fiercely worded assertion that “Prince Andrew will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor”, including “these censures are deemed necessary” regardless of his denial.

The king and queen additionally mentioned their “utmost sympathies had been, and would remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse”.

A pal of the king and Queen Camilla reportedly instructed The Sunday Times: “That was extraordinary. That’s the closest you’ll get to the king and his court passing judgment on his brother.”

British media reported earlier that Mr Mountbatten Windsor had refused to log out on any statements that referenced the victims since his disastrous BBC Newsnight interview in 2019 through which he defended his ties to Epstein and appeared to indicate no empathy for the ladies concerned.

“There has long been a sense from the family that the voices of the victims needed to be heard,” one other pal instructed The Sunday Times.

In an e-mail launched amongst court docket paperwork on Thursday within the US, the previous prince wrote to Epstein in 2010 after his launch from jail for prostituting minors that he was planning a visit to New York as it might be “good to catch up in person”.

Reuters/AFP