IN LONDON

Prince Andrew has given up all of his titles, including the Duke of York, amid another week of scandals involving his ties to convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and allegations he sexually abused Virginia Giuffre.

King Charles’ brother confirmed the news in a statement released Friday night, UK time, via Buckingham Palace, declaring he no longer wanted to “distract” from the work of the royal family.

“In discussion with The King, and my immediate and wider family, we have concluded the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Family,” Andrew wrote.

“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.

“With His Majesty’s agreement, we feel I must now go a step further. I will therefore no longer use my title or the honours which have been conferred upon me. As I have said previously, I vigorously deny the accusations against me.”

The bombshell decision reportedly came after tense meetings with the King and Prince William. The monarch had reportedly reached “tipping point” with the ongoing scandal, per The Mirror, and is “glad” of the outcome.

While it would take an Act of Parliament to formally strip Andrew of his dukedom, he has agreed to no longer use it.

As part of the agreement, he will voluntarily give up his knighthood as a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) and his Garter role as a Royal Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.

The disgraced prince will also not attend family Christmas celebrations at Sandringham.

It is understood that Andrew’s ex-wife, Sarah will give up her Duchess of York title and be known only as Sarah Ferguson.

The pair were given their titles by his mother, the late Queen, on their wedding day in 1986.

They divorced 10 years later.

While he’s given up his title and honours, Andrew will remain at Royal Lodge - where he lives with Sarah - as he has a “cast-iron” lease.

Sarah has recently been embroiled in an Epstein scandal of her own, with the Mail on Sunday publishing details of the communication between herself and the convicted sex offender from back in 2011, which was just weeks after she pledged never to contact him again.

In the messages, she called the billionaire a “dear friend” and “humbly” apologised after publicly condemning him after he was first jailed for soliciting prostitution with a minor.

“I know you feel hellaciously let down by me from what you were either told or read and I must humbly apologise to you and your heart for that,” she wrote in one of the emails.

Just weeks earlier, she’d told an interviewer that her former friend had made a “gigantic error of judgement” and that she “[abhorred] pedophilia and any sexual abuse of children.”

Following the publication of the email’s contents recently, a spokesman for the ex-wife of Andrew stated that they had been sent to avoid a defamation suit by Epstein.

Meanwhile, Andrew’s official statement comes just hours after it was reported that senior palace officials were considering stripping the disgraced Prince Andrew of his Duke of York title as they worked out how to deal with him once and for all.

The Sun reported earlier on Friday that the “frustrated and exasperated” King and his team were “considering all options” in the wake of the latest scandal, which came as a result of a leaked email from Andrew to Epstein, weeks after he declared they’d cut off all contact with each other.

In the very friendly note, sent a day after the infamous image of Andrew and a teenage Virginia Giuffre was first published, Andrew told the billionaire that they were “in it together”, that they should “keep in close touch” and that they would “play some more soon”.

The leaked document comes more than five years after Andrew told BBC journalist Emily Maitlis on Newsnight that he had flown to New York in 2010 to tell Epstein to his face that they would no longer be friends – and that it had been the last time they’d ever spoken.

Epstein died by suicide in a Manhattan jail in 2019.

It also coincided with the release of the first excerpt from Ms Giuffre’s posthumous memoir this week, in which she details her alleged sexual encounters with Andrew, one of which she claimed happened when she was just 17 years old. Andrew has vehemently denied all wrongdoing.

But the latest twist in the saga has heaped even more embarrassment on the royal family, who have had to grapple with what to do with the disgraced duke in the years since he stepped down from public life.

Amid renewed public scrutiny, palace chiefs were reportedly keen to draw a line under the sex abuse scandal, with The Sun adding that there was a small “window of opportunity” for Andrew to “do the decent thing” and “fall on his sword” before they were forced to take firm action.

By Friday night, it became clear that Andrew had taken that opportunity.

Meanwhile, Ms Giuffre’s memoir, Nobody’s Girl, a Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice, will be released in the coming days, in which she claims that an “entitled” Andrew acted as though having sex with her was his “birthright”.

In an excerpt published in The Guardian this week, Ms Giuffre – who died by suicide at the age of 41 in April this year – wrote about an encounter she allegedly had with the prince in the London home of Ghislaine Maxwell – who is serving a 20-year sentence after being found guilty of helping Epstein sexually abuse young girls – following a night out.

Ms Giuffre was at the centre of the scandal surrounding Epstein, who she accused of using her as a sex slave.

On the drive home, according to Ms Giuffre, she was told to have sex with Andrew. When they arrived at the residence, she alleged that they had a bath together but “didn’t stay there long because the prince was eager to get to the bed.”

She added that he “seemed in a rush to have intercourse” and that afterwards, he said “thank you” in a “clipped British accent.”

“He was friendly enough, but still entitled — as if he believed having sex with me was his birthright,” Ms Giuffre wrote.

Afterwards, she claimed, Maxwell lavished her with praise, saying: “You did well, the prince had fun.”