Andrew Mountbatten Windsor to lose vice-admiral rank as royal fallout deepens
The former Duke of York is to be stripped of his final remaining military honour, the UK defence secretary has confirmed, as King Charles seeks to close the chapter on the long-running scandal surrounding his brother’s links to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew Mountbatten Windsor will lose his honorary rank of vice-admiral, which he was granted in 2015, despite stepping down from other military roles in 2022 amid mounting public criticism. Defence Secretary John Healey confirmed the decision during an interview on BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, saying the government was “working with the king” to formalise the removal of the title.
“In general, the government has been guided by the decisions and judgments the king has made,” Healey said. “In defence, it’s exactly the same. We’ve seen Andrew surrender the honorary positions he’s had throughout the military, and guided again by the king, we are working now to remove that last remaining title of vice-admiral that he has.”
Pressed on whether the former prince could also lose his military medals, Healey said there were no current plans to do so. “They are medals for his service,” he added. “I don’t have an update for you on that, but just as with his vice-admiral rank and title, we would be guided by the decisions the king makes.”
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The move marks the latest step in a coordinated effort between Buckingham Palace and the government to distance the monarchy from Mountbatten Windsor’s associations with Epstein. The disgraced financier was convicted in 2008 of soliciting prostitution from a minor and served a prison sentence before his death in 2019.
Mountbatten Windsor has consistently denied allegations made by Virginia Giuffre, who claimed in civil proceedings that she was trafficked by Epstein and forced to have sex with the former prince on three occasions, including when she was 17. The civil case was settled out of court in 2022 without any admission of liability.
Renewed scrutiny has followed the publication of Giuffre’s posthumous memoirs, which revisit the events leading to her legal action. Separately, new emails disclosed on Friday show that Mountbatten Windsor wrote to Epstein in 2010, a year after the financier’s release from jail, expressing a desire to “catch up in person”.
In one exchange, Epstein suggested the former prince meet with Jes Staley, then a senior JP Morgan executive who has since been banned from the UK banking sector for misleading regulators about his relationship with Epstein. Mountbatten Windsor replied that he would not be in the UK but would “make sure I meet [Staley] soon on another trip”.
Later that year, the two men were photographed walking together in New York’s Central Park — a meeting Mountbatten Windsor later described as a “wrong decision”.
The 65-year-old served in the Royal Navy for over two decades, including as a helicopter pilot during the Falklands War. He retired from active service in 2001 but retained several honorary ranks and patronages until he stepped back from public duties. His vice-admiral title, however, remained one of the few distinctions he still held. His naval pension, worth around £20,000 a year, is understood to be his only official source of income.
Buckingham Palace confirmed last week that King Charles had formally removed his brother’s royal titles of prince and Duke of York and instructed him to vacate Royal Lodge, his long-time residence in Windsor Great Park. The king is said to have offered a one-off six-figure payment and agreed to fund an annual stipend personally to ensure his brother’s financial stability after the transition.
Palace aides said the decisions were made under the royal prerogative to avoid parliamentary intervention. Andrew is expected to move to a private home on the Sandringham estate early next year. He will not attend the royal family’s Christmas gathering there this year.
For King Charles, the latest move represents a final bid to contain the damage from a controversy that has overshadowed much of his early reign — and to demonstrate that no member of the royal family, however senior, is above accountability.