But on Thursday, Buckingham Palace said in a fiercely-worded statement that “Prince Andrew will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor”, adding “these censures are deemed necessary” despite his denial.
The king and queen also said their “utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse,” it added.
A friend of the king and Queen Camilla told the Sunday Times: “That was extraordinary. That’s the closest you’ll get to the king and his court passing judgment on his brother”.
UK media reported Andrew had refused to sign off on any statements which referenced the victims since his disastrous BBC Newsnight interview in 2019, in which he defended his ties to Epstein and showed no empathy for the women involved.
“There has long been a sense from the family that the voices of the victims needed to be heard,” another friend told the Sunday Times.
Camilla has long campaigned for the victims of abuse, and there were growing fears among the royal family of the reputational damage of the scandal.
In an email released among court documents on Thursday in the US, Andrew wrote to Epstein in 2010 after his release from jail for prostituting minors that he was planning a trip to New York, as it would be “good to catch up in person”.
