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LONDON: The removal of Prince Andrew’s royal title following further revelations about his ties to US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein “vindicates” his alleged sexual assault victim, her family has said.
Andrew, 65, on Friday renounced his Duke of York title under pressure from his brother King Charles III, who wants to draw a line under the scandal that has embarrassed Britain’s royal family.
Speaking to the BBC, the brother of Virginia Giuffre, whom Andrew denies assaulting when she was 17, said his late sister “would be very proud” of the development.
“We have shed a lot of happy and sad tears today,” he told the broadcaster late on Friday.
“I think happy because in a lot of ways this vindicates Virginia. All the years of work that she put in is now coming to some sort of justice,” he added.
Andrew, who stepped back from public life in 2019 amid the Epstein scandal, will remain a prince, as he is the second son of the late queen Elizabeth II.
He has become a source of deep embarrassment for his brother Charles, following a 2019 television interview in which he defended his friendship with Epstein.
In the interview, Andrew vowed he had cut ties in 2010 with Epstein, who was disgraced after Giuffre accused him of using her as a sex slave.
But in a reported exchange that emerged in UK media this week, Andrew told the convicted sex offender in 2011 that they were “in this together” when a photo of the prince with his arm around Giuffre was published.
He added the two would “play together soon.”
Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of trafficking underage girls for sex.
Giuffre, a US and Australian citizen, took her own life at her farm in Western Australia on April 25.
New allegations emerged this week in her posthumous memoir in which she wrote that Andrew had behaved as if having sex with her was his “birthright.”
In “Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice,” to be published next week, Giuffre wrote she had sex with Andrew on three separate occasions, including when she was under 18.
Andrew has repeatedly denied Giuffre’s accusations and avoided a trial in a civil lawsuit by paying a multimillion-dollar settlement.
The once-popular royal, who was hailed a hero when he flew as a Royal Navy helicopter pilot during the 1982 Falklands War, was stripped of his military titles in 2022.

BANGKOK: Thailand’s oldest political party voted Saturday to reinstate as its leader a conservative ex-premier who led the country during a bloody military crackdown on “Red Shirts” protesters.
Abhisit Vejjajiva, who led Thailand from 2008 to 2011 during the global financial crisis, gained early popularity for his eloquent debating style.
But his leadership of the Democrat Party was marred by the military crackdown on “Red Shirts” protesters in 2010 that killed more than 90 people and left over 2,000 wounded.
Abhisit was branded by rivals as “the PM with blood on his hands” and his political career faltered in the following years amid internal party divisions, leading him to resign as its leader and then withdraw his membership in 2023.
On Saturday, party members voted with 96 percent support to reinstate him as leader in a vote broadcast on local media.
“I thank everyone for trusting my ability once again,” the 61-year-old – wearing the party’s blue color – told members after the vote.
“My heart never left here.”
Thailand is currently governed by a minority government, with Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul pledging to dissolve parliament and hold a new election within four months.
Analysts say Abhisit’s comeback could position the Democrat Party as a key player in the next polls where he will likely be its leading candidate.
“People already have long-standing connections with him and the Democrat Party,” Ekkarin Tuansiri, a political scientist at Prince of Songkla University, told public broadcaster ThaiPBS, adding “but it won’t be easy.”
Founded in 1946, the Democrat Party was once a political powerhouse and a long-time rival to former premier Thaksin Shinawatra’s Red Shirts movement, but it has struggled in recent years with declining support and internal discord.
Born in England and educated at Oxford, Abhisit – a dual Thai-British national – has often been accused by rivals of being out of touch with Thais and evading the kingdom’s compulsory military service for men.