By admin 
Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie have spent the week outside the United Kingdom as their father, Andrew, was ordered to leave his long-time Windsor home and stripped of his remaining royal styles, titles and honours under a formal process initiated by King Charles III. The sisters’ movements — Beatrice photographed at a business conference in…
Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie have spent the week outside the United Kingdom as their father, Andrew, was ordered to leave his long-time Windsor home and stripped of his remaining royal styles, titles and honours under a formal process initiated by King Charles III.
The sisters’ movements — Beatrice photographed at a business conference in Riyadh and Eugenie appearing in a friend’s photo from Paris — coincided with an unprecedented step by the Palace that will see their father cease to be styled as a prince and vacate Royal Lodge, the 30-room residence in Windsor Great Park he has occupied since 2003.
The developments set two parallel tracks: the York sisters continuing private and professional travel away from Britain and the King’s decision to sever Andrew’s remaining formal ties while citing “serious lapses” in judgment linked to his association with the late Jeffrey Epstein.
Buckingham Palace said the King had begun “a formal process to remove the style, titles and honours of Prince Andrew,” adding that Andrew “will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.”
The same statement confirmed that formal notice had been served to surrender Andrew’s Royal Lodge lease and that he would move to alternative private accommodation on the Sandringham estate, with the Palace emphasising that the monarch’s “thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.”
The Palace said the measures were necessary “notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him.” The decision, supported by the Prince of Wales according to officials, reflects a conclusion inside the Royal Household that Andrew’s judgment around Epstein had caused sustained reputational damage to the monarchy.
The formal move means the removal from Andrew of the titles Prince, Duke of York, Earl of Inverness and Baron Killyleagh, as well as the style His Royal Highness, and the honours of the Order of the Garter and the Royal Victorian Order.
While he had previously ceased using HRH, this is the first time Buckingham Palace has set out, in a public statement, a process to remove the style, peerages and remaining honours in full. Officials said the change of name and status would take effect as legal mechanisms — including royal warrants transmitted to the Lord Chancellor — are completed. The Palace also confirmed that Sarah, Duchess of York, Andrew’s former wife who has shared Royal Lodge with him, will move out and arrange her own accommodation separately.
Against that backdrop, Beatrice and Eugenie were pictured abroad. Beatrice, 37, appeared at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh — the high-profile annual gathering of investors and executives — in photographs published mid-week, while Eugenie, 35, was shown in a Paris selfie posted by a friend on Instagram.
The sisters have made no public comment about their father’s situation, and there is no suggestion that their travel was anything other than pre-planned engagements and private time away; however, their absence from Britain during the latest escalation underscored how the fallout from Andrew’s affairs is now being managed almost entirely between the Palace and the King’s advisers.
The direction of travel had been clear in recent days. After weeks of pressure around Andrew’s “peppercorn” lease and questions in Parliament about value for money, the Palace determined that private steps taken earlier this month — when Andrew announced he would voluntarily stop using the Duke of York title and certain honours — had not settled public concern.
The Palace has now said Andrew agreed to leave Royal Lodge, with sources indicating the move will happen “as soon as practicable” and that any future accommodation would be privately funded by the King. ITV reported the Palace’s view that there had been “serious lapses” in Andrew’s judgment, while officials acknowledged the Prince of Wales supported the decision to proceed.
Virginia Giuffre, who alleged she was trafficked by Epstein and sexually assaulted by Andrew as a teenager — claims Andrew has always denied — settled a civil case with Andrew in 2022 without admission of liability.
In a family statement given as the Palace’s action was announced, Giuffre’s relatives said: “Today, an ordinary American girl from an ordinary American family brought down a British prince with her truth and extraordinary courage.
Today, she declares a victory. We, her family, along with her survivor sisters, continue Virginia’s battle and will not rest until the same accountability applies to all of her abusers and abetters, connected to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.” The Palace, in its own language, explicitly aligned its sympathy with victims and survivors of abuse while noting Andrew’s continued denial.
Practically, the decision ends Andrew’s public identity within the House of Windsor and resolves a long-running standoff over his Windsor base. Royal Lodge, secured on a 75-year lease in 2003, had become a focal point for criticism as scrutiny intensified around Andrew’s finances and his status since stepping back from royal duties in 2019 following his BBC Newsnight interview.
Parliamentary committees pressed for details of the lease and whether it represented value, and the King’s advisers sought to end a situation that had become synonymous with unresolved controversy. The Palace’s notice to surrender the lease brings that period to a close and moves Andrew to a property on the private Sandringham estate, a relocation expected to reduce the visibility of his living arrangements.
For Beatrice and Eugenie, the Palace clarified that their positions are unaffected by the moves against their father. As daughters of the son of a monarch, they remain princesses under the 1917 letters patent issued by George V. The sisters have in recent years maintained low public profiles relative to senior working royals, with day-to-day lives centring on professional roles and young families. Beatrice has been reported to advise in the private sector, and Eugenie has focused on charitable work and projects, while both have occasionally represented the family at major events. Their time abroad this week — Beatrice in Saudi Arabia and Eugenie in France — aligns with that pattern rather than any formal royal role.
The Palace’s step to remove titles carries historic weight. Officials have described it as a “formal process” that strips the King’s brother of the identity he has held since birth. It follows sustained public unease, renewed by publication this month of Giuffre’s posthumous memoir, and by a growing political chorus urging a full, official severing of his remaining trappings of status.
The monarch’s statement and supporting briefings made clear that the move was considered with government authorities and carries the administration’s support. That public alignment presented a unified front and avoided leaving the issue suspended between a voluntary gesture and official sanction.
In Windsor, attention will turn to the logistics of vacating Royal Lodge and preparing a long-term plan for the estate as the Wales family’s own residential moves continue. Palace sources, referenced by broadcasters, have indicated the King sought a resolution before early November.
The timing reflects a desire to conclude the matter before seasonal family gatherings and to stabilise the picture around royal residences that has been shifting since the accession. The Palace did not disclose the precise timetable for Andrew’s move or the property he will occupy at Sandringham, beyond stating that a private provision from the King would apply and that other sources of income would be “a matter for the former duke.”
Reaction among elected officials and campaigners for abuse survivors has been forthright, with senior political figures calling the decision right and overdue. The Palace’s phrasing about victims and survivors appears to have been crafted to acknowledge the wider community beyond any single case, a notable inclusion in a royal statement.
At the same time, calls have continued from US legislators for Andrew to give evidence about what he knew of Epstein’s activities, underscoring that the Palace’s decision does not end the appetite for further accountability.
The focus on Beatrice and Eugenie’s whereabouts has been driven largely by public curiosity during an extraordinary week for their immediate family. Beatrice’s appearance at the Riyadh investment gathering — sometimes dubbed “Davos of the Desert” — was consistent with her known interest in technology and finance circles; her conference badge, visible in images from the venue, identified her by her formal style and a private-sector affiliation.
Eugenie’s Paris visit appeared in an Instagram carousel posted by a friend, showing the princess with companions along the Seine. Neither post carried any comment on Andrew’s situation. Observers have suggested the sisters are balancing private family concerns with a desire to avoid becoming informal spokespeople for events they do not control.
Andrew’s removal from Royal Lodge also closes a chapter that has repeatedly intersected with the sisters’ own adult lives. Both daughters have used the Windsor residence as a family base for milestones and gatherings.
The Palace’s notice means those connections will now shift geographically, while the sisters’ titles remain intact. Palace guidance indicates no changes to their place in the line of succession, nor to their ability to style themselves as princesses of the blood royal. Such continuity is designed to delineate Andrew’s personal consequences from the status of his children, who are not working royals and have not been accused of wrongdoing.
The legal and administrative mechanics of title removal are uncommon, and Palace aides have briefed that royal warrants will address peerage roll entries and styles. The move does not require an act of Parliament, according to officials, though earlier public debate had canvassed that possibility. Instead, the King is proceeding by instruments within his prerogative, coordinated with the government. The Palace has not indicated any further steps beyond the titles and residence; there was no mention of police matters, and Andrew continues to deny all allegations.
For now, the York sisters’ quiet departures from Britain appear to be incidental to the King’s decision rather than a response to it. Their travels underline the private reality of a family recalibrating during a period of high public scrutiny, while the central actions are being taken by the Crown and communicated through formal channels.
As the title changes take effect and the move from Windsor proceeds, attention will likely fall on what, if any, public role Andrew can retain beyond family settings, and whether his daughters will choose to appear at any events in the near term that require delicate optics. The Palace, for its part, has removed ambiguity, adopting language that both distances the institution from Andrew’s past associations and acknowledges those who suffered at Epstein’s hands.
The sisters’ low profiles this week align with that approach: no speeches, no statements, no added headlines — only the images of a conference badge in Riyadh and a casual photograph on the banks of the Seine, while the most consequential decisions about their father are taken elsewhere.
In practical terms, the next milestones are procedural. Surrender of the lease at Royal Lodge has been served; preparations for the Sandringham move will follow; and the style and title changes will be reflected in formal records. The Palace has given no timetable for public appearances related to the transition. Beatrice and Eugenie’s travel plans are their own, and there is no indication they will make any public intervention.
The King’s statement and the Palace’s notices, however, leave little room for doubt about the direction of travel: the monarchy has chosen finality in the “Andrew problem,” while preserving the constitutional and familial standing of his children. The events of this week — a terse Palace announcement, a name no longer prefixed by Prince, the end of a Windsor tenancy, and two adult daughters photographed abroad without commentary — together mark a decisive turn in a story that has shadowed the royal family for years.