Prince Andrew, Duke of York, brother of King Charles III, is the third son of the late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. He was born in 1960 and is eighth in line to the British throne.
He served in the British Royal Navy and participated in the Falklands War in 1982. He received several military decorations, and after his retirement from military service, he carried out official duties on behalf of the British Royal Family until 2019.
In that year, he stopped his public duties by decision of the palace, due to his name being linked to the case of businessman Jeffrey Epstein, which sparked widespread controversy and affected his reputation and legal image within the United Kingdom.
Birth and upbringing
Prince Andrew Albert Christian Edward was born on February 19, 1960, in Buckingham Palace in the British capital, London. He is the third son and second son of the late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.
He grew up in the care of the British royal family, and received a traditional upbringing based mainly on the value of discipline on the one hand – which is embodied in strict daily adherence to the requirements of royal life – and the value of public duty and responsibility towards British society and serving the state through military and official activities on the other hand.
On July 23, 1986, Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson, in a royal ceremony that was held in Westminster Abbey and was watched by international media.
The couple had two daughters, Princess Beatrice, born in 1988, and Princess Eugenie, who was born in 1990, before they separated in 1996.
Study and scientific training
Andrew received his primary education at Heather Down School in the town of Ascot in the county of Berkshire in southeastern England, then he moved to Gordonstoun School in the Moray region in northeastern Scotland, which is the same educational institution where his father and brother Charles studied.
After completing his secondary studies, the Prince joined the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth in 1979, which is the institution entrusted with preparing officers for the British Royal Navy. It is located in the county of Devon in southwestern England, on the banks of the River Dart, and there he received his naval military training before beginning his career in the British Royal Navy.
military service
Prince Andrew joined the British Royal Navy in 1980, with the rank of naval lieutenant in training, before continuing his training in the field of military aviation, as he received advanced training in flying aircraft at the Royal Air Force Base in Lyming, and then in flying helicopters at the Royal Navy Base “Culdrose” in the county of Cornwall in southwest England.
As a naval lieutenant, he specialized in flying a Sea King helicopter, and joined his first operational unit within the 820th Naval Squadron aboard the battleship Invincible in early 1982, before participating in the Falkland Islands War in April of the same year.
Prince Andrew continued his service in the Royal Navy for twenty-two years, during which he held leadership ranks and responsibilities, and gained extensive experience in the field of naval aviation and operational coordination. He ended his service in July 2001 with the rank of commander, concluding a military career that spanned more than two decades.
Awards and honors
Throughout his military career, Prince Andrew received decorations and medals, including:
- Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977.
- Falklands War Service Medal 1982.
- New Zealand Commemoration Medal (New Zealand Medal) 1990.
- Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002.
- Knight of the Order of Rabat in 2006.
- Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.
- Royal Navy Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, 2016.
His connection to the Jeffrey Epstein case
In late 2019, Prince Andrew faced one of the biggest crises in his public career, after press reports escalated about his relationship with the late American businessman Jeffrey Epstein, who was accused of human trafficking and exploitation of minors.
The issue was widely raised after a television interview with the prince was broadcast on the BBC in November 2019, in which the dialogue focused mainly on the sexual assault allegations against him, and on the relationships he had with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The prince tried to defend himself and denied committing any wrongdoing, but his media appearance, contrary to what was expected of him, intensified the criticism, due to what a wide spectrum of British public opinion saw as a weakness in assessing the situation and a lack of sympathy for the victims.
Following this television interview and its repercussions, Buckingham Palace announced on November 20, 2019 that Prince Andrew would step down from his public duties “for an indefinite period,” after his presence had become a burden on the royal institution.
In January 2022, Queen Elizabeth II officially stripped him of his honorary military titles and public royal privileges, and banned him from using the title “His Royal Highness” on any official occasion.
In February 2022, Prince Andrew reached an extrajudicial financial settlement with Virginia Giuffre, one of the plaintiffs in the Epstein case (she committed suicide in April 2025), without admitting to the crime charged against him. This settlement ended the judicial proceedings against him, but it did not stop the public controversy and the growing demands for him to be held morally and politically accountable.
He gave up the title of duke
Despite his absence from public life since 2019, Prince Andrew continues to hold the title “Duke of York”, which was given to him by his father, King Philip, on his wedding day in 1986.
With increasing criticism of British public opinion against the backdrop of his name being linked to the Epstein scandal, political demands were renewed in October 2025 within the British Parliament to officially strip him of the title of Duke.
Representatives from the Scottish National Party and the Labor Party submitted a parliamentary memorandum demanding that the government enact a law granting the King the power to withdraw noble titles from any individual in the event of harm to the reputation of the state or the royal institution.
According to the results of a poll conducted by YouGov in the same month, 80% of Britons expressed their support for stripping Prince Andrew of the title permanently.
On October 17, 2025, Prince Andrew announced that he would relinquish the title of “Duke of York” and the honors granted to him, and at the same time he was keen to deny the accusations against him.
He said in a statement that these accusations distracted attention from the work of his brother, King Charles III, and harmed the British royal family.