By the time Charles III assumed the throne in 2022, his younger brother, Prince Andrew, had already ceased to be a “working royal” in the wake of the Epstein files scandal, and most specifically the nature of his relationship with known Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre, who appeared in a photo with Andrew when she was a teenager. But in October 2025—days before the publication of a memoir by Giuffre, who had died by suicide in April—Charles announced that he was stripping his brother of all royal titles and ordered Andrew to leave his residence on the grounds of Windsor Castle.
When, in February 2026, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, as he is now known, was arrested following the release of new Epstein documents, Charles, in a highly unusual move, issued a statement that he signed personally, concluding: “Let me state clearly: the law must take its course.”