Prince Andrew loses military titles
By: Min Joon Hur
January 17, 2022
Last Wednesday, Buckingham Palace announced that Prince Andrew has been stripped of his military titles.
‘All of the Duke’s roles have been handed back to Queen Elizabeth II with immediate effect for redistribution to other members of the Royal Family’ declared Buckingham Palace.
The Prince was accused by Virginia Giuffre, who claimed that Prince Andrew and financier Jeffrey Epstein forced her to perform sex acts with the prince at the age of 17. The child of the queen refuted all of her claims and voiced that Giuffre was only seeking a compensation fee by simulating the case.
Giuffre claimed that Prince Andrew was ‘sweating’ all over her the time they were at a nightclub. Prince Andrew vigorously denied this by asserting he had a rare medical condition that prevented him from sweating and that he was at a pizza restaurant that night. When asked to prove his claims, Prince Andrew failed to do so as no documents proved his medical condition that prevents sweating, nor identified anyone he encountered at the pizza restaurant.
Andrew’s attorneys filed a motion to dismiss late last year, but that effort failed as they must now prepare the prince to face a New York court and try to negotiate a settlement with Giuffre to avoid the case proceeding into a trial.
After witnessing the case, over 150 Army veterans signed a letter to strip Prince Andrew of his eight British military titles. Lt Stuart Hunt, who served in the First Royal Tank Regiment and signed the letter, welcomed the prince losing his military titles, saying: "Whether he's guilty or not, he has brought things into disrepute... He's not fit to serve in an honorary rank. He has forgone that right by getting into this sort of situation."