00:00Next, his already tarnished reputation has been left in tatters by a steady stream of damaging allegations about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
00:10British lawmakers are stepping up calls for the government to formally strip Prince Andrew of his titles after he renounced his royal title under pressure from King Charles last Friday.
00:21This amid reports that police are investigating allegations that Andrew had sought help from an officer to discredit a woman who'd accused him of sexual abuse.
00:32Well, for the latest, let's cross live now to our London correspondent.
00:36Benedict Paviot is standing by for us.
00:39Benedict, there is quite a lot to get through here.
00:41The royal family currently bracing for further revelations with the publication of the posthumous memoir by Virginia Dufresne.
00:52Excerpts of that book, I believe, have already been published in The Guardian, but there's sure to be lots more than the royal family perhaps has not been expecting.
00:59Yes. So, Friday's move to publish, Buckingham Palace published this statement saying that Prince Andrew was relinquishing, so not using any longer his title of Duke of York, also losing, not using Order of the Garter, Knight of the Order of the Garter anymore.
01:20Basically, it's not that he's been stripped of them, but that he has agreed, after discussion with the king and some other family members, not to use that title anymore.
01:33We know he'd ceased being a working royal several years ago, lost all his military titles as well.
01:40And really, this late attempt on Friday was very much to try and put a stop to the absolute never-ending slew of allegations, revelations.
01:51Certainly in the British press, you've quoted The Guardian, there were also been revelations very much in the Mail and the Mail on Sunday.
01:58And royal experts agree clearly that it is King Charles, so the older brother of Prince Andrew, and also the heir to the throne, the eldest son of King Charles, who really have put the biggest pressure.
02:12And therefore, following those discussions, Prince Andrew agreed not to use the title of Duke of York anymore.
02:20But to be clear, he remains prince because he is prince by birth, being one of the sons of the late Queen Elizabeth II.
02:28But as you say, Andrew, and indeed Buckingham Palace, are bracing themselves for yet more allegations and more headlines, not just here in the United Kingdom, but across the world,
02:39because of this posthumous memoir book by Virginia Giuffre, formerly Roberts, who committed suicide earlier this year.
02:49And I'm told that actually the entirety of the book is actually very harrowing.
02:54But as we know, what seriously she has alleged, and she alleged quite some number of years ago, is that she was forced to have sex with Andrew three times, including once when she was 17 years old.
03:07We know that she settled out of court back in 2022 for a reported £12 million.
03:13But we have to underline that Andrew, who we're seeing there on screen, has always denied any wrongdoing and continues to do so.
03:22The problem is that the story is just going to keep on giving and keep on unfolding.
03:29And Benedict, the story kept on giving over the weekend.
03:32We saw further reports about Prince Andrew.
03:35How damaging are these allegations that he allegedly sought police help to discredit certain allegations that were being made about a woman who says that she was actually abused by him as well?
03:46Yeah, I mean, this is just yet another angle, yet another accusation, a new revelation.
03:56And it is some emails that the Mail on Sunday has seen that reveal how Andrew told the Metropolitan Police, so the police here in the UK,
04:05to basically dig up dirt, see what they could find on mischief-free, by handing over, what he did is he handed over her date of birth and confidential security, social security number.
04:19Now, it's presumed that that was obtained, he'd obtained those from Jeffrey Epstein, and he handed those over to his royal protection officer.
04:26Well, a royal protection officer's official duty is to ensure the security of whoever they are looking after, and therefore, in this case, it was Prince Andrew, not to dig up dirt.
04:40So the Metropolitan Police reacted very quickly and said that they're looking into these matters, and indeed the palace has added that they want any kind of necessary investigation into this as well.
04:52Well, King Charles was today in Manchester to go and see all those affected by the recent terrorist, deadly terrorist attack on a synagogue there, the first in the UK of its kind.
05:06What are most people talking about? Nobody's girl.
05:09What more are we going to learn in the publication on Tuesday of Virginia Dufres' book, Beyond the Grave?
05:16And so this is where this is really more than a distraction.
05:22It is stopping the work that the king and other senior royals do.
05:26In a few days' time, King Charles, the head of the Church of England, the monarch, the head of state of the UK, will be in Rome,
05:35where he will pray for the first time in hundreds of years with this will be done between Church of England leader and head and the head of the Catholic Church across the world.
05:49You know, the Catholic Church and very publicly praying with the Church of England leader.
05:55This is really distracting and stopping the work of the king and others being public.
06:03And the last thing either side will want to have overshadowing that historic moment.
06:07Benedict, thanks so much for bringing all of that to us.
06:10That is Benedict Pavio, our correspondent in London.
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