00:00Prince Andrew has given up his royal titles.
00:03That decision, do you think that this was a personal choice
00:06or was it pressure from within the palace to try to contain some of the damage
00:09that's kind of already been done?
00:11Well, Prince Andrew's title is now in abeyance, like you rightly said,
00:14given up, not stripped from him.
00:17Listen, he would have wanted to hang on to those titles as long as he possibly could have.
00:22He would have hung on to them tooth and nail.
00:25This was definitely a decision that was made, probably for him, by King Charles III and Prince William.
00:32Definitely instrumental in saying to him, look, we have reached a breaking point.
00:36There's too much embarrassment, too much heat around the firm at this time
00:41because of the steady drip, drip, drip of information we've had from the Epstein files.
00:47They are a terrible gift that just keeps on giving.
00:50And every week, it seems, sometimes every day, it seemed like we would have a new revelation,
00:55whether it was an email that Prince Andrew sent or Sarah Ferguson sent.
01:00And now, because of this memoir as well, more information coming out.
01:04The palace felt, the firm felt that enough was enough, that this had to stop
01:09and this was going to perhaps draw a line underneath it.
01:13But that, in fact, is not what's happened.
01:15Yes, you know, his titles have been put into abeyance.
01:18He can't use the title of the Duke of York or anything relating to the Order of the Garter.
01:23He remains Prince Andrew because that title was one that was given to him as a birthright.
01:29But it doesn't stop the flow of information.
01:31It doesn't mean that Virginia DeFray's memoir is not going to come out because it is.
01:36But this was about the palace trying to distance themselves from Prince Andrew,
01:40but he still remains the king's brother.
01:42So how much can you do that?
01:44Thank you very much.
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