A timeline of the key moments leading to Andrew losing his titleYesterday's statement is the culmination of a story that has rumbled on for years. It was more than a decade ago that the first questions began to be asked about his relationship to Jeffrey Epstein.Here's a reminder of some of those key dates:– February 2011: The Mail on Sunday publishes a photo of Virginia Giuffre's first meeting with Andrew - he later says he has no recollection of it being taken– December 2014: Giuffre describes being trafficked to Andrew by Epstein in a Florida court filing. The claims are later thrown out– November 2019: Andrew appears on BBC Newsnight and denies having had any sexual contact with Giuffre. He later says he will step back from royal duties saying the Epstein scandal had become a "major disruption"– August 2021: Giuffre files a civil lawsuit in New York accusing Andrew of sexual abuse when she was 16 and 17- he has repeatedly denied claims that he had sex with Virginia Giuffre– January 2022: Andrew returns his military titles and patronages to the late Queen Elizabeth II. He also agrees to stop using the style His Royal Highness– March 2022: He pays a financial settlement to Giuffre to end the civil court case - denying any wrongdoing– January 2025: Messages emerge showing Andrew emailed Epstein in February 2011 - after he went to New York to "end" his relationship with the convicted sex offender– April 2025: Giuffre dies by suicide in Western Australia– 17 October 2025: Andrew says he will stop using royal titles including Duke of York– 30 October 2025: Buckingham Palace releases statement saying Andrew will lose his prince title
A key piece of information was the re-emergence of an email, appearing on newspaper front pages, showing that Andrew had stayed in touch with Jeffrey Epstein later than he’d promised in his BBC Newsnight interview.What was damning about that was that it cast doubt on his account of his relationship with Epstein - and that seemed to have made a significant difference in the Palace’s attitude.Months after he had claimed to have cut links with Epstein, they were still emailing each other. Except that email, with its message to Epstein to “play some more soon” had first been revealed and widely covered in January.It had been published in court documents as part of a Financial Conduct Authority case.But between that email’s first appearance and this month’s re-appearance, with more of the email's text, had been a relentless building up of bad news.Andrew’s reputation had been steamrollered by Andrew Lownie’s biography, Entitled, which drew much adverse attention on the then Duke of York.Another book, a memoir by his accuser Virginia Giuffre, had put Andrew’s links with Epstein back into the spotlight.An email from his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson had showed that she stayed privately in touch with Epstein - prompting charities to ditch her as a patron.Political pressure in the US to release more Epstein documents again raised questions about his links to Andrew, with new details about Andrew’s flights to Epstein’s Caribbean island.
