London: Prince Andrew says he is giving up his royal title of the Duke of York and other honours after his friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein returned to the headlines.

The younger brother of King Charles III said he and the royal family had decided “the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the royal family,” Prince Andrew said in a statement on Saturday (AEDT) released by Buckingham Palace.

His daughters Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie will be unaffected, but his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson will also no longer be known as the Duchess of York.

In September, several charities cut their links to her after she described Epstein as a “supreme friend” in an email three years after he had pleaded guilty in 2008 to a state prostitution charge in Flor

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