ALBAWABA - Prince Andrew will not have to leave Royal Lodge right away and could move to Sandringham as late as the new year.
King Charles kicked out his younger brother Prince Andrew from his Windsor home and took away all of his titles and honors on Thursday. He will be going to a house on the King's Norfolk estate, which will be paid for by the king.
The dramatic statement came after months of scrutiny of Andrew's personal life, as the royal family continued to deal with the fallout from his ties to the infamous child molester Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew has always said he did nothing wrong.
Britain's Prince Andrew, Duke of York attends a Requiem Mass
The government, on the other hand, said it had no plans to officially remove Andrew from the line of succession.
Andrew is still eighth in line to the throne, which is the only important role he still has. However, there have been calls to pass laws that would make it impossible for him to become king.
To officially get rid of him, Parliament would have to pass an act, which is hard to do and needs to be agreed upon by all Commonwealth states, such as Australia and Canada.
Britain's Prince Andrew, Duke of York (L) and Britain's King Charles III leave following a Requiem Mass,
Andrew is moving from Royal Lodge in Windsor to Sandringham "as soon as possible and practical." This is what Buckingham Palace said.
Nevertheless, royal sources say that Andrew should wait to move until the new year so that he doesn't have to be in Sandringham at Christmas, when the Royal Family usually gets together.
Andrew will move to a house on a privately owned estate that hasn't been named. The king will pay for the move and will also make secret financial plans for his brother.
Before he became King Edward VII, Sandringham was bought by the Prince of Wales in 1862 as a private country getaway.
The large, historic estate has grounds that cover about 31 square miles (80 square km), which is about the same size as Nottingham or Brighton and Hove.
New court documents released in the US on Friday show that Andrew told Epstein in 2010 that it would be "good to catch up in person" after Epstein got out of prison for trying to get a minor to perform sex acts for him.
In an email from April 15, 2010, Epstein advised that the prince at the time meet American banker Jes Staley. Andrew replied that he could not do so because of his schedule.
"I have no immediate plans to drop by New York, but I think I should at some stage soon," he said.
"Let me see if I can make it a few days before the summer."
"It would be good to catch up in person."
Later, in December 2010, they caught sight together in New York's Central Park. Later, Andrew stated that the meeting marked the end of their friendship.
Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat, told BBC Newsnight that he wanted the former Duke of York to "come clean" about his dealings with Epstein and that he would like to see Andrew appear before Congress.
Stephen Lynch, a fellow Democrat, agreed and told the BBC that Andrew's perspective "might help get justice for these survivors."
He also said that the House Oversight Committee couldn't subpoena Andrew "as things stand," but he asked Andrew to think about giving testimony on his own.
The king is thought to have taken away Andrew's titles because of the major mistakes his brother made with his judgment. The rest of the Royal Family agreed with his choice.
There is also support from the public. A YouGov poll released on Thursday showed that 79% of people wanted to take away the king's title, and 53% thought he had already done everything he could.
58% of people thought this reaction should have come sooner because they were worried that the royal family had been too slow to act on the links to Jeffrey Epstein.
Downing Street said that Sir Keir Starmer also "fully supports" the Palace's choice and agreed with Buckingham Palace that they stand with Epstein's victims.
Prince Andrew, Duke of York, on April 11, 2021 in Windsor, England and Virginia Giuffre on October 22, 2019.
There has been a lot of trouble with Andrew for years, but it really got bad when Virginia Giuffre said he sexually assaulted her when she was a girl.
Andrew has vehemently rejected the claims.
She sued him for millions of dollars in 2022, even though he said he didn't remember meeting her.
Virginia Giuffre's family said that she had "brought down a prince" because of what the king did.
Sky Roberts, her brother, said that Andrew should be "investigated" and that the King's choice to take away his titles was "not enough" because Andrew was still free.
There's no way he's going to live on the side of the road here, let's be honest. He's still in a very, let's say, comfortable place..." He told Sky News, "Let's put it this way: he should be looked into."
Andy should go to the US to answer questions about Epstein's crimes if he is asked to, UK trade minister Chris Bryant told the BBC.
