Widely purported to have been the late Queen’s “favourite” child, Prince Andrew has suffered a sharp fall from grace over the last decade.
Plagued by a string of controversies, the latest blow has seen a “close confidante” being banned from the UK over allegations he was a Chinese spy.
Here, The Independent takes a look at a timeline of Andrew’s fall from grace and his retreat from the public eye.
Queen’s favourite
The Queen stood by Andrew’s side even when he was caught up in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal in 2019 and “stepped back from royal duties for the foreseeable future”.
In October 2021, it was claimed the monarch intended to spend millions of pounds privately funding her son’s defence against allegations of sexual abuse made by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre.
She also signalled her support for her disgraced son by arriving alongside him for Prince Philip’s memorial service in March 2021.
Andrew provided a steady arm for the Queen as she walked into Westminster Abbey to remember the life of her husband, just a few weeks after he reached a multimillion-pound out-of-court settlement with Ms Giuffre.
Friendship with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell
During his 2019 interview with BBC Newsnight, Andrew said he had known British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, the daughter of media magnate and former MP Robert Maxwell, since she was at university.
She introduced Andrew to her then-boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein in 1999. The trio enjoyed a close friendship, even after Epstein was convicted of procuring a child for prostitution and of soliciting a prostitute in 2008.
Andrew is alleged to have personally invited the couple to Balmoral, the Queen’s Scottish residence, in 1999.
Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June this year following a New York sex-trafficking trial for procuring teen girls for Epstein for him to abuse.
An image shown during the trial appeared to show Maxwell and Epstein lounging on a bench outside a log cabin on the Balmoral estate.
Andrew continued to visit Epstein in New York after the financier’s conviction for child sex offences in 2008.
Epstein received an 18-month sentence but was allowed to go on “work release” to his office most days and was released on probation after 13 months.
Andrew faced criticism when pictures emerged of him opening the door of Epstein’s palatial East Side townhouse in December 2010 and the pair strolling through Central Park.
In his 2019 BBC interview, the royal claimed he had gone to New York to break off their friendship and regretted staying at Epstein’s house while there.
2019: Virginia Giuffre sex abuse case
In 2019, Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre, formerly known as Virginia Roberts, filed a lawsuit in Manhattan alleging she was trafficked by Epstein to have sex with Andrew on three occasions when she was 17 and a minor under US law.
While the royal has always strongly denied the allegations, going so far as to settle in court over it, accusations of sexual abuse reared their head again after Ms Giuffre died in 2025 when her memoir was posthumously published.
Ms Giuffre described the prince in the book, Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir Of Surviving Abuse And Fighting For Justice, as “friendly enough, but entitled – as if he believed having sex with me was his birthright.” She had sex with him on three separate occasions, including while staying at the house of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend, near Hyde Park, London, in March 2001.
The extract states: “Maxwell woke me up that morning by announcing in a sing-songy voice: ‘Get out of bed, sleepyhead!’ It was going to be a special day, she said. Just like Cinderella, I was going to meet a handsome prince!”
2019: BBC Newsnight interview
Andrew was criticised for a car crash BBC Newsnight interview that aired on 16 November 2019.
During the interview, he denied he slept with Ms Giuffre, saying an encounter could not have taken place because he was at a branch of Pizza Express in Woking with his daughter Princess Beatrice.
He also said Ms Giuffre’s claim he was sweaty at a nightclub was untrue because an “overdose of adrenaline in the Falklands war” had left him unable to sweat.
The royal faced a public backlash, with equality campaigners claiming he was “too stupid to even pretend concern for Epstein’s victims”.
2019: Step back from public duties
Four days later, Andrew announced the Queen had given him permission to step back from public duties in the wake of the interview.
He said it had become clear to him in recent days that his association with Epstein had become a “major distraction” to the royal family’s work.
The royal said he regretted his association with Epstein and “deeply sympathises” with his victims.
2022: Stripped of royal titles and military affiliations
In January 2022, the Queen stripped Andrew of his military titles and royal patronages in the wake of a US judge allowing Ms Giuffre’s civil sexual abuse case against her son to move to trial.
The prince stopped using his HRH (His Royal Highness) style his roles – including Colonel of the Grenadier Guards, one of the oldest regiments in the British army – were handed to other members of the royal family.
His other military titles included honorary air commodore of RAF Lossiemouth; colonel-in-chief of the Royal Irish Regiment; colonel-in-chief of the Small Arms School Corps; commodore-in-chief of the Fleet Air Arm; royal colonel of the Royal Highland Fusiliers; deputy colonel-in-chief of The Royal Lancers (Queen Elizabeths’ Own); and royal colonel of the Royal Regiment of Scotland.
2022: Out-of-court settlement
In March 2022, Andrew paid Ms Giuffre a multi-million-pound out-of-court settlement, meaning both sides avoided the case going to trial.
As part of the agreement, he was due to pay damages to Ms Giuffre and a donation to a charity “in support of victims’ rights”.
Andrew has faced calls to confirm how he funded settlement – which is reported to be as much as £12m – and whether the Queen or even King Charles, then Prince of Wales, contributed to the sum.
December 2024: ‘Confidante’ banned from UK over Chinese spy allegations
In December 2024, it emerged a “close confidante” of the royal lost an appeal over a decision to bar him from entering the UK on national security grounds.
The man, Yang Tengbo, was detained under the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act in 2021 where correspondence was found on his digital devices that implied he was working for the United Front Work Department – a shadowy arm of the Chinese Communist Party – which led him to be barred from the UK.
Mr Yang appealed to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, which dismissed his appeal and made his case public. The judgement cited evidence provided by the Home Office alleging Mr Yang was a close confidant of the Prince, acting on his behalf with investors in China.
January 2025: New messages reveal ties with Epstein continues for months after New York visit
Newly surfaced messages revealed the Duke of York remained in contact with Epstein until February 2011 – despite having claimed to have cut him off in December 2010.
Emails between Andrew and Epstein handed to a court in London reportedly show they were still exchanging messages until at least late February 2011, when the duke wrote: “Keep in close touch and we’ll play some more soon.”
Messages were exchanged between the pair on the same day a photograph of Andrew with 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell – who is currently behind bars for recruiting and trafficking underage girls for Epstein – was published, Bloomberg reports.
The emails were obtained by Bloomberg after being disclosed in a filing by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), defending an appeal by former Barclays boss, Jes Staley, who is challenging its decision to ban him from the finance industry for misleading regulators on his ties to Epstein.
October 2025: Repeated meetings with ‘Chinese spymaster’
In October 2025, it was reported that Prince Andrew met with a senior Beijing official at the heart of the China spy scandal at least three times between 2018 and 2019.
Cai Qi, currently the first-ranked member of the Secretariat of the Chinese Communist Party(CCP) and de facto chief of staff to Xi Jinping, was suspected of being the recipient of sensitive information allegedly passed to China by two British nationals accused of spying for Beijing.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) dropped charges against suspected spies Christopher Berry and Christopher Cash last month, citing a lack of evidence. Both have denied any wrongdoing.
The prince met the senior CCP figure at least three times, according to The Telegraph, in both London and Beijing during the time period when Mr Berry and Mr Cash were allegedly recruited for espionage.
October 2025: Andrew forced to renounce Duke of York title
Andrew was forced to end his use of titles, including the Duke of York and Knight of the Garter, as his former friendship with Epstein threatened to overshadow the work of the royal family.
Andrew gave up his title as Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order and his Garter role as a Royal Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.
He also agreed to stop using his Duke of York title, although he can only be formally stripped of it by an act of Parliament.
He released a statement saying that he, the King, and his family “have concluded the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the royal family”.
