Prince Andrew was forced to surrender his royal titles after King Charles held crunch talks with Prince William, according to reports.
His Majesty, 76, is said to have reached a “tipping point” with his younger brother after it emerged he had lied about cutting ties with Jeffrey Epstein.
It comes weeks after it was revealed that the former Duke of York, 65, sent an email to the late convicted paedophile on February 28, 2011, saying “we are in this together”.
The monarch is understood to have consulted with his eldest son and future king, William, 43, as well as other members of the Royal Family before handing Andrew his ultimatum.
According to The Sun newspaper, Charles spoke with Andrew over the phone while residing in Scotland.
On Friday afternoon, Buckingham Palace was said to be “considering all options” on how to deal with Andrew.
Just hours later, the Duke was forced to resign amid growing fury over his relationship with Epstein, who died in a New York prison in 2019.
At 7pm, Andrew said in a statement: “In discussion with the King, and my immediate and wider family…
“…we have concluded the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Family.
“I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first. I stand by my decision five years ago to stand back from public life.
“With His Majesty’s agreement, we feel I must now go a step further. I will therefore no longer use my title or the honours which have been conferred upon me. As I have said previously, I vigorously deny the accusations against me.”
Royal author Phil Dampier said the decision was “inevitable” because the scandal had continued to “pile up” for some time.
He said: “There is nowhere to hide for Andrew, perhaps he might be better off starting a new life abroad as he clearly has no future in the UK.”
Andrew will remain a prince and will be allowed to continue living at Royal Lodge in Windsor, Berkshire
His daughters Beatrice, 37, and Eugenie, 35, will also remain princesses by birthright.
Further attention has been brought on Andrew’s sexual assault allegations days before a posthumous book by his accuser Virginia Giuffre is published.
Andrew insisted his accuser sign a one-year gag order to prevent tarnishing the late Queen’s platinum jubilee, her memoirs have revealed.
Ms Giuffre’s book, which is due out on Tuesday, describes how Andrew’s disastrous Newsnight interview was like an “injection of jet fuel” for her legal team, and it raised the possibility of “subpoenaing” his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, and daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie and drawing them into the legal case, The Telegraph reported.
Ms Giuffre said she got “more out of” Andrew than a reported 12-million-dollar payout and two-million-dollar donation to her charity because she had “an acknowledgement that I and many other women had been victimised and a tacit pledge to never deny it again”.
The former duke paid millions to settle a civil sexual assault case with Ms Giuffre in 2022, despite insisting he had never met her.
