Speaking to Newsweek, Lownie suggested a few options the King has. He said: “Signing himself Knight of the Garter is incredibly pompous, but also, what is he doing being a Knight of the Garter? That’s an easy enough thing to remove.”
The suggestion followed the previously private email from Andrew to Epstein sent in February 2011, a day after Giuffre’s first press interview with The Mail on Sunday. It read: “It would seem we are in this together and will have to rise above it. Otherwise keep in close touch and we’ll play some more soon!!!!” The message was signed “A, HRH The Duke of York, KG”.
Lownie also claimed Andrew should not have been given a police escort to the Duchess of Kent’s funeral in September.
He also thinks both Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, his ex-wife, should be stripped of their Duke and Duchess of York titles. He added: “Take away Duke of York and he’s still a prince, but we don’t have the Duchess of York then, and she needs to be kind of sanctioned.”
In a serialisation of the book, Ms Giuffre detailed three alleged encounters with Andrew, including the first time she said they had sex, at Maxwell’s house in London, in March 2001.
She also described posing with him for a photograph at Maxwell’s house, in which he had her arm around her waist.
Andrew told the BBC in a 2019 Newsnight interview: “I’m not in a position to know what she’s trying to achieve, but I can tell you categorically I don’t remember meeting her at all.
“I do not remember a photograph being taken and I’ve said consistently and frequently that we never had any sort of sexual contact whatever.”
Prince Andrew settled a lawsuit brought by Giuffre in an out-of-court settlement in 2022. He paid an undisclosed sum, but denied liability.
