Andrew Mountbatten Windsor might have been given his marching orders – but it’s business as usual for the Prince and Princess of Wales.
William and Kate have taken to social media to share their hopes for a ‘better world’ less than a day after the Prince’s uncle was unceremoniously shown the door.
The couple shared a post on their Kensington Royal X account detailing the final three finalists for the Earthshot Prize, William’s pet project that recognises and awards funds to groundbreaking environmental research projects.
A two–minute-long video – which does not feature the couple – details how three projects in Barbados, the Bangladesh and the USA are helping to protect people and mitigate against climate change.
This is the fifth day in a row that the Waleses have shared a video on Earthshot finalists, having posted a video each day this week since Monday detailing three different initiatives doing their part to save the planet.
And it seems not even the news around Andrew will deter the Prince of Wales from promoting the Earthshot Prize, a personal project that is close to his heart.
Writing on X, the Prince and Princess said: ‘We envision a world that’s a better, more sustainable home for everyone.
‘A world where greenhouse gas emissions are falling, and carbon–neutral economies help protect the most vulnerable. A world like this is within reach.’
William and Kate have carried on as normal in the wake of Andrew’s effective expulsion from royal life (pictured at the funeral of the Duchess of Kent last month)
The Waleses posted on X earlier this afternoon to share more finalists in line for the Earthshot Prize – envisioning a ‘world that’s better’
Andrew, Virginia Giuffre and sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell in a photo reportedly taken in 2001, when Giuffre was 17 years old
They then began to post an ‘October rewind’, recapping their engagements over the last month including a visit by the Prince to the London Ambulance Service headquarters to mark its 60th anniversary.
The posts came less than a day after Buckingham Palace announced that the King had begun the formal process of stripping Andrew of his HRH style as well as his titles and honours.
Under the arrangement – understood to have come from the King himself, with no direction from the rest of the family or the government – Andrew will be required to vacate Royal Lodge at Windsor and has surrendered the right to be a ‘prince’.
He is now, effectively, in the words of one government minister, an ‘ordinary member of the public’ – but will live under his brother’s keep at Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, where the King was spotted earlier today.
In a decisively cold statement, the Palace said: ‘Prince Andrew will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.
‘These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him.’
Pointedly, it added of the King and Queen: ‘Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.’
A Kensington Palace source said: ‘The Royal Family, including the Prince of Wales, fully support the King’s leadership on this matter. These decisions have been the King’s, with the support of the wider family.’
The decision to all but banish Andrew from royal life has prompted the family of Virginia Giuffre, who alleged to have been sexually assaulted by the ex–duke, to ‘come clean’ about his relationship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew lied in his disastrous 2019 Newsnight interview that he had ceased contact with Epstein in December 2010, but bombshell emails obtained by the Daily Mail revealed that he continued to keep in contact into 2011.
In one email, he even vowed to the convicted child sex offender that ‘we are in this together’ and that they would ‘keep in close touch’ and ‘play some more soon’.
Buckingham Palace released a public statement announcing Andrew would no longer be a prince
Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, as he is now known, the last time he was seen in public driving out of Royal Lodge a month ago
King Charles was seen for the first time since announcing his brother’s effective banishment – looking pensive as he drove around Sandringham estate today
Andrew adopted an increasingly evasive approach to answering questions on his friendship with the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein (pictured)
Speaking to Sky News, Ms Giuffre’s sister–in–law Amanda Roberts said she would tell Andrew: ‘Think of your daughters [Beatrice and Eugenie]. They were the same age.
‘Think of what you would do had something like this happened to them. What would you want their perpetrator to do?
‘I think it’s far beyond time to come clean. You were best friends with this man [Epstein] and there are so many things that you could help bring to light.
‘Virginia deserves that and every single survivor that has been entrapped in that sex trafficking ring deserves that from you. If you can give an inkling of justice, then it should be on you to do.’
Sky Roberts, Ms Giuffre’s brother, added that he would like to meet the King, and has urged Charles to lean on Donald Trump in order to see the so–called ‘Epstein Files’ released.
‘If the King says he stands with survivors and victims then meet with us and have a conversation with us,’ he added.
Andrew will be banished to a private household on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, kept by his brother.
As yet, he may be in Royal Lodge for some time to avoid an ‘awkward’ run–in with his relatives at Christmas on the estate, where the royals usually mark the festive period – and could receive a £500,000 payout for the early termination of his ‘iron–clad’ lease.
‘It is a process – notice must be given, then the lease must be surrendered and other formalities completed,’ a source said.
While he has been all but cast out from royal life – with no titles, peerages or even the right to call himself a ‘prince’ – royal expert Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty Magazine, questioned why he remains eighth in line to the throne.
He said this morning: ‘I’m sure at some point quite soon, somebody will ask, if they’ve not already done so, why he hasn’t been moved from the line of succession.
‘Clearly it would take quite a catastrophe for him to become king given all those that are ahead of him. So might it not have been tidier to withdraw him from the line of succession?’
Sky and Amanda Roberts, Virginia Giuffre’s brother and sister–in–law, have praised King Charles for stripping Andrew of his titles and have said they would welcome a meeting with the King with ‘open arms’
William first announced the Earthshot finalists earlier this month – and has been detailing them in posts on X all this week
As a commoner, Mr Mountbatten Windsor is unlikely to enjoy the same level of protections that came with his princely status – and could even be compelled into visiting the US to testify on allegations against him, or his friendship with Epstein.
Trade minister Sir Chris Bryant told BBC Breakfast: ‘I think that just as with any ordinary member of the public, if there were requests from another jurisdiction of this kind, I would expect any decently–minded person to comply with that request.’
He added: ‘What I’m basically saying is that I think that if Andrew is asked to do something by a Senate committee, then I would have thought that he would want to comply.’
Andrew is still facing the prospect of a private prosecution at the hands of anti–monarchy campaign group Republic, which announced that it had instructed lawyers to begin an investigation with a view to pursuing court action.
The Daily Mail understands the allegations it is focusing on relate to accusations he sexually assaulted Ms Giuffre, that he asked a royal protection officer to look into her background and impropriety when he served as an official UK trade envoy.
The 15 finalists for the Earthshot Prize were first announced by William on October 4.
Five finalists will be awarded £1million each to go towards their work, for a total of 50 winners by 2030 – by which time the Prince hopes to see practicable solutions for reviving Earth’s oceans, ecosystems, air and climate.
He unveiled the 2025 shortlist with a video showing him sat beneath a oak tree where he had sat shortly after launching the contest for the first time in 2020.
He said of warnings then that greenhouse gases needed to be cut by 2030: ‘Back then, a decade felt a long time. George was seven, Charlotte five and Louis two; the thought of them in 2030 felt a lifetime away.
‘But today, as we stand halfway through this critical decade, 2030 feels very real.’
The Earthshot Prize will be awarded on November 5 at the Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, five days before the Latin American country hosts the Cop30 UN climate change summit.