Buckingham Palace announced that King Charles III has stripped his disgraced brother Prince Andrew of his remaining titles and expelled him from royal residences, following weeks of pressure over his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, on Thursday.

In a rare move by the monarch after years of embarrassing scandal, he will no longer be known as Prince Andrew, but as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, and will have to vacate his Royal Lodge residence near Windsor Castle.

Calls for the prince to be expelled from Royal Lodges appeared to intensify earlier this month after new revelations about his friendship with Epstein and the resurgence of sexual abuse allegations by one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre. Giuffre’s posthumous memoir was published in bookstores last week.

However, to punish him for a more serious mistake, the king has gone further and stripped him of his princely title, which he had held since his birth from the late Queen Elizabeth II.

“While he continues to deny the allegations against him, these condemnations are considered necessary,” the palace said. “Her Majesty the Queen wishes to make clear that her thoughts and deepest sympathy are with all victims and survivors of all forms of abuse, and will continue to be so.”

Stripping a British prince or princess of their titles is almost unprecedented. The last time it happened was in 1919, when Prince Ernest Augustus, a member of the British royal family and Prince of Hanover, was stripped of his British title for siding with Germany during World War I.

Giuffre’s brother declared victory for his sister, who committed suicide in April at the age of 41.

“Today, an ordinary American girl from an ordinary American family, through her honesty and extraordinary courage, has destroyed a British prince,” her sister, Skye Roberts, told the BBC.

Earlier this month, she faced a new public backlash after emails were released showing she had been in contact with Epstein for longer than previously thought.

The news comes after Giuffre’s book “Nobody’s Girl,” in which she alleges she had sex with Andrew when she was 17. The book details three sexual encounters with Andrew and says Andrew felt “it was his birthright to have sex with me.”

Andrew, 65, has long denied Giuffre’s allegations but stepped down from royal duties in November 2019 after a disastrous BBC interview in which he attempted to refute her claims.

After Giuffre filed a civil lawsuit against him in New York in 2022, Andrew settled out of court for millions of dollars. While he admitted no wrongdoing, he acknowledged Giuffre’s suffering as a victim of sex trafficking.

Although Charles met with Andrew two weeks ago before announcing his resignation as duke, the monarch has largely remained out of the scandal until this week.

On Monday, a man attending a ceremony at Lichfield Cathedral shouted at the monarch, asking how long he had known his brother and Epstein, and then asked, “Did you tell the police to hide Andrew?”

The monarch did not respond, and it was not clear whether he even heard the man scream and be pushed away by others.

However, video of the incident made the evening news and made embarrassing headlines the next morning.

It was the most dramatic royal exit since King Edward VIII abdicated in 1936 to marry twice-divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson. The couple were given the titles Duke and Duchess of Windsor and spent the rest of their lives in exile outside Britain.

Despite giving up royal duties, falling out with their family and moving to California, Prince Harry remains a prince and the Duke of Sussex.

The royal move means Andrew will no longer be a prince or lose any titles he previously held, such as His Royal Highness, Duke of York, Earl of Inverness, or Baron Kilkeel. He will also lose titles such as the Order of the Garter and the Victorian Order.