The palace's Prince Andrew statement is 'a strong show of total lack of support' from royal family

Prince Andrew has given up his military affiliations, patronages, use of the His Royal Highness (HRH) title, and he will fight a civil lawsuit in the US "as a private citizen".

While there have been calls for years for the Queen, 95, to strip her 61-year-old son of his titles in light of his relationship with disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein, Her Majesty had not done so.

However, today's announcement from Buckingham Palace marks a major shift — one royal commentator Victoria Murphy tells 9Honey speaks to how the British royal family are trying to distance themselves from the Duke of York.

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"I would say that this announcement demonstrates that the royal family is aware that the latest court decision has escalated the reputational damage being done by these allegations, and they clearly felt they needed to act," Murphy says.

"They have now distanced themselves even further from Andrew and it's a strong show of total lack of support."

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However, Murphy adds that severing official ties won't be enough to get the royals out of this entire thing unscathed.

"He still remains the Queen's son, so this case will continue to have implications for the monarchy."

According to ITV's royal correspondent Chris Ship, the monarch broke the news to her second son in person on Thursday before a statement was sent out by Buckingham Palace on Thursday afternoon (Friday morning AEDT).

"With The Queen's approval and agreement, The Duke of York's military affiliations and Royal patronages have been returned to The Queen," the statement announced.

"The Duke of York will continue not to undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a private citizen."

While his HRH title, which was bestowed on him at birth, has not been removed, the prince has, at the Queen's request, agreed he will no longer use the title in a professional capacity, reports the BBC.

Prince Andrew first stepped back from public royal duties in November 2019, following a disastrous BBC interview on Newsnight where he attempted to justify his friendship with the convicted paedophile Epstein.

Around the same time, he stepped down from a number of patronages before being removed from as many as 50 of them in May 2021.

Now, with today's announcement that all of Prince Andrew's royal patronages have officially been returned to the Queen, they will be redistributed among other senior members of the royal family instead.