Ex-Prince Andrew Insists Staff Address Him as 'Sir' Despite Fall From Grace, Royal Author Claims

Ex-Prince Andrew, 66, was stripped of his royal titles by King Charles last year and moved out of his long-time Windsor home, yet the disgraced royal is still insisting his remaining staff address him as 'Sir' and 'The Duke,' according to royal author Andrew Lownie.

The news came after Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, formerly the Duke of York, lost his HRH status and military titles in the wake of his association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. He has since been relocated to Marsh Farm on the Sandringham Estate, a significant step down from the grand Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park that he once occupied, and his household has reportedly been reduced to just three staff members.

Titles And A 'Jaw-Dropping' Tirade

Lownie, whose book The Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York examines Andrew's downfall, said that the ex-prince appears unable to accept his changed position within the monarchy. The author said Andrew 'has no sense of his own status' despite the public and institutional backlash that followed his friendship with Epstein.

According to an account cited in Lownie's reporting, Andrew allegedly launched a 'jaw-dropping tirade' at staff after being moved to Marsh Farm, making clear that he still expected to be addressed using his former rank and style. He reportedly told them they should call him 'Sir' and refer to him as 'The Duke,' even though he no longer holds the Duke of York title officially.

IBTimes UK cannot independently verify these claims, so please take them with a grain of salt.

Lownie writes that Andrew has 'never gotten over' being stripped of his titles and losing what he viewed as a key working role within the royal family. In his view, the former prince feels abandoned by the institution he once served. 'I think he feels that he's been thrown to the wolves,' Lownie said, suggesting that resentment towards his relatives is now a defining feature of Andrew's private world.

Feuds Inside The Royal Family

For starters, the author also paints a bleak picture of Andrew's relationships with senior royals. Lownie claimed the ex-prince has long harboured personal dislikes within the family, saying Andrew 'didn't like [Queen] Camilla' and 'was rude about Kate [Middleton].' The writer argued that Andrew resents anyone he feels has 'rumbled him.'

He suggested that Andrew now has very few allies left at court, naming only his younger brother Prince Edward and his sister Princess Anne as figures who remain broadly sympathetic. If true, it would leave the Queen's second son unusually isolated inside a family known for closing ranks.

The shift in Andrew's circumstances has been brutal. Evicted from the sprawling Royal Lodge, which he had occupied for decades, he now resides at Marsh Farm on the Norfolk estate, a markedly smaller property on the Sandringham grounds. Lownie said the move saw Andrew lose the bulk of his staff, slimming his household to just three people. For a man used to full royal trappings, that is not just a change of address, it is a collapse of a whole way of life.

The insistence on being called 'Sir' or 'The Duke' looks, in that light, less like a mere quirk and more like a stubborn attempt to hold on to the remnants of a vanished status. It is the sort of detail that sounds petty until you remember this is someone whose entire identity was built around hierarchy and deference.

Epstein, The Files And A 'Useful Idiot'

Andrew's modern exile stems from his long-running association with US financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Andrew met Epstein in 1999 through the financier's close associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who was later convicted of sex trafficking.

Andrew's name appeared multiple times in files released by the US Department of Justice relating to Epstein, and his email exchanges with the disgraced financier were also unearthed. The fallout from these revelations, together with a disastrous television interview that is not detailed in Lownie's material here, pushed the late Queen and now King Charles into effectively sidelining him from public life. His titles were removed, and his position within the firm evaporated.

Lownie argues that Andrew misread the friendship from the start. In his book, he wrote that 'Epstein played Andrew,' describing the royal as a 'useful idiot' who gave the financier welcome social polish, as well as a route into political and business circles. 'He found him easy to exploit,' Lownie wrote, adding that 'Andrew was easy prey for a rattlesnake like Epstein.'

The author claims Andrew would even offer to help Epstein impress contacts by arranging high-profile events, including 'shooting weekends up in Sandringham' and tours of Buckingham Palace. These alleged favours, presented as hospitality, in effect lent Epstein the aura of royal respectability that he craved.

Lownie's conclusion in The Entitled is blunt. 'There was no way back for him in the monarchy,' he wrote, arguing that the combination of public disgust and institutional anxiety made Andrew's formal return to duty impossible, whatever his private hopes.

The Palace has not issued any fresh statement in response to Lownie's latest claims. Buckingham Palace normally declines to comment on books about members of the royal family and has maintained that line through the various rounds of Andrew-related revelations. That silence, however, does little to slow the drip of stories about an ex-prince marooned on a Norfolk farm, clinging to a title that, on paper at least, no longer exists.

Whether the public has any appetite left for Ex-Prince Andrew's grievances is another question.