Buckingham Palace announced on Wednesday that Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, will step away from his public duties as a royal. This comes following the fallout from his past friendship with late sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew, the queen’s second son, said in statement released by the Palace: “it has become clear to me over the last few days that the circumstances relating to my former association with Jeffrey Epstein has become a major disruption to my family’s work and the valuable work going on in the many organisations and charities that I am proud to support. Therefore, I have asked Her Majesty if I may step back from public duties for the foreseeable future, and she has given her permission.”
“I continue to unequivocally regret my ill-judged association with Jeffrey Epstein. His suicide has left many unanswered questions, particularly for his victims, and I deeply sympathise with everyone who has been affected and wants some form of closure. I can only hope that, in time, they will be able to rebuild their lives. Of course, I am willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required.”
Over the weekend, Andrew sat down with the BBC in Buckingham Palace for a taped interview where he again denied that he slept with one of Epstein’s alleged “sex slaves” when she was 17. Pictures surfaced in January 2015 when an American woman living in Australia, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, 35, alleged in court documents that she was groomed by Epstein and his associates to sexually service Epstein’s powerful friends when she was a teenager.
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