October 18, 2025 • 10 mins
Palace Intrigue delivers the most explosive royal breaking news yet as Prince Andrew formally relinquishes ALL remaining titles and honors in a devastating Friday night announcement. The disgraced Duke of York loses his dukedom, Earl of Inverness, Baron of Killyleagh, and Knight of the Garter status after years of Charles protecting him—but insiders reveal Prince William's "ruthless" pressure finally forced the king's hand. Royal insider Deep Crown exposes the real story: "This is Prince William's methodical consolidation of royal power. Andrew's removal wasn't just punishment—it was William and Charles surgically removing a liability." Sources confirm William "was prepared to be more ruthless than his father" in what experts call "the Windsors' genteel version of the revolver in the locked room." The shocking move comes just days before Virginia Giuffre's memoir drops, with her family declaring Andrew's fall a "vindication" and "victory for every single survivor." But new bombshells emerge as Andrew's secret meetings with Chinese espionage officials are exposed, including three encounters with President Xi Jinping's chief of staff. Plus, Andrew faces lonely Christmas at Royal Lodge watching golf on TV while William "ostentatiously ignored him" at recent funeral.
Check out "Palace Intrigue Presents: King WIlliam" here.
👑 Follow our hit series Crown and Controversy! Season 1 is fully available now for everyone. Season 2 has new episodes every Sunday on the regular feed. GET THE FULL SEASON 2 BEFORE REGULAR LISTENERS as a subscriber! Hit that "UNINTERRUPTED LISTENING" Banner on the top of the Apple player. AND listen to Crown and Controversy "NORWAY'S ROYAL REBELS" here and get the full season as a premium subscriber now.
PREMIUM SUBSCRIBERS get all these shows plus Deep Crown COMMERCIAL FREE LISTENING!! NO ADS!!
👑 The Palace Intrigue Social Hub is Live! Join the conversation on Facebook and Instagram or click the links to start your royal journey!
Plus you unlock 25+ series from Caloroga Shark Media!se
Check out "Palace Intrigue Presents: King WIlliam" here.
👑 Follow our hit series Crown and Controversy! Season 1 is fully available now for everyone. Season 2 has new episodes every Sunday on the regular feed. GET THE FULL SEASON 2 BEFORE REGULAR LISTENERS as a subscriber! Hit that "UNINTERRUPTED LISTENING" Banner on the top of the Apple player. AND listen to Crown and Controversy "NORWAY'S ROYAL REBELS" here and get the full season as a premium subscriber now.
PREMIUM SUBSCRIBERS get all these shows plus Deep Crown COMMERCIAL FREE LISTENING!! NO ADS!!
👑 The Palace Intrigue Social Hub is Live! Join the conversation on Facebook and Instagram or click the links to start your royal journey!
Plus you unlock 25+ series from Caloroga Shark Media!se
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Calorogus Shark Media.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hello and welcome to a special bonus episode of Palace Intrigue.
I'm your host, Mark Francis. Prince Andrew has formally relinquished
all his remaining titles and honors. The move comes amid
renewed scrutiny of his ties to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein,
and just days before the publication of a memoir by
his late accuser, Virginior Geoffrey, whom Andrew paid millions to
(00:39):
settle a civil sexual assault case. In a statement released
Friday evening, Andrew said, in discussion with the King and
my immediate and wider family, we have concluded the continued
accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty
and the royal family. I have decided, as I always
have to put my duty to my family and country first,
I stand by my decision five years ago to stand
(01:02):
back from public life. With His Majesty's agreement, we feel
I must now go a step further. I will therefore
no longer use my title or the honors which have
been conferred upon me. Pallace sources confirmed that King Charles
and Prince William were closely involved in the decision, with
the Monarch said to be glad at the outcome. The
move strips Andrew sixty five of the Duke of York title,
(01:22):
as well as his subsidiary titles, the Earl of Invernus
and the Baron of Killiley, though he remains a prince
by birth. Andrew has already returned his military honors and
seas using his Royal Highness in twenty twenty two. He
will retain his private lease at Royal Lodge in Windsor,
which runs until twenty seventy eight. The timing of the
decision coincides with damaging new revelations, including emails from twenty
(01:46):
eleven in which Andrew allegedly told Epstein, we are in
this together, and references in Geoffrey's forthcoming memoir alleging she
was instructed to do for Andrew what I do for Geoffrey.
Andrew continues to vigorously deny all accusations. The titles of
Andrew's daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, remain unaffected, and
they are expected to continue attending family gatherings such as
(02:08):
Christmas at Sandringham. The BBC's Shawn Coughlin answers the question
of why now. Coughlin writes he can no longer sign
off as the Duke of York or put kg a
Knight of the Garter after his name with a flourish
of medieval chivalry. The Earl of Invenus and Baron Killielay
also are scratched off his list of titles, with Andrew Invenous,
(02:29):
a name he'd sometimes used in his business dealings, he
was clearly under pressure to jump before he was pushed.
Allowing Andrew to voluntarily give up his titles, which theoretically
remain in place, gave him a way out, still holding
onto a little of the disappearing vapor trail of his pride.
But it's no secret that Buckingham Palace was exasperated with
the scandals surrounding Prince Andrew and what a royal source
(02:53):
calls the constant parade of headlines. He was one of
their dukes of hazard that kept making news for all
the wrong reasons. It's been a landslide of bad news
month after month that showed no sign of losing momentum.
He'd become the disastrous football manager or the damaged political
leader who had no obvious way of being removed, particularly
when it was like a football manager whose brother was
(03:14):
the chairman. There's always a tension between protecting an institution
and a reluctance to remove the individuals within it, even
more so when the institution is also a family. It's
where the godfather movies meet the crown. But something had
to be done, and in the end Andrew has handed
back the keys to his royal life and walked away.
(03:34):
Stephen Bates writes in The Guardian Friday Knights statement represented
the last spread of dignity in that he was allowed
to pretend that he was relinquishing the use of his
titles and the Knighthood of the Garter voluntarily out of
the belated sense of duty. He wasn't. After at least
ten years of private wrangling among the family and personal
language on the part of the King about what to
(03:55):
do about the Andrew problem, and with his mother no
longer around to protect him and pay his debt, there
was no alternative but to cut him loose. Evidently, Prince
William was prepared to be more ruthless than his father.
In the end, it was the Windsor's genteel version of
the revolver in the locked room with a bottle of whiskey.
He still has the Royal Lodge where he lives with
his ex wife Sarah Ferguson. What does he need a
(04:18):
place that big for. It's not as if he had
that many friends, and apparently spends his days watching golf
on the television and taking solitary rides in Windsor Great Park,
while the family firm can't stop him going to church
as he did in attending Westminster Cathedral a few weeks
ago for the funeral of the Duchess of Kenton when
William ostentatiously ignored him. He won't be accompanying the rest
(04:40):
of the family to church at Sandringham and Christmas morning. Instead,
it will be a lonely lunch at home with Plaine,
Miss Sarah Ferguson and their daughters who retained their princess
titles and their families. The paper hats will be the
nearest the eighth in line will ever come to a crown.
Now he will have to watch the next coronation on
television as well if he lives them. What will you
(05:01):
do for money? No longer a working royal, he hasn't
qualified for public funds for the last six years. There
are residual savings from the sale of various properties. He
still has a Navy pension, and presumably there will have
to be private subventions from the King. Famously profligate, he
and his ex wife lacked the means to keep up
with the Arab and American billionaires with whom they like
to mingle. This must have been one of the reasons
(05:22):
he was attracted to Epstein, though the sex, which he
still denies, was probably another. What he offered them pathetically
in return was status and access to flummery and palaces.
He was an idiot and worse, a powerful man who
brought pain to others, a dark stain, tarnishing the family
and rocking the institution itself well palace. In just a moment,
(05:45):
a royal inside a deep crown had this very interesting take.
What the public fails to comprehends that Prince Andrew's title
divestment is merely a side show. The real story, and
I say this with absolute certainty, is Prince William's methodical
consolidation of royal power. Marked my words, the House of
Windsor is experiencing its most significant generational transition since Elizabeth's ascension,
(06:10):
William isn't just stepping up, He's strategically positioning himself as
the modern face of the monarchy. Charles may sit on
the throne, but William is quietly choreographing the institution's future.
One must understand the delicate ballet of royal protocol. Andrew's
removal of military titles and royal patronages wasn't just punishment.
There was William and Charles surgically removing a liability from
(06:31):
the family's carefully curated image. Ruthlessly efficient, one might say.
Palisades are said to have feared that andrew saga was
beginning to overshadow the royal family's official work, particularly the
King and Queen's upcoming visit to the Vatican. Officials reportedly
viewed the situation as an ongoing family distraction and were
determined that the fallout nor consumed parliamentary time or detract
(06:54):
from preparations for the high profile state visit next week.
The King was said to be adamant that the matter
be resolved swiftly and quietly, with Andrew agreeing to put
his titles into abeyance and suspend his membership of the
Order of the Gata, ensuring the issue could be handled
internally without requiring formal debate in Parliament. Despite giving up
(07:14):
his titles, Prince Andrew remains in the news for other reasons.
Fresh scrutiny has fallen on Andrew after reports that he
met a senior Beijing official now implicated in a Chinese
espionage scandal on at least three occasions. According to the Telegraph,
the Duke of York held meetings in both London and
Beijing in twenty eighteen and twenty nineteen with Kai, She
currently one of China's most powerful political figures and de
(07:36):
facto chief of staff to President Shi Jinping. At the time,
Kai was a senior official in Beijing's municipal government and
a rising member of the Chinese Communist Party hierarchy. Chinese
state media records show that Andrew met Kai and his
delegation in May twenty eighteen during official visits that also
included meetings with Jeremy Corbyn, then leader of the Labour Party,
(07:58):
former Scottish First Minute to Nicola Sturgeon, ex Cabinet Office
Minister David Lillington, and London Mayor City Khan. The talks
centered on what both sides described as a potential golden
era in Sino British relations. Weeks later, Andrew returned to
China to launch a Pitch at Palace boot camp at
Peaking University, promoting links between Chinese entrepreneurs and global investors.
(08:21):
The Telegraph reports that Kai was again among those present
for meetings, where Andrew expressed a design to strengthen cooperation
in technology and innovation. The pair reportedly met a third
time when the Duke bought Pitch at Palace to Shenzen
in April twenty nineteen, publicly praising jointly building a golden
era in China at UK relations. The revelations come as
prosecutors in the UK faced questions over their decision to
(08:44):
drop espionage charges against two British men accused of spying
for Beijing. This is not the first time the Duke's
links to China have raised eyebrows. Late last year, he
faced criticism for his association with Yang Tangbo, an alleged
Chinese agent detained under the Counter Terrorism and bored At
Security Act in twenty twenty one. Court documents later alleged
(09:04):
Yang was a close confident of the Prince, who helped
introduce investors to his business network in China. Claims Yang
denied Andrews's decision to relinquish all his royal titles have
been hailed as a vindication by the family of Virginia Geoffrey,
who said the move represents a victory for our sister
and survivors everywhere. In a statement released by the family,
(09:25):
they said, this decisive action is a powerful step forward
in our fight to bring Jeffrey Epstein and Glen Maxwell's
child sex trafficking network to justice. This moment serves as
victory from Virginia, who consistently maintained he knows what happened.
I know what happened, and there's only one of us
telling the truth, and I know that's me. This is
not just a victory for her, but for every single
(09:47):
survivor of the horrific crimes perpetrated by Epstein and his
co conspirators. Prince Andrew remains eighth in the line of succession.
And there you have it. This has been a special
bonus episode of Palace Intrigue by thanks to John McDermott.
I'm Mike Francis
Calorogus Shark Media.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hello and welcome to a special bonus episode of Palace Intrigue.
I'm your host, Mark Francis. Prince Andrew has formally relinquished
all his remaining titles and honors. The move comes amid
renewed scrutiny of his ties to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein,
and just days before the publication of a memoir by
his late accuser, Virginior Geoffrey, whom Andrew paid millions to
(00:39):
settle a civil sexual assault case. In a statement released
Friday evening, Andrew said, in discussion with the King and
my immediate and wider family, we have concluded the continued
accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty
and the royal family. I have decided, as I always
have to put my duty to my family and country first,
I stand by my decision five years ago to stand
(01:02):
back from public life. With His Majesty's agreement, we feel
I must now go a step further. I will therefore
no longer use my title or the honors which have
been conferred upon me. Pallace sources confirmed that King Charles
and Prince William were closely involved in the decision, with
the Monarch said to be glad at the outcome. The
move strips Andrew sixty five of the Duke of York title,
(01:22):
as well as his subsidiary titles, the Earl of Invernus
and the Baron of Killiley, though he remains a prince
by birth. Andrew has already returned his military honors and
seas using his Royal Highness in twenty twenty two. He
will retain his private lease at Royal Lodge in Windsor,
which runs until twenty seventy eight. The timing of the
decision coincides with damaging new revelations, including emails from twenty
(01:46):
eleven in which Andrew allegedly told Epstein, we are in
this together, and references in Geoffrey's forthcoming memoir alleging she
was instructed to do for Andrew what I do for Geoffrey.
Andrew continues to vigorously deny all accusations. The titles of
Andrew's daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, remain unaffected, and
they are expected to continue attending family gatherings such as
(02:08):
Christmas at Sandringham. The BBC's Shawn Coughlin answers the question
of why now. Coughlin writes he can no longer sign
off as the Duke of York or put kg a
Knight of the Garter after his name with a flourish
of medieval chivalry. The Earl of Invenus and Baron Killielay
also are scratched off his list of titles, with Andrew Invenous,
(02:29):
a name he'd sometimes used in his business dealings, he
was clearly under pressure to jump before he was pushed.
Allowing Andrew to voluntarily give up his titles, which theoretically
remain in place, gave him a way out, still holding
onto a little of the disappearing vapor trail of his pride.
But it's no secret that Buckingham Palace was exasperated with
the scandals surrounding Prince Andrew and what a royal source
(02:53):
calls the constant parade of headlines. He was one of
their dukes of hazard that kept making news for all
the wrong reasons. It's been a landslide of bad news
month after month that showed no sign of losing momentum.
He'd become the disastrous football manager or the damaged political
leader who had no obvious way of being removed, particularly
when it was like a football manager whose brother was
(03:14):
the chairman. There's always a tension between protecting an institution
and a reluctance to remove the individuals within it, even
more so when the institution is also a family. It's
where the godfather movies meet the crown. But something had
to be done, and in the end Andrew has handed
back the keys to his royal life and walked away.
(03:34):
Stephen Bates writes in The Guardian Friday Knights statement represented
the last spread of dignity in that he was allowed
to pretend that he was relinquishing the use of his
titles and the Knighthood of the Garter voluntarily out of
the belated sense of duty. He wasn't. After at least
ten years of private wrangling among the family and personal
language on the part of the King about what to
(03:55):
do about the Andrew problem, and with his mother no
longer around to protect him and pay his debt, there
was no alternative but to cut him loose. Evidently, Prince
William was prepared to be more ruthless than his father.
In the end, it was the Windsor's genteel version of
the revolver in the locked room with a bottle of whiskey.
He still has the Royal Lodge where he lives with
his ex wife Sarah Ferguson. What does he need a
(04:18):
place that big for. It's not as if he had
that many friends, and apparently spends his days watching golf
on the television and taking solitary rides in Windsor Great Park,
while the family firm can't stop him going to church
as he did in attending Westminster Cathedral a few weeks
ago for the funeral of the Duchess of Kenton when
William ostentatiously ignored him. He won't be accompanying the rest
(04:40):
of the family to church at Sandringham and Christmas morning. Instead,
it will be a lonely lunch at home with Plaine,
Miss Sarah Ferguson and their daughters who retained their princess
titles and their families. The paper hats will be the
nearest the eighth in line will ever come to a crown.
Now he will have to watch the next coronation on
television as well if he lives them. What will you
(05:01):
do for money? No longer a working royal, he hasn't
qualified for public funds for the last six years. There
are residual savings from the sale of various properties. He
still has a Navy pension, and presumably there will have
to be private subventions from the King. Famously profligate, he
and his ex wife lacked the means to keep up
with the Arab and American billionaires with whom they like
to mingle. This must have been one of the reasons
(05:22):
he was attracted to Epstein, though the sex, which he
still denies, was probably another. What he offered them pathetically
in return was status and access to flummery and palaces.
He was an idiot and worse, a powerful man who
brought pain to others, a dark stain, tarnishing the family
and rocking the institution itself well palace. In just a moment,
(05:45):
a royal inside a deep crown had this very interesting take.
What the public fails to comprehends that Prince Andrew's title
divestment is merely a side show. The real story, and
I say this with absolute certainty, is Prince William's methodical
consolidation of royal power. Marked my words, the House of
Windsor is experiencing its most significant generational transition since Elizabeth's ascension,
(06:10):
William isn't just stepping up, He's strategically positioning himself as
the modern face of the monarchy. Charles may sit on
the throne, but William is quietly choreographing the institution's future.
One must understand the delicate ballet of royal protocol. Andrew's
removal of military titles and royal patronages wasn't just punishment.
There was William and Charles surgically removing a liability from
(06:31):
the family's carefully curated image. Ruthlessly efficient, one might say.
Palisades are said to have feared that andrew saga was
beginning to overshadow the royal family's official work, particularly the
King and Queen's upcoming visit to the Vatican. Officials reportedly
viewed the situation as an ongoing family distraction and were
determined that the fallout nor consumed parliamentary time or detract
(06:54):
from preparations for the high profile state visit next week.
The King was said to be adamant that the matter
be resolved swiftly and quietly, with Andrew agreeing to put
his titles into abeyance and suspend his membership of the
Order of the Gata, ensuring the issue could be handled
internally without requiring formal debate in Parliament. Despite giving up
(07:14):
his titles, Prince Andrew remains in the news for other reasons.
Fresh scrutiny has fallen on Andrew after reports that he
met a senior Beijing official now implicated in a Chinese
espionage scandal on at least three occasions. According to the Telegraph,
the Duke of York held meetings in both London and
Beijing in twenty eighteen and twenty nineteen with Kai, She
currently one of China's most powerful political figures and de
(07:36):
facto chief of staff to President Shi Jinping. At the time,
Kai was a senior official in Beijing's municipal government and
a rising member of the Chinese Communist Party hierarchy. Chinese
state media records show that Andrew met Kai and his
delegation in May twenty eighteen during official visits that also
included meetings with Jeremy Corbyn, then leader of the Labour Party,
(07:58):
former Scottish First Minute to Nicola Sturgeon, ex Cabinet Office
Minister David Lillington, and London Mayor City Khan. The talks
centered on what both sides described as a potential golden
era in Sino British relations. Weeks later, Andrew returned to
China to launch a Pitch at Palace boot camp at
Peaking University, promoting links between Chinese entrepreneurs and global investors.
(08:21):
The Telegraph reports that Kai was again among those present
for meetings, where Andrew expressed a design to strengthen cooperation
in technology and innovation. The pair reportedly met a third
time when the Duke bought Pitch at Palace to Shenzen
in April twenty nineteen, publicly praising jointly building a golden
era in China at UK relations. The revelations come as
prosecutors in the UK faced questions over their decision to
(08:44):
drop espionage charges against two British men accused of spying
for Beijing. This is not the first time the Duke's
links to China have raised eyebrows. Late last year, he
faced criticism for his association with Yang Tangbo, an alleged
Chinese agent detained under the Counter Terrorism and bored At
Security Act in twenty twenty one. Court documents later alleged
(09:04):
Yang was a close confident of the Prince, who helped
introduce investors to his business network in China. Claims Yang
denied Andrews's decision to relinquish all his royal titles have
been hailed as a vindication by the family of Virginia Geoffrey,
who said the move represents a victory for our sister
and survivors everywhere. In a statement released by the family,
(09:25):
they said, this decisive action is a powerful step forward
in our fight to bring Jeffrey Epstein and Glen Maxwell's
child sex trafficking network to justice. This moment serves as
victory from Virginia, who consistently maintained he knows what happened.
I know what happened, and there's only one of us
telling the truth, and I know that's me. This is
not just a victory for her, but for every single
(09:47):
survivor of the horrific crimes perpetrated by Epstein and his
co conspirators. Prince Andrew remains eighth in the line of succession.
And there you have it. This has been a special
bonus episode of Palace Intrigue by thanks to John McDermott.
I'm Mike Francis
Popular Podcasts
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.