Real reason Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie will keep royal titles

Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie will retain their Royal titles despite their father Andrew no longer being a Prince in a bombshell new announcement by Buckingham Palace. Beatrice and Eugenie will keep their honours in line with King George V's Letters Patent of 1917, it is understood, as they are daughters of the son of a Sovereign.

However, their disgraced father will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. The Buckingham Palace statement said: "His Majesty has today initiated a formal process to remove the Style, Titles and Honours of Prince Andrew.

"Prince Andrew will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. His lease on Royal Lodge has, to date, provided him with legal protection to continue in residence. Formal notice has now been served to surrender the lease and he will move to alternative private accommodation. These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him..."

It continued: "Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse."

King George V issued a Letters Patent in 1917 which introduced a number of changes to the Royal Family, including the shift from having their last name as Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to Windsor during a time of significant anti-German sentiment during World War One.

It also established a number of important royal rules, many of which still exist or have been slightly adapted by Queen Elizabeth II as her great-grandchildren began to arrive.

The Letters Patent declared that only the monarch's children, male-line grandchildren and the eldest son of the Prince of Wales could hold a princely title.

As Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie were born as male-line grandchildren of a sovereign, they would retain their titles regardless of any decision.

Last week, the row over the Royal Lodge where Andrew had resided continued to grow amid damning new revelations in a posthumous memoir from Andrew's sex abuse accuser Virginia Giuffre, who took her own life this year, aged 41.

The explosive book revolves around her years spent as a sex slave to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

Prince Andrew denied all accusations made by Ms Giuffre, but forked out millions in an out of court settlement in February 2022.

The removal process announced today applies to The Prince's titles of Prince, Duke of York, Earl of Inverness, Baron Killyleagh and the style 'His Royal Highness'. The honours affected are Prince Andrew's Order of the Garter and Knight Grand Cross of the Victorian Order.