Prince Andrew won’t receive a military promotion on his 60th birthday this year and celebrations around the UK will be scaled down, it has been announced, amid the lengthy controversy over his relationship with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The prince – Queen Elizabeth II’s third child – was due to receive a promotion to admiral when he turns 60, as per a longstanding tradition that treats royals as serving members of the armed forces.
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But he has asked to defer that honor until he returns to royal duties, Buckingham Palace said.
The duke stepped back from his public role following a disastrous BBC interview about his friendship with Epstein last year.
Towns and cities around the UK have also been told they won’t be required to fly a Union flag to mark Andrew’s birthday on February 19 – but Westminster Abbey, the site of most royal coronations, will still ring its bells to celebrate the day.
Councils had previously been told to fly a flag by a government staffer but many reacted with anger to the request, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesperson has now told reporters there is “no requirement” for local regions to do so.
“We’re not flying the flag,” a spokesperson for Liverpool Council had told CNN on Tuesday, after the initial advice was sent. The city’s mayor, Joe Anderson, added to the Liverpool Echo newspaper: “When you look at his behavior – it wouldn’t be appropriate for us to mark his birthday.”
Westminster Abbey, by contrast, told CNN in a statement that it always rings its bells to mark the birthdays of the Queen and her immediate descendents. “There are no plans to change these arrangements,” a spokesperson said.
The decision to play down Andrew’s birthday festivities comes as questions continue to swirl around his associations with Epstein. The disgraced financier died by apparent suicide in August while awaiting trial on federal charges that he sexually abused underage girls and ran a sex trafficking ring. Epstein had pleaded not guilty.
It is alleged that Epstein arranged for the prince to have sex with a 17-year-old girl in 2001. Virginia Giuffre has said that Epstein brought her to London, where she was introduced to Prince Andrew and went dancing at a nightclub with Epstein, his then-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell and the prince.
Giuffre, in a 2015 defamation case brought against Maxwell, alleged that she “was forced to have sexual relations with this Prince when she was a minor in three separate geographical locations,” including London, New York and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Andrew and Maxwell deny all the allegations against them, and the case was settled in 2017. The prince continued to maintain a friendship with Epstein for several years, including after he was found guilty of child sex offenses.
A US attorney said last month that Andrew has provided “zero” cooperation with US authorities investigating Epstein.
