- The Queen is allowing Prince Andrew to keep his military title; a source told The Sunday Times.
- A military source said the monarch has “let it be known” that she wants Andrew to keep the title.
- Andrew stepped down from royal duties in November 2019.
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Queen Elizabeth II has ensured that Prince Andrew will keep his honorary military title despite stepping back from public duties, a source told The Sunday Times.
The Duke of York is currently the colonel of the Grenadier Guards regiment of the British Army, a role he took over from Prince Philip when he retired in 2017.
Andrew resigned from his royal duties in November 2019 but has continued to hold the title.
“The Queen has let it be known to the regiment that she wants the Duke of York to remain as a colonel, and the feeling is that nobody wants to do anything that could cause upset to the colonel-in-chief. So it is a tough, unsatisfactory situation,” an unnamed senior military source told the newspaper.
“His position is not tenable or viable. How can you have a colonel who can’t perform the role? For the brief time, he was in post, he was a good colonel, but the feeling across the regiment is that it’s not appropriate to retain him. You can’t have a colonel who can’t do public duties,” the source said.
The source added that senior defense chiefs “all agree that he should go.”
The duke turned down a military promotion in February 2020, three months after his BBC “Newsnight” interview about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said at the time that while Andrew was in line for a promotion, it would be deferred until he “returns to public duty.”
Despite this, Prince Charles reportedly believes that it will be impossible for Andrew to return to public duties in the future. A source close to Charles told The Times of London earlier this month that Andrew has caused “unwelcome reputational damage to the institution.”
“He has long ago concluded that it is probably an unsolvable problem,” the source said.
Meanwhile, Prince Harry had to give up his military titles after the one-year review period of his “step back” from royal life came to an end earlier this year.
In a statement in February, Buckingham Palace said that the Queen had confirmed that the couple “couldn’t continue with the responsibilities and duties that come with a life of public service” after their resignation.
Buckingham Palace and representatives for the Duke of York did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.