How Prince Andrew could still become King of England someday

Prince Andrew’s involvement in a sensational sexual assault case has left the queen’s second — and, reportedly, favorite — son disgraced and stripped of his royal duties. But could he still be king someday?

The answer is, technically, yes — he is still a prince by birth. And now that Queen Elizabeth has died at age 96, the 62-year-old prince is actually closer to the throne than ever, jumping up a place to eighth in line.

This, of course, is still a pretty remote possibility. King Charles, Prince William and his three children, as well as Prince Harry and his two children would all need to predecease him.

In 2019, Andrew announced he would be stepping back from royal duties in the wake of the Jeffrey Epstein sex scandal — the two were good friends.

In January 2022, he faced further woes when a civil sex assault case was brought by Virginia Giuffre, who accused Andrew of sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager. He has consistently denied the allegations. A month later, he paid Giuffre a reported £12 million ($14.5 million) in an out-of-court settlement. 

Andrew was forced to give up his HRH title, meaning he could no longer be called “His Royal Highness,” an honorific that distinguishes a person as “royal” over other English peers. Andrew also had to hand back his patronages and honorary military roles. 

It was a long fall from grace for the son said to be the queen’s favorite. “There’s no doubting the queen’s soft spot for Andrew,” wrote Tina Brown in The Palace Papers, recalling how, as Queen Elizabeth settled into her sovereign duties she had more time to spend with him as a child.

It was reported at the time that Prince Charles and William played a part in the title stripping decision. So could King Charles go one further and strip Andrew of his Duke Of York title that the queen gave him on his wedding day? 

Not easily, said constitution expert Dr. Robert Morris of University College London’s Constitution Unit. “While a British monarch can confer a dukedom, they alone can’t take it away. That would require an act of Parliament.

“The last time that was done was in 1917, when the Titles Deprivation Act allowed various German nobles with British titles who fought on the enemy side in World War I to be deprived of their peerages.”

Nor could Andrew’s place in the line of succession be whipped away easily either. “For this to happen there would also have to be an act of Parliament — and the chances of this being mooted as necessary are quite remote, as Andrew is, at eighth in line, already pretty far down the line,” Morris told The Post. 

Andrew will have to content himself with being a prince, albeit one in the shadows. Although we’re unlikely to ever again see Andrew in official appearances such as on the Buckingham Palace balcony or riding horseback during Trooping the Colour, the disgraced royal is said to be keen to rehabilitate himself back into public life.

Royal family members were said to have been “dismayed” when Andrew walked the Queen to her seat at the Duke of Edinburgh’s televised memorial service in March 2022. Then, at the Order of the Garter ceremony at Windsor Castle in June, the Duke was forced to withdraw from the public parts of the day after Prince William reportedly threatened to pull out.