‘King Of Steel’ Charles sealed Andrew’s fate with one fateful phone call after asking ‘can he cope?’ – as former prince suffers one final humiliation

King Charles’ brother Andrew Mountbatten reportedly sealed Windsor’s fate with a phone call.

The king this week stripped his disgraced brother of his remaining titles and evicted him from the royal household after weeks of pressure to take action over his relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Palace insiders told The Times that Charles’ decision was a sign of the monarch’s ‘steel’ after a private phone call with Andrew broke the news of his decision; this decision was made only after how the King’s brother would deal.

A royal source said: ‘There were significant welfare issues for a while. His entire raison d’être revolves around status. We were asking ourselves: ‘Can he handle it?’ ‘We finally reached a turning point and he was able to think logically.’

An insider said: ‘In the last three years of the King’s reign we have seen his humanity, warmth and compassion,’ the royal source said. ‘Now we have seen its steel.’

Demand has been growing for the prince to be expelled from the Royal Lodge after he renounced the title of Duke of York earlier this month amid new revelations about his friendship with Epstein, which revived allegations of sexual abuse by one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, whose posthumous memoir appeared in bookstores last week.

But the king went further, claiming that since he was born as a child of a monarch, the late Queen Elizabeth II was a child of the late Queen Elizabeth II. He wanted to punish Elizabeth for serious errors of judgment by stripping her of the title of prince he had as a child.

Following the king’s move, Andrew will be forced to vacate the Royal Lodge estate near Windsor Castle.

The Duke of York carriage (DOY) leaves Royal Lodge, a large estate on the grounds surrounding Windsor Castle where England’s King Charles’ younger brother Andrew lives, on November 1, 2025.

The picture, dated 1 November, shows King Charles at Sandringham Norfolk on Saturday afternoon. As Andrew’s troubles continued, King was spotted driving on public roads around the property.

But Andrew faces even more humiliation as the Royal Collection Trust is reportedly preparing to remove works of art that have hung in the Royal Lodge since the Queen Mother’s time.

Paintings that appear to be oil paintings from the 19th century Eugenie, Empress of the French, Edouard BoutibonneIt would be returned.

Another artifact expected to be removed is understood to be an ancient sword with which Andrew’s daughter Princess Beatrice accidentally cut singer Ed Sheeran’s face while pretending to knight musician James Blunt at a party.

Buckingham Palace said in a statement on Thursday that the King’s moves against Andrew were deemed necessary, even though he continues to deny the allegations against him.

‘Her Majesty wishes to make it clear that her thoughts and utmost sympathies are with the victims and survivors of all forms of abuse and remain with them.’

It is almost unprecedented for a British prince or princess to be stripped of this title. The last time this happened was in 1919, when Prince Ernest Augustus, a member of the British royal family and also the prince of Hanover, was stripped of his British title because he sided with Germany during the First World War.

Andrew faced fresh public outrage earlier this month when emails emerged that showed he had been in contact with Epstein for longer than he had previously admitted.

This news was followed by the publication of Giuffre’s book, “Nobody’s Girl,” in which she claimed to have had sex with Andrew when she was 17.

Edouard Boutibonne’s Empress Eugenie of the French, one of the paintings believed to have been removed from the Royal Lodge as a final humiliation for Andrew

Ed Sheeran has a scratch on his face accidentally caused by Princess Beatrice “knighting” James Blunt with a sword during a party.

The book detailed three alleged sexual encounters in which Andrew said he acted as if he believed ‘it was his birthright to have sex with me’.

Andrew, 65, has long denied Giuffre’s claims, but resigned from royal duties following a November 2019 BBC interview in which he attempted to refute her claims.

Andrew paid millions in an out-of-court settlement in 2022 after Giuffre filed a civil lawsuit against him in New York. Although he did not admit wrongdoing, he acknowledged that Giuffre had suffered as a victim of sex trafficking.

Although Charles held talks with Andrew before announcing he would relinquish his dukedom two weeks ago, the king had largely managed to stay away from the scandal until this week.

It was the most dramatic royal departure since 1936, when King Edward VIII abdicated to marry twice-divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson. The couple were given the titles Duke and Duchess of Windsor and lived out the rest of their lives in exile outside Britain.