Prince Andrew's website taken down eight months after he stepped back from royal duties
Prince Andrew’s website has been taken down, more than eight months after he stepped back from his royal duties.
The prince had his own website, dukeofyork.org, which gave details of his royal work and his family, with pages on his daughters Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.
However the link now redirects to his profile page on the royal.uk website, which has pages for all working family members.
A Buckingham Palace spokesman told Yahoo UK the contract with the host provider for dukeofyork.org came to an end, and was not renewed.
She said the website is being redirected, but added there were no plans to have new pages written for the duke’s daughters, because royal.uk is for working members of the Royal Family.
The Duke of York stepped back from royal duties in 2019, after a disastrous interview on BBC Newsnight about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who took his own life in prison while awaiting trial for sex trafficking offences.
The duke has been accused by Virginia Guiffre, also called Virginia Roberts, of having sex with her on three occasions, one of which when she was underage in the US.
He denies the allegations, and has promised to cooperate with US authorities investigating Epstein.
Read more: Prince Andrew 'highly likely' to be called to give evidence in Ghislaine Maxwell trial
However, prosecutors in the case say he hasn’t made good on that pledge, though he claims he has offered to help on multiple occasions.
The duke’s social media pages are still active, though nothing has been added to them since his statement in November about stepping back.
His former web address is still listed, even though it redirects.
Prince Harry and Meghan also retain their pages on royal.uk despite stepping back from their senior royal roles in March.
None of the work they carry out is on behalf of the Queen.
Read more: What has Prince Andrew said about his friendship with Ghislaine Maxwell?
Despite reports earlier this year that the Queen was resigned to her second son, Andrew, never returning to frontline royal duties, the palace did not add to the statement released in November, that said he would not be back for the “foreseeable future”.
Andrew’s old friend Ghislaine Maxwell is in jail in New York as she awaits her trial next year, charged with procuring girls for Epstein to sexually abuse.
She and Andrew met at university and he previously said she was the person who introduced him to Epstein. However that has recently been disputed, as her friends claim the men met at a party she did not go to.
Andrew has rarely been seen in public since stepping back from his duties, and made a statement last month suggesting US authorities were seeking “publicity instead of answers”.
