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He is giving up his honors, such as the the Duke, he has declared in a own words.

He has been under growing pressure over his associations with disgraced financier the financier, with demands for the Palace to take steps against him.

That now seems to have caused the figure deciding to willingly give up his honors and to relinquish participation of the Garter Order.

In his announcement he said he continued to "strongly deny the allegations against me".

"In consultation with the King, and my direct and wider family, we have agreed the persistent allegations about me take away from the responsibilities of the monarch and the monarchy," said a announcement from him.

"I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my kin and land first.

"I support my choice five years ago to step back from royal engagements.

"With the King's approval, we feel I must now go a step further. I will therefore no longer employ my honor or the awards which have been granted to me. As I have said previously, I strongly refute the claims against me."

He has faced a number of issues, including a lawsuit he ended with the plaintiff, questions about his money matters and his involvement with an suspected intelligence operative.

He will stay a royal - but will stop to be the York's Duke, a designation bestowed from his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth.

He had already stopped to be a "working royal" and had forfeited the use of his His Royal Highness designation and no longer was seen at state occasions. His role now will be even more reduced.

His ex-wife will be known as Ferguson and no longer Duchess of York, but their children will persist to have the designation of royal princess.

The royal has faced strong attention over his connections with notorious figure Epstein, more in recent times featuring doubts about when he had actually severed contact.

In his media discussion, he had said that he had severed all links with Epstein after they had been photographed together in NYC in December 2010.

But emails sent in February 2011 later emerged suggesting that Andrew had in private remained in touch with him, including exchanging a message: "Keep in close touch and we'll have further interactions soon!"

There had been mounting displeasure in the royal household at the issues that persisted to plague the royal.

In the coming days a posthumous memoir by the accuser will be issued which is expected to cast more scrutiny on the royal's association with Ms Giuffre and Jeffrey Epstein.