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He is surrendering his titles, including the Duke of York, he has announced in a individual message.

He has been under mounting pressure over his associations with sex offender the financier, with requests for the Palace to take action against him.

That now looks to have resulted in the royal deciding to voluntarily return his titles and to give up participation of the Garter Order.

In his statement he said he continued to "strongly refute the allegations against me".

"In discussion with the King, and my close and broader family, we have agreed the ongoing allegations about me distract from the responsibilities of His Majesty and the Royal Family," said a statement from him.

"I have opted, as I always have, to put my responsibility to my kin and land first.

"I stand by my decision five years ago to stand back from royal engagements.

"With the monarch's agreement, we think I must now go a additional measure. I will therefore no longer hold my honor or the honours which have been granted to me. As I have said before, I firmly dispute the claims against me."

He has encountered a series of issues, such as a legal case he ended with an accuser, questions about his money matters and his connection with an alleged intelligence operative.

He will stay a prince - but will discontinue to be the Duke of York, a honor received from his mother, the former monarch.

The prince had already ended to be a "active member" and had given up the use of his royal style and no longer was seen at state occasions. His role now will be even more diminished.

His previous partner will be known as Sarah Ferguson and no longer York's Duchess, but their children will continue to have the designation of royal princess.

He has been under intense examination over his associations with notorious figure Epstein, more in recent times involving doubts about when he had really ended contact.

In his television appearance, he had said that he had cut off all links with Epstein after they had been photographed together in New York in the end of 2010.

But correspondence sent in early 2011 later emerged indicating that the prince had in private continued in contact with him, for example swapping a message: "Remain connected and we'll have further interactions soon!"

There had been increasing annoyance in the monarchy at the scandals that persisted to plague the royal.

Soon a late publication by the accuser will be published which is likely to cast further attention on Prince Andrew's connection with Ms Giuffre and Jeffrey Epstein.