Prince Andrew's Online Presence Looks Totally Different These Days
As if real life couldn't get any worse for Prince Andrew, his online presence has also begun to crumble. To recall, on January 13, The Duke of York had his war designations and royal titles stripped from him at the hands of Queen Elizabeth herself. The move came after a tumultuous three-year roller coaster following Andrew's disastrous BBC interview, where he seemingly failed to disavow late friend and convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein.
The pushback was so overwhelming that the duke ultimately stepped down from his royal duties in 2019, noting that his "association with Jeffrey Epstein has become a major disruption to my family's work and the valuable work going on in the many organizations and charities that I am proud to support" (via The New York Times). Per the BBC, in August 2021, Prince Andrew was named in a civil case by Virginia Giuffre — an accuser of Epstein — on the grounds of sexual abuse.
Despite ardent attempts of having the case thrown out, judge Lewis Kaplan confirmed the case will indeed go to trial, per Twitter. Now, as his world crashes down around him, Prince Andrew has seemingly disappeared beyond the digital realm as well.
Prince Andrew's online accounts are slowly coming down
A digital presence is crucial in 2021 — though, in Prince Andrew's case, a lack thereof might be the better option. On January 19, royal expert and Meghan Markle's friend, Omid Scobie, revealed that Andrew has begun taking down his social media accounts. "With no official duties to carry out or royal patronages to his name, Prince Andrew has taken down his @TheDukeOfYork Twitter account (which had 259k followers) and YouTube channel (both were live yesterday)," Scobie tweeted.
"His @pitchatpalace account remains online but is inactive," Scobie continued. Pitch@Palace, which serves as a networking platform for entrepreneurs, was initially founded by Prince Andrew — though he ultimately stepped down following his devastating BBC interview, per TechCrunch. The outlet further noted that Pitch@Palace would be rebranded as Pitch and would see "no further royal involvement."
In February 2020, the BBC reported that the organization began scrubbing all image and text-related references to Prince Andrew as well. Prior to Andrew's public struggles, the website's homepage initially read, "The Duke of York founded Pitch@Palace to provide a platform to amplify and accelerate the work of entrepreneurs." Now, a quick gander at the website shows no reference to Prince Andrew and, interestingly enough, has not been rebranded to Pitch — citing pandemic woes.