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He is surrendering his titles, among them the York's Duke, he has declared in a personal statement.

He has been under growing pressure over his connections with convicted criminal Jeffrey Epstein, with requests for the monarchy to take action against him.

That now looks to have caused the royal deciding to of his own accord give up his honors and to surrender involvement of the Order of the Garter.

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

"In consultation with the King, and my immediate and extended family, we have concluded the ongoing accusations about me take away from the work of His Majesty and the royal household," said a statement from him.

"I have chosen, as I always have, to put my responsibility to my family and country first.

"I stand by my resolution five years ago to withdraw from public life.

"With the monarch's approval, we think I must now go a further step. I will therefore no longer employ my title or the awards which have been bestowed on me. As I have said before, I strongly dispute the claims against me."

Prince Andrew has encountered a range of controversies, such as a lawsuit he ended with an accuser, doubts about his economic affairs and his involvement with an accused intelligence operative.

He will continue to be a member of royalty - but will discontinue to be the the Duke, a honor bestowed from his mother, the former monarch.

Andrew had already ended to be a "participating figure" and had forfeited the use of his HRH title and no longer participated at public engagements. His status now will be even more reduced.

His former spouse will be known as Ferguson and no longer the Duchess, but their daughters will carry on to have the title of royal princess.

He has been under severe examination over his associations with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, more in recent times involving doubts about when he had really cut off contact.

In his media discussion, he had said that he had ended all connections with Epstein after they had been pictured together in the city in December 2010.

But messages sent in February 2011 later emerged indicating that the prince had confidentially continued in contact with him, such as swapping a note: "Stay in contact and we'll play some more soon!"

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

Soon a book released after death by Giuffre will be published which is expected to draw further focus on his association with Ms Giuffre and Jeffrey Epstein.