The Duke of York relinquishes his title as York's Duke.

He is relinquishing his honors, including the the Duke, he has declared in a own words.

He has been under growing attention over his associations with convicted criminal Jeffrey Epstein, with demands for the monarchy to take steps against him.

That now appears to have caused the royal deciding to of his own accord hand back his designations and to relinquish participation of the Garter Order.

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

"In talks with the monarch, and my close and extended family, we have agreed the continued allegations about me divert from the work of the King and the Royal Family," said a statement from him.

"I have decided, as I always have, to put my responsibility to my family and nation first.

"I uphold my choice five years ago to stand back from official duties.

"With the King's approval, we believe I must now go a further step. I will therefore no longer employ my designation or the honours which have been bestowed on me. As I have said before, I vigorously deny the allegations against me."

He has been involved in a range of scandals, such as a lawsuit he ended with an accuser, inquiries about his money matters and his association with an alleged foreign agent.

He will remain a prince - but will cease to be the the Duke, a designation received from his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth.

The prince had already ended to be a "participating figure" and had forfeited the use of his His Royal Highness designation and no longer was seen at public engagements. His status now will be even more reduced.

His former spouse will be known as Sarah and no longer the Duchess, but their offspring will carry on to have the title of princesses.

The royal has been under strong scrutiny over his connections with convicted sex offender the financier, more recently featuring questions about when he had actually cut off ties.

In his television appearance, Prince Andrew had said that he had cut off all links with Jeffrey Epstein after they had been seen together in the city in late 2010.

But messages sent in the following year later emerged suggesting that Andrew had confidentially stayed in communication with the financier, for example sending a communication: "Stay in contact and we'll meet again soon!"

There had been increasing frustration in Buckingham Palace at the scandals that persisted to plague the figure.

Next week a posthumous memoir by Virginia Giuffre will be published which is likely to cast additional attention on Prince Andrew's involvement with Virginia Giuffre and Epstein.