Prince Andrew's name is gone from the website of his startup-mentoring program in more fallout from his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein
- Pitch@Palace, the startup-mentoring platform founded by Prince Andrew, has removed mention of the British royal from its website's home page.
- The prince has come under fire over his friendship with the disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in jail last year while facing sex-trafficking charges.
- Andrew defended his friendship with Epstein in a damaging November BBC interview, during which he discussed allegations of sexual misconduct made against him by a US woman, Virginia Giuffre. He denies the allegations.
- Andrew stepped down from his role as head of Pitch@Palace after the interview, though some images of him remain on the platform's website.
- Many of Pitch@Palace's corporate backers, including KPMG, Standard Chartered, and Barclays, withdrew their sponsorship after the BBC interview.
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Pitch@Palace, the mentoring platform for startups founded by Prince Andrew in 2014, has removed mention of the British royal from its website's home page.
Prince Andrew largely stepped back from public view last year over his friendship with the disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in jail while facing sex-trafficking charges.
Andrew defended his friendship with Epstein in a damaging BBC interview in November, during which he discussed allegations made against him by a US woman, Virginia Giuffre.
Giuffre, now 36, alleges she was forced to have sex with Andrew when she was 17 on the orders of Epstein - a claim the royal vehemently denies.
Many of Pitch@Palace's biggest corporate backers, including KPMG, Standard Chartered, and Barclays, cut ties with it after the BBC interview. Andrew himself stepped down from his role as head of the organization in the same month.
Andrew founded Pitch@Palace in 2014, having previously served as a naval officer. Essentially a networking platform that connects startups with potential investors, Pitch@Palace counts the voice-assistant startup Wluper and the e-learning software provider Proversity among its alumni.
As reported by The Telegraph, the home page of the platform's website used to say: "The Duke of York founded Pitch@Palace to provide a platform to amplify and accelerate the work of entrepreneurs."
Though those words have been removed from the site, some images of Andrew do remain.
Given Andrew's obvious association with Pitch@Palace, it will face a steep challenge in distancing itself from him.
"As Pitch@Palace Global looks to its future opportunities, it is taking the first part of 2020 to refresh the brand, centralise its vision and move forward with an impactful programme for the coming year," its home page said Tuesday. "The updated website to reflect the new position will be launched in Spring 2020."