Michel Euler-WPA Pool/Getty ImaesPrince Andrew's royal reputation has been restored.
On Tuesday, a Florida judge ordered that underage sex allegations made against the Duke of York be struck from the court record.
Prince Andrew had been named in an ongoing civil lawsuit over the U.S. government's handling of financier Jeffrey Epstein's case. Virginia Roberts alleged that the disgraced businessman forced her (when she was then 17) to be a "sex slave" for him as well as his friends, including the Duke of York—something that Prince Andrew, 55, and Buckingham Palace emphatically denied all along. Epstein reached a plea deal with Florida in 2008, agreeing to serve a year in jail while avoiding federal charges; the women in this ongoing civil suit allege Epstein's plea deal violated their rights.
Per the U.K.'s Telegraph, on Tuesday federal district judge Kenneth Marra rejected two women's bids to join the lawsuit against the U.S. government over its handling of Epstein's case. Additionally, Marra ordered the claims made that involved Prince Andrew "and several prominent Americans in the filings lodged by her lawyer must be removed from the court record."
Per the BBC, Judge Marra said the "lurid" claims were "unnecessary" to decide the civil case against the U.S. government of its handling of Epstein's case. He added that "factual details regarding with whom and where" Roberts claimed to have had sex "were "immaterial and impertinent" to her argument.