Prince Andrew was forced to cancel an upcoming trip to the Middle East this week because of the growing scandal over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, reports in the UK said Thursday.
The Duke of York, 59, had planned to jet to Bahrain Saturday to prep for a charity event — days after he announced he was stepping back from his royal duties, reportedly after being canned by his mom, Queen Elizabeth II.
“His position had become such a distraction, the only decision was for him to not go,” a source told the Mirror UK.
The event is part of Andrew’s Pitch@Palace initiative, which hosts competitions all over the world for tech startups to pitch their ideas.
The royal family apparently convinced Andrew the jaunt was a bad idea.
“He was persuaded by his family that it was not a good idea in light of this week’s events,” a source told the Daily Mail.
Still, the embattled prince was all smiles as he was spotted Thursday driving away from his home in Windsor, for the first time since announcing he was ending his royal duties.
A palace spokeswoman told the Mirror that Andrew would continue to work on Pitch@Palace “but will look at how to do that outside and entirely separate from the palace.”
The scandal-scarred prince has been facing pressure from Epstein’s alleged victims to come forward and speak to the FBI about his old pal.
Calls for Andrew to reach out to authorities intensified after his train-wreck interview about his friendship with the pedophile, who was found hanged Aug. 10 in his Manhattan lockup, while awaiting trial on child sex-trafficking charges.
At least one alleged Epstein sex slave, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, has said she was trafficked to Andrew on three occasions.
Andrew, long dubbed “Randy Andy,” has denied those charges.
In his much-mocked interview with the BBC over the weekend, Andrew used the bizarre claim that he can’t sweat to defend himself against Roberts Giuffre’s allegations.