Prince Andrew was criticised by a royal commentator who said no matter his efforts, he will never "outrun" his scandal with Jeffrey Epstein.

The disgraced prince was further dragged into the row with the late convicted paedophile recently after emails of the royal to Epstein emerged, as well as the release of his abuse accuser, Virginia Giuffre's posthumous memoir, which includes various bombshells against him.

Andrew has always denied any wrongdoing, but last week, he relinquished his royal titles and honours so as not to distract the public from the work of the King and the Royal Family.

But a royal commentator said the royal will have a hard time completely distancing himself from the Epstein scandal.

The Independent's Jon Sopel wrote: "It's not just that his reputation has been destroyed; it is that he is now a source of shame for the Royal Family itself.

"In the terse statement issued the Friday before last, Prince Andrew announced he would no longer be using his title of Duke of York, that he would be giving up the Garter, whatever that means, and that he was doing this because he was an honourable man, whose only interest was what was best for the royal family. It was accompanied by the vigorous denial of all accusations against him.

"The statement from the now untitled, but deeply entitled prince was designed to kill the story and extinguish all interest in him. What an epic fail."

Hi said the latest revelations about Prince Andrew will keep increasing questions about the truth behind his relationship with the convicted sex offender and will likely never go away.

He explained: "You can see the long list of detailed questions congressmen and women would have for Andrew. Why did you cough up millions of pounds if you say you can't remember meeting her [Virginia Giuffre]? What about the orgy she details in her book?

"Why did you tell my co-presenter, Emily Maitlis, in that infamous Newsnight interview that you broke off all contact with Epstein in December 2010, but were apparently emailing him in February 2011, talking about how "we are in this together"? What did you mean in that email when you wrote "we'll play some more soon"? How long did contacts carry on? Were you lying in that interview, and if you were, why should we believe anything else you say?

"But what does the prince do if the [US] committee invites him to give evidence? Sure, you can't compel a foreigner to give testimony as you can a US citizen.

"But imagine the optics if he declined. A British prince pleading the fifth would not be a good look. He has no good options, and none of this is going away."