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The Duke's exit from the last vestiges of royal life has not only altered his path - it's creating waves through his immediate relatives too.

Fergie's Title Change

The former spouse has now surrendered her ducal status and will now be referred to as Sarah Ferguson.

For Sarah, 66, the transition will be the most apparent.

Throughout this period, she has kept the courtesy royal divorcee title Sarah, York Duchess. Currently, she reverts to her birth name of Ferguson.

"She will have lost a bit of cachet over this," noted one monarchy expert. "She definitely utilizes the title – even her social media profile is @SarahTheDuchess."

But the relinquishment of her status may affect her much less than the scandal she's dealing with independently about her own links with the convicted financier.

Recently, multiple organizations dropped her as ambassador after an email from over a decade ago revealed that she called Epstein her "greatest ally" and appeared to express regret for her public criticism of him.

Business Ventures and Philanthropy

Away from her charitable activities, Ferguson also has various business ventures.

And these, too, are more probable to be impacted by the Epstein controversy than any change in title, notes one royal commentator.

But Ferguson has been a great survivor in monarchical networks. She's kept bouncing back.

"She's the supreme perseverer and expert at transforming," said one monarchy writer.

The Princesses

For the couple's offspring, Beatrice, thirty-seven, and Eugenie, thirty-five, there's no official alteration.

They will still be known as princesses, which they have been granted since their birth.

There is also no change to the royal succession order.

Andrew remains eighth position to the throne, followed by his children Beatrice and Eugenie, in ninth and twelfth position in that order.

But in reality their standing are "distant" and will likely become much further down as years pass.

Coming Opportunities

The princesses are also presently non-working royals, and while they do sometimes take on roles – The younger princess was recently named as a mentor for the monarch's charity program – experts also say they "don't envision a world" in which they would step up into official responsibilities.

"As far as Beatrice and Eugenie go, I think there's an appreciation of the reality that this controversy isn't about them, and it's not fair for it to impact them personally in the independent lives they are carving out for themselves," says one royal commentator.

"Their daughters are particularly unlucky affected parties, they've had to endure quietly and have been composed in their silence," adds another monarchy writer.

Final Impact

Ultimately, there seems to be little doubt that the individual who will be most affected by these developments will be the Duke himself.

For someone who consistently enjoyed the trappings of royalty, the ceremony and the pageantry, the relinquishment of his honors is deeply humiliating.

Therefore lacking those, on a personal level, will really matter.