Prince Andrew was "tearful" after being told by King Charles that he will never return to royal duties.

The Duke of York stepped away from royal duties and public life earlier this year due to his sex case with Virginia Giuffre and association with the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and new details have emerged about how his hopes of returning were ended in a meeting at Charles's Birkhall estate in Scotland just days before the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth.

No other royals were present for the talks between the brothers, which have been described as "emotional and fraught".

A source told the Mail on Sunday newspaper: "Andrew was totally blindsided. He always believed there was a way back."

Andrew - who paid a financial settlement to accuser Giuffre in February - attempted to discuss a return to the royal fold with the late Queen on several occasions but to no avail.

The source said: "Andrew was extremely close to the Queen and tried to raise the issue of his return to public life many times with her.

"On some occasions she would say mildly conciliatory things but most of the time she would change the subject immediately."

The insider added: "Naive as it may sound, he always had hopes of regaining his position as a senior royal.

"At the meeting Charles told him that he can go off and have a good life, a nice life, but that his public life as a royal is at an end.

"He was told: 'You have to accept this.'"

Andrew, 62, has lost all of his military titles and royal patronages and will be absent from next week's Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph as he no longer has a role to play.