Prince Andrew has reportedly come up with a plan to remain at his current royal mansion as his brother King Charles continues to look for a loophole to make him downsize.
The disgraced Duke of York, 64, has lived at the $38 million Royal Lodge, located on the grounds of Windsor Castle, since 2004 after he signed a 75-year lease agreement the year before.
After his friendship with the late pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein came to light in 2019, Andrew has found himself on the brink of eviction from the plush royal digs.
In a further blow amid his fall from grace, Andrew was named in the Epstein document dump in January.
Still, it appears the monarch, 75, is struggling to boot his scandal-scarred brother from the property despite the controversies.
“Andrew can sit tight and run out the clock,” a source told the Daily Beast. “Andrew wants his brother to live long and prosper. He is intensely loyal to the monarchy.”
“But it’s not exactly a state secret that Andrew is more than a decade younger than his brother,” the insider added.
“Quite why Charles wants this distraction at this moment in his reign is a great mystery to Andrew’s friends,” the source continued.
“It looks childish and vindictive as I don’t think anyone except Charles would give a damn where Andrew lives.”
The Post has reached out to Buckingham Palace for comment.
Andrew has reportedly been refusing to downsize from his lavish royal mansion to Frogmore Cottage, which currently sits empty after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were forced to hand over the keys.
The pair, who reside in Montecito, Calif., vacated the plush five-bedroom property in June 2023, and the home has since seen no new tenants, the annual Sovereign Grant revealed in July.
According to palace sources, Andrew plans to bequeath the lease to his daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, so that they can use the property after his death.
The palace recently cut him off financially.
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Prince Andrew has scored a major win in the ongoing battle over his residence, the Royal Lodge. Tensions have been brewing over the disgraced royal’s living situation, and things recently came to a head for Prince Andrew and King Charles when the monarch reportedly cut off his younger brother’s private security and allowance as a last-ditch eviction attempt. However, Prince Andrew has now found the funds to continue living at the Royal Lodge, according to a new report.
Per The Sunday Times, the prince convinced Sir Michael Stevens, the keeper of the privy purse, that he’s able to fund living in the Royal Lodge on his own dime. According to Sir Evans, the money comes from legitimate sources, and would allow Andrew to keep living in the 31-room estate that he shares with ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson. Andrew, who stepped down from his duties as a working royal five years ago, has lived in the Windsor estate for decades and has a lease agreement that’s valid until 2078, according to the publication.
The latest Royal Lodge development comes after King Charles was reportedly attempting to convince his brother to move to Frogmore Cottage, which sits empty after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were asked to leave. Now that Andrew is no longer a working royal, Charles was forced to pay for his security detail from his private funds–an expense that apparently came down to about $3 million a year.
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Charles III: New King. New Court. The Inside Story author Robert Hardman previously revealed that Charles had financially cut off his brother after Andrew refused to move to the “considerably smaller property” of Frogmore Cottage. In addition to stopping his £1 million annual allowance, the king reportedly applied pressure by deciding not to renew Andrew’s “seven figure” security contract.
“In the late summer of this year, that patience ran out,” Hardman wrote in his book. “The Duke informed the monarch that, regardless of any ultimatum, he was going to stay put at Royal Lodge anyway. At which point, the Keeper of the Privy Purse (the monarchy’s finance director) was instructed to sever his living allowance.”
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Only time will tell whether Prince Andrew will be able to continue funding the reported extensive upkeep and repair costs of the Royal Lodge in the future, but it looks like he’s staying put for now.
