Prince Charles could be paying Prince Andrew’s $21.5m legal bill
Prince Andrew needs to cough up a rumoured $21.5 million very soon – and the person fronting up the money is not who you might expect.
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Interior scene, fade in. The location: A vast study in Royal Lodge, the sprawling manor house that is home to Prince Andrew and Sarah, the Duchess of York. On the walls, large flat screen TVs play golf with the sound off, set amid looming, dark oil paintings.
A man in his early 60s wearing a long-sleeve polo shirt is on his knees in front of a chesterfield sofa, flipping over cushions. He looks red-faced and stressed.
“Fergs!” he yells, “Fergs! I’ve only found 30 pence, that cashmere comb I lost and my Vice Admiral’s epaulets. I’m still $21,493,812.55 short.”
This should be the scene today with news that Andrew only has ten days to pony up the reported $21.5 million he has agreed to pay accuser Virginia Giuffre, nee Roberts, after she filed a civil sex abuse claim in New York court last year.
Last month news broke that, after nearly six months of dodging, weaving and trying to deploy bully boy legal tactics, the 62-year-old son of the Queen had agreed to settle the lawsuit after Ms Giuffre had accused him of sexually assaulting her on three occasions when she was a teenager. (Andrew has always vehemently denied the allegations.)
The revelation that two sides had agreed on a payout, with estimates varying from $12.5 million (or £7 million, according to The Sun) to $21.5 million (The Telegraph has consistently reported the figure exceeds £12 million), came as little surprise.
It is Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee Year, marking her history-making 70 years on the throne, and having her son dragged through the US civil court system as he faced allegations of having sexually abused a teen who was then a sex-trafficking victim hardly jibed with all the pomp, ceremony and commemorative tea cups about which are about to come down the pike.
However, according to a report in the Sun, that settlement is about to come due in a scant ten days time, the sticking point here being that Andrew himself is pretty much skint.
According to the documents both sides filed with the court in February, the Duke of York has less than two weeks to deposit the cash, which constitutes a payment to Ms Giuffre, now a mother-of-three living in Perth, and more than $3.5 million (or £2 million) to her anti-sex trafficking charity.
The obvious issue here is that Andrew’s biggest asset is a $30 million Swiss ski chalet which he and Fergie have had trouble offloading. (And yes, which itself was the subject of a 2020 lawsuit after the Yorks failed to make a promised final $12 million payment to the former owner.)
The seven-bedroom Chalet Helora has now reportedly sold but these things take time to settle, thus leaving Andrew facing an up to $21.5 million shortfall which could put him at risk of running afoul of the court.
Whatever is a charm, grace and humility-free former frontline royal to do?
Hit up his loved ones of course – and this is where things get even more interesting.
As a friend of Andrew has said this week, and in what is a stellar example of stating the bleeding obvious: “He has no income or money to repay a bank loan so the family is the only way to guarantee the payment.”
While it had previously been assumed that the 95-year-old Queen who would be dipping into her vast, vast Coutts bank accounts for the funds to pay Ms Giuffre, according to The Sun it will actually be big brother Prince Charles who will be dipping into his own pocket, with Her Majesty only “chipping in.”
“There were family discussions about how to ‘take a little from here and a little from there,’” a source has told The Sun.
“Once it (money from the chalet) hits his bank account, he can pay back his brother and whoever else has lent him money.
“But that payment (to Virginia) has to be paid on time. He can’t rely on selling the chalet. Too many things can go wrong and the court won’t wait for property queries.”
But note the use of the words “pay back” here. How is a man, with no job and who relies on a very fixed allowance from his mumsy going to be able to find tens of millions of dollars to settle this whopping debt?
Per The Sun, the Duke will reimburse his brother and mother when his Swiss white elephant of a real estate investment finally settles. The problem here is, there are very large question marks over how much equity Andrew and Fergie have in the property.
Previously, the Daily Mail has reported that they have a $23.3 million mortgage on the house. Even assuming that is the sole encumbrance here and that they will walk away with the entire remaining $6.7 million out of the sale, that would still leave Andrew somewhere between $5.8 million and $14.8 million short of full settlement figure. And that, of course, is not including the millions of dollars he already owes his family who have been paying his huge legal bills in both the US and the UK.
Which only leaves one option.
If the former trade ambassador can’t find the funds on his own to refund these loans via independent means, then he will take a financial hit when his mother passes away.
According to The Sun: “If he fails to repay, Andrew will lose money from the will of the Queen, who is believed to have funded his legal battle.”
Complicating the situation further for the royal is that his sole source of income these days is the approximate $446,000 stipend he receives from the Queen and which comes from the Duchy of Lancaster.
When she passes away, the vast Duchy and its $39 million in annual revenue will come under the new King Charles III’s control, thus meaning Andrew will have to rely solely on his brother’s generosity.
Given that several reports have made the case that it was Charles who pushed his brother to settle with Ms Giuffre, and that the Prince of Wales has routinely put the good of the monarchy ahead of his troublesome sibling’s wishes during this crisis, will this largesse continue in the years to come?
On one hand, leaving Andrew penniless is not an option but on the other, slashing his annuity would be a PR win for Charles and would go someway to counteracting the impression that the royal family has gone out of its way to protect the Duke of York.
Basically, the only people who would not be in favour of letting Andrew suffer financially would be himself, Fergie and whoever sells him his never-ending stream of long-sleeved polo shirts.
Perhaps it’s time he followed in his ex-wife’s footsteps and started churning out kids books to try and earn a crust. He could call it ‘Andrew’s No Good, Very Bad Week, Month, Decade, Life.’
Daniela Elser is a royal expert and a writer with more than 15 years experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.
Originally published as Prince Charles could be paying Prince Andrew’s $21.5m legal bill
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