Defiant Prince Andrew digging in after King cut financial ties: report
The disgraced duke has reportedly made a defiant vow after his brother axed his massive annual living allowance.
Prince Andrew has vowed to stay put in his palatial royal home despite being stripped of his $2 million annual allowance by King Charles, it’s been claimed.
It recently emerged that the monarch, 75, has instructed his staff member in charge of his finances, the Keeper of the Privy Purse, to cut his scandal-plagued younger brother off.
Robert Hardman claims in an updated version of his book, Charles III: New King. New Court. The Inside Story, serialised in the Daily Mail ahead of its release, that Andrew will now himself have to pay for the upkeep of his 30-room Royal Lodge home in Windsor Great Park, which is in need of urgent repairs.
It comes after The Sun on Sunday reported in August that the King had laid off the Duke of York’s 10-person security team.
Despite the King’s decisive action, Andrew – who stepped down from official duties after his disastrous 2019 BBC Newsnight interview – is reportedly still refusing to budge from his sprawling home.
“Prince Andrew is holding firm and is determined to stay in the Royal Lodge,” a source told The Sun.
“He is insistent that he has the funds to pay for his own security, despite the eye-watering seven-figure sum it is reportedly costing him.
“He is no longer a financial burden on the King and sees no reason why he should have to move from his home.”
The Duke hasn’t received an official income since he was embroiled in sexual abuse allegations over his former ties to late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, all of which he has strenuously denied.
However, the King has been covering costs for his security, as well as providing an eye-watering living allowance, since 2022.
But according to Mr Hardman, that all changed recently.
“In the late summer of this year, [Charles’] patience ran out. The Duke informed the monarch that, regardless of any ultimatum, he was going to stay put at Royal Lodge,” he wrote in the new chapters.
“At which point, the Keeper of the Privy Purse was instructed to sever his living allowance.”
Hardman also claimed that plans were underway to remove Andrew from the Royal Lodge under the late Queen prior to her death in 2022.
The royal author alleges that the previous monarch would have reluctantly forced her rumoured favourite son to relocate to Frogmore Cottage, the Sussex’s former home, if she were still alive.