Prince Andrew faces eviction if King cuts spending
Prince Andrew is said to have told friends that he may have to move out of Royal Lodge if King Charles cuts his annual grant.
The Duke of York fears he will be forced out of his luxury home in Windsor if the King tightens the royal purse strings.
Andrew, 63, is said to have told friends that he may have to move out of Royal Lodge by September if Charles cuts his annual grant. This would leave him struggling to afford the maintenance costs of the spacious property.
Since standing down as a working member of the royal family in 2019, he has been supported by private funds from the Duchy of Lancaster, the monarch’s private estate. Andrew was reported to receive £249,000 a year ($434,000) from the late Queen Elizabeth. However members of the royal family have been told to expect less money from the Duchy, The Mail on Sunday and The Sun on Sunday reported.
This would include Andrew, whose only other known annual income is his modest pension from the Royal Navy.
One source told the Mail: “He’s not being explicitly kicked out but it’s expected that he won’t be able to afford the maintenance. Royal Lodge has a swimming pool, 98 acres of land and is already in need of some repair.”
A friend said: “They’ve been told their subsidy, vital for maintaining Royal Lodge, will be cut as soon as April.”
The King is said to be keen to reduce the royal family’s spending and although the Duchy funds are private, he has reportedly ordered a review of how it is used.
Royal Lodge, a 30-room mansion three miles from Windsor Castle, would be worth about £30 million on the open market. It was formerly the home of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, who died in 2002.
Andrew signed a 75-year lease in 2003 for the property, in which he lives with his ex-wife, Sarah, the Duchess of York, after paying a one-off fee to the Crown Estate. He pays under a lease equivalent to £250 a week, but has spent about £7.5 million renovating the property. Representatives for the Duke could not be reached and Buckingham Palace declined to comment.
However it is understood that the King will continue to offer to house and provide for his brother.
Andrew has also received an inheritance from his parents, the late Queen and Prince Philip.
It has been suggested that he is now looking at commercial opportunities, following in the footsteps of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
The eldest of the King’s brothers stepped down from public life in 2019 amid the fallout from his disastrous BBC Newsnight interview about his friendship with the convicted paedophile Jeffery Epstein. He was later stripped of his patronages and military affiliations when Virginia Giuffre sued him for sexual assault. He denied the claims and settled the case out of court last year, paying a multi-million pound sum to Giuffre without admitting liability.
At the time friends said he still believed there was a way for him to make a return to royal duties. However shortly before the death of their mother, Charles made it clear he would never return to public life.
Andrew is since said to have consulted lawyers to consider whether an attempt to get Giuffre to retract her allegations is legally possible. He now spends most of his time at Royal Lodge and is often seen horse riding.
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