What’s really happening with Andrew, Sarah Ferguson and the Royal Lodge
Sarah Ferguson may be hunting for a new home but Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former prince, doesn’t seem quite ready to relinquish the keys to his palatial Windsor estate
After nearly two years of wrangling, King Charles has finally won the “siege of Royal Lodge”, his long-running campaign to evict his brother Andrew from his palatial Windsor residence. On October 30 the King announced that not only would he take away his brother’s title of prince, but that he was also forcing him out of his 30-room mansion.
Behind the scenes, however, something else was happening. The same day, Andrew signed a “tenant’s notice offering to surrender the lease” for his landlord, the Crown Estate. How galling it must have been not only to give up a long lease on a property that required the pittance of a peppercorn rent, but also to sign it using an unfamiliar signature: Mr Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. After a bitter battle of wills between the brothers, it appeared to be a victory for the King.
If only it were that simple.
The minimum notice period that Andrew, 65, could give was 12 months. It means that for the next year he will continue to be responsible for the property. So after months of clinging on he’s unlikely to be in a hurry to depart. As the King goes about his business, hosting the first state visit by a German president in 27 years at Windsor Castle, he may have to put up with his brother living down the road for a little longer.
Buckingham Palace sources are adamant that they expect Andrew to depart in the first quarter of next year, yet there are significant logistical issues with Andrew’s radical downsizing exercise. Where, for example, is he going to put a lifetime of luxury goods and knick-knacks, not to mention his scores of teddy bears? There’s also the question of who will keep Queen Elizabeth II’s corgis when Andrew and his former wife, Sarah Ferguson, divide their assets and finally go their separate ways a mere three decades after divorcing. Andrew has been told that accommodation, which will be more in keeping with his new, more lowly status, will be found for him at the King’s private Norfolk estate of Sandringham, but it will take time to prepare.
Last year, before the King gave him his marching orders, one of Andrew’s friends (yes, he still has some) said: “It’s really rather sad, but if it’s a case of who will blink first, then Andrew is going to dig in. He ain’t going anywhere.” Even now the former duke appears not to be in any hurry to move out. “You’re not going to see the removal vans outside Royal Lodge anytime soon,” one source told me. In other words, the battle continues.
On November 12 a meeting was held between the Crown Estate and Andrew’s “representatives” at the property to discuss the “formal surrender of Royal Lodge”. During the meeting a “preliminary internal inspection” was carried out for the Crown Estate to assess “end of tenancy dilapidations and repairs”.
That initial assessment appears to show that the pounds 488,342.21 that might otherwise have been returned to Andrew in overpayment of the lease is likely to be retained to cover the cost of repairs.
A separate source, who visited in recent months, spoke of “leaks” and “peeling paint” in some of the outhouse buildings. And while Andrew may have agreed to go, he doesn’t appear to be doing so without a last scuffle: the Crown Estate may have hired a set of architects to assess the property but Andrew has hired a separate set to represent him in the negotiations.
Any sense of dilapidation is to be expected. With no discernible income, Andrew will have been reluctant to spend a penny on a property that he knew he may have to leave. It’s also a huge undertaking. Andrew’s home is not just one big mansion but an estate that for 20 years has been a mini empire. As well as the main house there are a further eight cottages, a “police suite” and various other buildings within the grounds.
The main house is adorned with priceless artefacts owned by the Royal Collection, a legacy from the Queen Mother, who lived in the property until her death in 2002. These will now have to be returned and assessed.
So it’s no quick fix. All of this will irk the King, of course, whose preference is for a swift departure by his brother and former sister-in-law.
Someone who is likely to cause far less of a fuss is Sarah Ferguson, the former Duchess of York, who friends say is keen to move on with her life separately from Andrew. Despite divorcing in 1996, they have continued to live together in separate rooms of Royal Lodge.
A source close to Ferguson confirmed that it was her wish to “stay in the UK” and said she was actively house hunting for her own place “within the Windsor area”. The pair’s elder daughter, Princess Beatrice, who appears closer to her mother than her father, has reportedly offered the use of a granny annexe at her Cotswolds home, said by one source to be a former cattle shed. The pounds 3.75 million family home has been sympathetically renovated in tasteful shades of taupe, ivory and chalk white thanks to her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi’s design firm, Banda.
Meanwhile, Andrew and Ferguson’s younger daughter, Princess Eugenie, is said to have offered her mother the use of her holiday home in Portugal for the occasional break. However, those close to Ferguson state that neither would be an ideal long-term solution to her newfound housing crisis. A source said: “She wants to stay in the UK, ideally in the Windsor area, and she wants to have her own base so that she can live independently and continue to pursue many things as Sarah Ferguson.”
There are a few spare rooms nearby but none are likely to be offered up. Kate and William have just moved out of their grace-and-favour former home of Adelaide Cottage and into the much larger Forest Lodge. They’re not likely to welcome a lodger.
Over at Bagshot Park in Surrey, Andrew’s younger brother, the Duke of Edinburgh, is presiding over a huge 120-room pile. Having paid a mere pounds 5 million in 2007 to extend the lease by 150 years, his “peppercorn rent” deal came to light after scrutiny over Andrew’s living arrangements. More questions are yet to come.
The public accounts committee has said that it will now launch an inquiry into the royal family’s property deals with the Crown Estate. Some critics have described this as opening Pandora’s box, although for the royal family it might be more appropriately likened to prising open a can of worms with a rusty tin opener.
After The Times reported that Andrew hadn’t paid rent on Royal Lodge for two decades, the public accounts committee asked the Crown Estate and the Treasury to answer a series of questions about the contract on the property and other royal residences.
A source familiar with the disclosure process pointed out that, in response, they had gone further than required with their responses. Indeed we learnt that Kate and William, both 43, have only a 20-year lease on their so-called “forever home”.
With no fixed abode for Andrew and Ferguson, time will tell where they may end up in future. Ferguson will be sad to leave Royal Lodge, where she was said to have propped up the bar in the back garden while chatting to the staff. And without an army of staff and his own empire to command, who will Andrew be able to shout at now?
Andrew, I’m told, still has a small band of “loyal friends”. He enjoys his twice-weekly horse rides in Windsor Great Park and his golf. Might friends in high places take him in for some opulent sofa surfing in sunnier climes?
We know that Andrew still has contacts in the Middle East, which raises the prospect of him following a path forged by another royal exile, the former King of Spain.
In 2020 Juan Carlos left Spain amid a corruption scandal and moved to the United Arab Emirates, where he was friends with the country’s de facto leader, Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan. Could Andrew find a place in the sun too?
With more documents expected to emerge in the US over Jeffrey Epstein, the paedophile who was friends with Andrew, Palace aides will be pleased to have cut ties with the former prince as far as possible. But if the King hopes to distance himself from Andrew, he will find he has a way to go yet.
There is, however, some Christmas cheer to be gained from the sorry saga, at least from Charles’s point of view. As Andrew drags his feet leaving Royal Lodge, it means he won’t have moved into Sandringham in time for the family Christmas celebrations there. This is being seen by sources close to Charles as rather “fortuitous”, given that Andrew isn’t invited to the festivities.
When Andrew does finally move into Sandringham next year, Charles might be minded to follow the tradition of his predecessor, Queen Victoria, and host the royal Christmas festivities at Windsor instead.
The Times
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