The affair has been brewing for years, journalist Robert Hardman assures that it is now confirmed. In the updated and expanded version of his latest work – Charles III, New King New Court, The Inside Storyto be published on November 7 in England -, the specialist in the British monarchy affirms that the king has in recent weeks officially asked his financial director, the Keeper of the Privy Purse, to stop paying an allowance to his brother Andrew. An annual private envelope whose amount was estimated at around one million pounds sterling.
The author adds that the sovereign has also decided to stop covering the security costs of the Duke of York, for a bill which amounts to several million pounds per year. A source close to Buckingham Palace confirms the information: “from now on, the Duke is no longer a financial burden on the King.”
Andrew, Elizabeth II’s weakling
So for the first time in his life, Prince Andrew is no longer supported by his family. Withdrawn from public life following the scandal of the Epstein affair, removed from his official functions, his honorary military titles as well as his patronage, the father of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie no longer has any source of fixed income beyond his pension as a former officer in the Royal Navy. However, this is not enough to ensure the maintenance of his lifestyle, starting with the rent and the maintenance of the immense villa in which he lives with his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, on the estate of Windsor Great Park.
If Queen Elizabeth II always had a soft spot for her third child, and often helped him pay his bills from her own pocket, Hardman argues that the sovereign herself was determined to overcome the “Andrew problem “. THE Daily Mailwho publishes the good sheets of the new edition of her book, reports that, if she had lived another year, the sovereign would have forced her son to leave Royal Lodge to settle in Frogmore Cottage. This is always the objective that Charles III seems to pursue.
The headquarters of Royal Lodge
Indeed, until then Andrew had always refused to leave the premises and be “downgraded” to a smaller property. To His Majesty’s advisors, the prince asserts that he is within his rights since he signed a 75-year lease in 2003 to live in this property. He is right, but this lease also indicates that in addition to the rent, he must pay for the maintenance and security of the premises. But the tabloid The Sun reveals this November 4 the deplorable state of the villa formerly inhabited by Queen Mum. The latest photos published by the newspaper reveal a decrepit facade, eaten away by humidity, streaked with cracks and spots of mold.
This immense residence of more than 30 rooms is decorated inside with numerous works and rich pieces of furniture taken from the Royal Collection. Objects of high market value which logically require expensive security. But how could Prince Andrew and Sarah make ends meet with a simple retirement from the army and a few publishing contracts? Will the Queen’s last corgis, which the couple inherited upon her death, soon have to move? The ball is now in Andrew’s court. “If he manages to find the funds, good for him, otherwise he will discover that the king’s patience has its limits,” whispers an insider.
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