The Prince and Princess of Wales are determined to ‘banish’ Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson from Windsor’s Royal Lodge where they have lived rent free for decades, according to royal biographer Tina Brown.
Ms Brown, a friend of Princess Diana who was editor-in-chief of Tatler and Vanity Fair, has claimed that Prince William and Kate ‘can’t abide’ Andrew and want him to ‘disappear’.
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She claims having him in Windsor threatens to spoil life at their ‘new forever home’ Forest Lodge. The couple will move in next month with their three children George, Charlotte and Louis.
William’s push to exile Andrew throws an intriguing new light on yesterday’s claim that he is beginning to call the shots in the Royal Family because of his father King Charles‘ health.
Writing on her Fresh Hell Substack, Ms Brown, the highly respected author of The Palace Papers said: ‘Unless Andrew can be persuaded to banish himself to a cottage on the Balmoral estate or a cushy villa on a Dubai golf course, his scowly, jowly visage will keep seeping back into the national consciousness’.
Calling Andrew the ‘Duke of Dross’, she said the future king and queen are pondering: ‘How do you disappear a 6-foot-tall, 190-pound, 65-year-old man in robust good health who has an iron-clad contract to live in the Queen Mother’s former mansion, a short neigh from Windsor Castle and just four miles from the new “forever” home of Prince William and Kate, who can’t abide him?’
It came after yet another shocking twist in the royal-Epstein scandal when it emerged last night he hasn’t paid rent on his palatial property for 22 years – said to be in the region of £260,000 a year.
Andrew should be kicked out of his Windsor Royal Lodge and disappear because the British public are ‘sick’ of him and he is an embarrassment to his family and the UK, according to Robert Jenrick.
Calls are growing for Prince Andrew to be kicked out of the Royal Lodge (pictured today), the lavish Windsor mansion he shares with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson
Police guard the gates of Andrew and Fergie’s home today
Prince William is said to want rid of Prince Andrew (pictured together after the Duchess of Kent’s funeral last month) and he and Kate can’t ‘abide’ him, according to Tina Brown
And Andrew could become the first royal to be caught up in a criminal probe in more than 20 years. Scotland Yard has confirmed it is ‘actively’ probing claims he asked an officer to dig up dirt on Virginia Giuffre, whose posthumous autobiography is out today.
Brown repeated the claim that William will ban his errant uncle from his coronation – and could even consider keeping away from King Charles’ funeral, when the tragedy occurs.
She wrote: ‘The thornier question, perhaps approaching faster than anyone is indelicate enough to discuss, is whether, in the fullness of time, Andrew will be allowed to attend his brother, the king’s, funeral’.
Tina cited the toe-curling moment William was stuck next to Andrew outside the Duchess of Kent’s funeral at Westminster Cathedral last month.
William looked deeply uncomfortable as his uncle appeared to be laughing as the left the service.
She said: ‘The untenable hazard of banning him from public events but allowing him to still show up at family occasions was writ large at the September funeral of the Duchess of Kent, the late queen’s cousin.
‘As the mourning royal party paused respectfully in the door of Westminster Cathedral when the duchess’s funeral cortege passed, Andrew loomed like a great white shark at the shoulder of a stone-faced Prince William.
‘It was impossible for William, staring implacably in the other direction, to get his uncle’s baleful mug out of the shot. No chance of that happening again’.
Andrew and Sarah Ferguson still live together in Windsor despite being divorced
William and Kate are about to move into their ‘forever home’ and want the House of York to ‘disappear’
Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick has said it is disgusting that taxpayers are subsiding him to live in a 30-room mansion with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson when he should be paying £200,000 a year.
‘I don’t see why the taxpayer frankly should continue to foot the bill. The public are sick of Prince Andrew’, he said.
It came after yet another shocking twist in the royal-Epstein scandal when it emerged last night he hasn’t paid rent on his palatial property for 22 years.
And Andrew could become the first royal to be caught up in a criminal probe in more than 20 years. Scotland Yard has confirmed it is ‘actively’ probing claims he asked an officer to dig up dirt on Virginia Giuffre, whose posthumous autobiography is out today.
Mr Jenrick said: ‘I don’t think the taxpayer should in any way be footing the bill for him to live in luxury homes ever again. He shouldn’t have any taxpayer subsidies going forward.
‘It’s about time Prince Andrew took himself off to live in private and make his own way in life. He has disgraced himself, he has embarrassed the Royal Family time and again.
‘The King deserves great respect and admiration for the way he has handled this. He is trying to do his absolute best to ensure Prince Andrew goes off, leads a quiet life and doesn’t embarrass himself, the royal family or our country ever again‘.
An unredacted copy of his lease emerged last night.
It shows that while he paid £1million to lease the property in 2003 and spent £7.5million on refurbishments, he has paid only ‘one peppercorn (if demanded)’ of rent a year since taking on the mansion 22 years ago.
This is because Andrew is deemed to have paid the rent – which was in the region of £260,000 a year – up front through the work he has funded to bring the palatial property up to scratch.
It also means the Crown Estate will have to pay him around half a million pounds if he were to quit his mansion before the lease on it runs out in 2078.
A copy of the agreement was obtained by The Times newspaper following pressure from MPs and campaigners. And it will no doubt add to public outrage over Andrew’s perceived ‘perks’.
Sources have stressed to the Daily Mail, however, that questions still remain over how the King’s brother can afford the vast 30-bedroom property, which comes with multi-million running costs.
The Daily Mail can exclusively reveal that Andrew is not believed to have received any significant inheritance from the Queen or Queen Mother, raising fresh questions about how he can afford to stay in the property – particularly when he now receives no personal allowance from the King, or public funding.
Charles, 76, has desperately tried to persuade his younger brother to downsize and move out of the grade II-listed mansion in recent years.
He believes many of Andrew’s problems – particularly those that saw him drawn to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein and other shady characters – stem from chasing a lifestyle he simply cannot afford.
But Andrew, 65, has stubbornly insisted that he has a cast-iron lease on the house. And as long as he pays the rent, the King has no legal right to throw him out.
