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Friends of the royals have told The Daily Beast that they suspect media forays by Prince Andrew’s camp in recent days, suggesting he will not willingly move out of his vast home, the 30-room Royal Lodge, are “maneuvers” to “get a better deal,” and that he will eventually comply with his brother’s wishes and move out of the mansion.
A friend of King Charles’ told The Daily Beast: “In the end, Andrew will play ball. The house is far too big and expensive for him to run without the king’s support and goodwill. The speculation is that he is ‘on maneuvers,’ and trying to get a better deal.”
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The friend said they did not know the detail of the negotiations between Andrew and Buckingham Palace, but said that they suspected Andrew would be looking for a generous financial pay-off to surrender the lease and downsize to Frogmore Cottage, the former home of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, which he has reportedly been offered.
The friend added: “It’s the memoir all over again,” referring to stories earlier this year that Andrew would contemplate writing a memoir if he was pushed out of royal life. Andrew, who was kicked out of the ranks of working royals last year and subsequently made a multi-million dollar settlement with Virginia Giuffre, who accused him of raping her three times, appears to have been significantly rehabilitated by Charles, with prominent seating at the Coronation, to which he was allowed to wear the formal robes befitting his status as a member of the Order of the Garter. He was also given a ticket to the Coronation concert and allowed to sit in the royal box. Rumors of a memoir have now been definitively quashed.
A friend of Prince William’s also scoffed at reports that Andrew could try and hang on to Royal Lodge in defiance of his brother. The friend said: “It’s a hugely expensive house to run and he doesn’t have any money, so if they want him out he’ll have to go.”
Royal Lodge is understood to be earmarked for William and Kate, who currently live in a more modest property on the Windsor Estate.
The Daily Beast understands that William and Kate are not pressuring Andrew to leave and are perfectly happy at their current four-bedroom home, Adelaide Cottage.
Prince Andrew attends the Royal Family's Christmas Day service at St. Mary Magdalene's church, as the Royals take residence at the Sandringham estate in eastern England, Britain December 25, 2022.
REUTERS/Toby MelvilleIn what appeared to be a fresh briefing to the Telegraph Tuesday, friends of Andrew said that he intended to “honor” the remaining 50+ years of his lease on the grand property in Windsor Great Park. The choice of words was perhaps unfortunate, recalling Andrew’s claim in his disastrous Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis that he stayed in the house of his friend Jeffrey Epstein after he had been convicted of child sex offenses because he was “too honorable” to break the friendship off remotely.
On Tuesday, the Telegraph ran a cartoon on its front page of a van arriving at Royal Lodge emblazoned with the words “Duke Control: Humane Removal.”
The story has been bubbling for several months after it emerged that the new king had cut the £250,000 ($436,000) annual payment that Andrew used to get from his mother. Several other individuals, notably Meghan and Harry and the late queen’s dresser, Angela Kelly, have been turfed out of their Windsor homes with sources close to Charles briefing that houses will only be provided to working royals and active staff members.
Andrew has reportedly been offered Frogmore Cottage, which was refurbished at great expense for Harry and Meghan, after the king let it be known he would not leave his brother “homeless or penniless.”
However this weekend, a friend of Andrew’s told the Sun: “This has been his family home for the last 20 years. Is it really sensible to kick him out? He’s concerned that now the Coronation is over, the knives are out. But we’re dealing with human beings, not real estate.”
Andrew lives at Royal Lodge with his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson. They live in separate wings of the rambling, crenelated property which sits on several acres of land. It was previously the home of the late queen’s famously extravagant mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the widow of George VI, who was known as the Queen Mother.
Another friend told the Sun: “Eugenie (Andrew’s daughter) is heavily pregnant and her parents expect to have the new grandchild there this summer.”
The Mail on Sunday reported that Andrew feared utilities to the house could be cut as a tactic to force him out; however, sources on Andrew’s side dismissed that claim, the Telegraph said, quoting a source as being close to Andrew as saying: “He has a 75-year lease and has no plans to move house.”
