King Charles III wants him to move out, Prince Andrew has so far stubbornly refused: a dispute between the brothers over the Royal Lodge has been smoldering for months. The stately home on the grounds of Windsor Castle has been the home of Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson since 2003.
Andrew and Ferguson are now to move into the much smaller Frogmore Cottage, which is also in Windsor – at least that’s King Charles’ plans. But his brother holds on tight to the Royal Lodge, which has 30 rooms and 98 acres of grounds.
As the British newspaper “Daily Mail” reports, Andrew should not even be able to persuade extensive construction work to leave the Royal Lodge – temporarily. “It’s absurd. Andrew has planned a roof repair this summer that will take several months. He has been told that staying indoors during the renovation could be problematic. But he is reluctant to leave the house,” quoted as saying the newspaper an anonymous source. Andrew’s concern: a temporary move could become a permanent move. A risk the prince doesn’t want to take.
Until her death, Queen Mum lived in the Royal Lodge, which, like many royal palaces, is part of the Crown Estate. In 2003, Prince Andrew took over the property and closed a lucrative deal: he leased the property for a period of 75 years on favorable terms. According to British newspaper The Mirror, he only pays £250 a week in rent. In return, Andrew undertook to bear the cost of renovation work on the listed building himself. He is said to have already invested around seven million pounds. Andrew is also paying for the upcoming roof renovation out of his own pocket.
How serious is King Charles III. about his younger brother’s moving plans is shown by the fact that he has already canceled Andrew’s annual appanage of £250,000. For decades, the late Queen had given this sum to her son so that he could pay the running costs of the Royal Lodge. Charles apparently thought without this attention that Andrew would no longer be able to afford the upkeep of the expensive property and would sooner or later have to move out.
Sources: “Daily Mail”, “The Mirror”
