Prince Andrew might be giving up the use of his titles, but he’s keeping hold of his mansion, Royal Lodge, even though King Charles previously evicted Harry and Meghan from their royal home
Meghan and Harry were unceremoniously evicted by King Charles(Image: Getty Images)
Prince Andrew might have said he will no longer use his title, Duke of York, but he still has use of a lavish mansion in Windsor Great Park.
The seven-bedroom property, Royal Lodge, has been Andrew’s home since the death of the Queen Mother, when the King’s brother took over the lease.
It’s been widely reported that for some time, King Charles has been trying to persuade his errant younger brother to move out of the opulent home – but his attempts have been in vain.
Andrew is showing no signs of budging from Royal Lodge, a home he shares with his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, even though new reports show he he’s paid barely any rent rent on the property for years.
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Andrew signed a 75-year lease on the historic property back in 2003, which cost him £1 million. However, his leasehold agreement, seen by Press Association, only requires him to pay “one peppercorn” as rent, “if demanded.”
If Andrew did agree to give up his lease, something Charles is reported to have encouraged heavily, the Crown Estate, from whom he bought the lease, would have to pay him £558,000.
The Crown Estate has shared a copy of the lease with the press, and it is reported that he had to pay £7.5 million in refurbishments on the property, which the “cast iron” lease means is his until 2078.
Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park, the home of Prince Andrew(Image: REX/Shutterstock)
It is unclear how Andrew pays the running costs on the 30-room property, because it is said he did not receive any significant inheritance from his mother, the late Queen, or his grandmother, the Queen Mother.
When the late Queen was alive, Andrew was reported to receive an £1m annual allowance from her, but King Charles is said to have stopped this flow of income.
Due to the nature of the lease, Andrew cannot be forced to leave the property – but when Charles wanted Harry and Meghan out of a royal residence, he faced no such obstacle.
Harry and Meghan were given the lease on Frogmore Cottage by the late Queen Elizabeth when they got married, but in 2023 – after the release of Harry’s bombshell memoir Spare, which detailed allegations of private dysfunction in the House of Windsor – he was ordered to hand back the keys.
It’s thought the King wanted to encourage Andrew to downsize to Frogmore Cottage(Image: Leon Neal, Getty Images)
The Sussexes had, only months before the memoir’s publication, also released a self-titled documentary series for Netflix, which detailed their love story, the reasons behind their shock royal exit in 2020, and its fallout.
The couple had paid back £2.4 million that had been spent from the Sovereign Grant on renovations to Frogmore after stepping back as working royals and leaving the UK.
However, on the surface, it seems unusual that their royal property was taken from them amid internal family upset, whilst Andrew has remained in his, beset by serious allegations which he has firmly and repeatedly denied.
The answer about why it was so easy for Charles to evict Harry and Meghan, but seemingly impossible to get his younger brother to budge, appears to be the type of lease in question.
In March 2022, a year before their unceremonious eviction, it was reported that the Duke and Duchess had renewed their lease at Frogmore, after moving into the property in 2019. This indicates that the terms of their lease for the property was for a shorter period than the kind Andrew’s has with the Crown Estate.
Even though the couple were not planning to return to the UK on a full-time basis, they are said to have desired to keep a base in Harry’s home country, and Frogmore was one within the circle of protection provided to royal homes in Windsor.
Harry and Meghan’s automatic police security was removed when they quit their roles as working royals, so Frogmore offered a safe place to stay for the young family if they came to visit, and they used it as such before their eviction, which is reported to have come just days after the publication of Harry’s memoir.
Royal author Omid Scobie said at the time the eviction was made public: “Just five minutes walk from Windsor Castle, and ensconced within the Metropolitan Police-led ring of steel surrounding the Windsor Estate, the couple’s British home has become Prince Harry, Meghan, Archie and Lilibet’s only sufficiently secure refuge in the country since their access to armed police protection was taken away in 2020.”
The author quoted a friend of the couple as saying: “It all feels very final and like a cruel punishment…It’s like [the family] want to cut them out of the picture for good.”
The Sussexes were also reported by the author to have paid a large amount of rent upfront for Frogmore Cottage, at the same time that they paid back the renovation costs for the property.
Harry wrote in his memoir about the allegations made against his uncle Andrew, and the fact that the King’s brother had kept his security for some time despite their serious nature, which contrasted with the swift decision made about the Sussexes.
He explained that he told Meghan he believed there was no chance their police security would be stripped, because Andrew’s had not been when he stepped down from royal duties in 2019.
“Despite being involved in an embarrassing scandal, accused of having sexually abused a young woman, nobody had suggested removing his security. People may have a lot of grievances towards us, but sexual offences weren’t one of them,” Harry wrote.