It was announced last October that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor would be leaving his 30-room mansion, along with losing his titles – with royal sources suggesting he would move to Sandringham in the early months of the year.
But in the end it all felt like a rush, a move in the night, at a time when Andrew was under the most intense scrutiny, with the waterfall of bad news from the Epstein files raining down on him and his ex-wife.
The move, first reported in the Sun, was so rushed that Andrew will still have to go back to fetch some of his things, as there wasn’t time to fully prepare for the sudden end to his time there and there are still loose ends to tie up.
This hurried departure follows the terrible optics of Andrew being seen in recent days riding his horse around Windsor and waving from his car, at a time when so much attention was being focused on his dealings with a convicted sex offender.
Now a line has been drawn under such provocative appearances, he’s going to be tucked away in Sandringham, first of all in a temporary home on the estate, at Wood Farm, before his planned permanent new address. This will be at the expense of the King, rather than any public money.
It’s understood that it’s thought wiser to have Andrew in a place where he is out of sight, but overseen, rather than pushing him into exile where he would be vulnerable to dodgier sources of funding and support.
Andrew has always strongly denied any wrongdoing.