Even though King Charles previously expelled Harry and Meghan from their royal residence, Prince Andrew may be giving up on the use of his titles.
Prince Andrew may have stated that he no longer intends to use the title of Duke of York, but he still enjoys access to a stately mansion in Windsor Great Park.
Since the Queen Mother passed away and the King’s brother has taken over the seven-bedroom property, Royal Lodge, Andrew has resided there.
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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In 2003, Andrew signed a 75-year lease on the historic property, which paid him £1 million. However, his leasehold agreement, as seen by the Press Association, only calls for him to pay “one peppercorn” as rent “if required.”
The Crown Estate, from which he purchased the lease, would have to pay him £558, 000 if Andrew did consent to it, which Charles is said to have heavily encouraged.
The Crown Estate has obtained a copy of the lease from the press, and it is reported that he had to pay £7.5 million for the property’s “cast iron” renovations until 2078.
Due to allegations that he did not receive any significant inheritance from his mother, the late Queen, or his grandmother, the Queen Mother, it is unclear how Andrew manages the 30-room property.
Andrew was reportedly given a £1 million annual allowance by the late Queen when she was alive, but King Charles is said to have stopped this flow of income.
Andrew cannot be forced to leave the property because of the nature of the lease, but when Charles wanted Harry and Meghan out of a royal residence, he was spared such a challenge.
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.
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.
After returning as working royals and leaving the UK, the couple had refunded the Sovereign Grant’s £2.4 million spent on Frogmore renovations.
However, it appears unusual on the surface that Andrew has remained in his, beset by serious allegations that he has repeatedly and firmly refuted, while their royal property was taken from them as a result of internal family conflict.
The question of why Charles seemed to be able to evict Harry and Meghan but he seemed unable to change his younger brother’s behavior seems to be the kind of lease in question.
The Duke and Duchess moved into Frogmore in 2019 and had renewed their lease a year before their unceremonious eviction, according to a report from March 2022. This suggests that their lease for the property was less restrictive than Andrew’s’ with the Crown Estate’s.
The couple, who were not planning to move back to the UK permanently, are said to have desired to maintain a base in Harry’s native country, and Frogmore was one of the protection options available to royal homes in Windsor.
When Harry and Meghan left their jobs as working royals, their automatic police security was removed, so Frogmore provided a safe haven for the young family if they came over. They also used it prior to their eviction, which is said to have occurred shortly after Harry’s memoir was published.
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.”
According to a couple friend, “It all feels very final and like a cruel punishment… The family seems to want to permanently remove them from the picture.
The Sussexes reportedly paid Frogmore Cottage’s owners a sizable upfront rent while also covering the cost of the property’s renovation.
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 to Meghan that he had told her that he thought there was no way for Andrew’s police security to be compromised because he had not been when he had left his position as a prince in 2019.
