Christopher is a Southern California-based editor and has been with InStyle since 2018. He covers all things entertainment, celebrity, and culture.
Published on November 5, 2024 @ 02:59PMCredit:
The royal family’s real estate holdings are coming under fire as the Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster make headlines, but one longstanding issue seems to be coming to a head for King Charles and Prince Andrew. According to Robert Hardman’s new edition of Charles III: New King. New Court. The Inside Story., the king has cut off the disgraced prince, but he’s refusing to leave his current home, Royal Lodge. Hardman shared that Charles stopped paying for Andrew’s security and cut off his royal income, but he’s still not vacating his home, which he has lived in for decades.
“The duke is no longer a financial burden on the king,” Hardman wrote. Up until he was stripped of his royal duties, Andrew had been using taxpayer-funded security. More recently, his police team was being funded by the late Queen Elizabeth and Charles.
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Royal expert Hugo Vickers told The Sun that it comes down to pride for Andrew, who could just fix everything by moving into a smaller home and staying out of the headlines.
“What I think he feels is that if he moves out of Royal Lodge it’s somehow publicly accepting guilt for which he has not been proved,” the royal expert suggested, referencing the sexual assault case between Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre. The case was settled out of court back in 2022.
Vickers added that even if he does stay at Royal Lodge, Andrew can’t possibly maintain his current lifestyle, especially as more and more organizations distance themselves from him in addition to King Charles reportedly cutting off his royal allowance.
“If you were running a charity, you wouldn’t be asking Prince Andrew to come and be your guest of honor. So, nobody wants him in a public way,” Vickers added, explaining that Andrew is still “living at Royal Lodge, playing golf, seeing his children and grandchildren, and riding in the park—and it is expensive.”
Vickers also explained that Royal Lodge needs expensive repairs and the upkeep costs for the property are astronomical.
“It does indeed look as though he’s just holding the fort and refusing to do the repairs, refusing to go,” Vickers added. “He would do himself a great favor if he found an honorable way of moving somewhere else.”
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