Since news broke of Prince Andrew giving up his royal titles and honours, headlines have been dominated by questions over why the King’s brother still remains at Royal Lodge, a 30-room mansion he shares with his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, in Windsor, for which he has an ironclad lease until 2078.
Prince Andrew moved into the property with his two daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, back in 2004. Under a commercial agreement with the Crown Estate, he is permitted to stay there provided he adheres to a clause in the contract requiring him to maintain the upkeep of the building.
It’s understood that Andrew paid an initial £1 million in 2003 and a further £7 million on renovations. On Tuesday, it was revealed by The Times, that the Prince has not paid rent since moving in.
In a special episode of A Right Royal Podcast, author Andrew Lownie, who wrote the bestselling book Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, said he believes the only way Andrew could leave the property is “voluntarily.”
“He has this ironclad lease as long as he maintains the terms of that lease,” he says, before adding: “The only way I think he can go is to voluntarily go. The optics look terrible for a non-working royal in a 30-room mansion. And he, of course, is an honourable man and he always puts the country and the monarchy first, so I hope he will do the right thing.”
“Only pressure that could be put on him is how his daughters are treated and maybe if the screws are put on to them, in terms of their future, he might do that.”
Another way he could lose his royal home, Andrew suggests, would be if the Prince is investigated and “goes to prison”.
“If he is investigated and he goes to prison, that sorts out the Royal Lodge problem. But I think probably he’s being encouraged to go to his palace in Abu Dhabi or to take up a Swiss nationality,” he adds.
In the episode, Andrew also goes into detail about what the Prince’s “life in exile” could look like as well as detailing the faults he sees in the statement released on Friday.
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