Originally appeared on E! Online
Turns out that part of King Charles III‘s role as head of the monarchy is to keep calm and carry on footing the bill for many of his relatives.
Because a newly released National Audit Office report revealed the 77-year-old, who oversees the private funds known as the Privy Purse, has been picking up the tab not just for the collection of homes he shares with wife Queen Camilla, but also the royal residences inhabited by son Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton, brothers Prince Edward and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, plus his daughters Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice.
Lawmakers requested the audit after Charles stripped Andrew of his royal titles and evicted him from his residence at the 30-room Royal Lodge due to the ongoing allegations linking him to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“These censures are deemed necessary,” Buckingham Palace wrote in an October statement, “notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him.”
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The report showed that 11 working royals were able to live the palace life rent-free and some, like the 66-year-old—who’s now bunking at the King’s Sandringham Estate—were able to turn a profit, the former prince allowed to rent out three properties on the 98-acre Berkshire, England estate.
Just how much he pocketed, however, is a royal mystery with Margaret Hodge, a Labour member of the House of Lords and former head of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, lamenting that “It’s shocking that the National Audit Office was not able to establish how much money Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor secured from the properties he let.”
And she’s not the only person refusing to keep calm.
“It shows an absolute contempt for the taxpayer, not only that Andrew was able to have a peppercorn rent for a gigantic property,” detailed former Liberal Democrat lawmaker Norman Baker, “but then to make potentially millions on the side from subletting properties.”
While Buckingham Palace hasn’t publicly commented on the report, a spokesperson for the Crown Estate said in a statement that it “welcomes” the review “which confirms its leases with members of the royal family were agreed in line with independent, professional advice and open market valuations.”
We’re unlocking the truth about just who’s shelling out for the royal family’s palatial properties.
Prince William and Kate Middleton
Part of the reason working royals like Prince William and Kate Middleton can keep calm and carry on: They receive rent-free residences as a job perk.
For the parents to Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, that includes a 20-room apartment at London’s Kensington Palace, their 10-bedroom Norfolk mansion Anmer Hall and a roughly $26,500-a-year spot on the Windsor estate that’s used by a member of their staff.
But the pair—who wed in 2011—do pick up the roughly $412,000 yearly rent for Forest Lodge, their estate in Windsor. They took out a 20-year lease in 2025 after the crown estate paid more than half a million dollars for repairs.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor
Heavy is Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor‘s head now that he is no longer known as Prince Andrew or considered a working royal. But before he was evicted from his Windsor digs at the Royal Lodge, he was receiving an undisclosed amount of income from renting out three cottages.
When the disgraced former royal signed his 75-year lease in August 2003, he paid some $10,062,859 for repairs in exchange for living rent-free.
Princess Beatrice
Though Andrew’s eldest daughter Princess Beatrice—who shares daughters Sienna and Athena with husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, plus his son Christopher Woolf from a previous relationship—is not considered a working royal, she still collects some benefits.
Charles picks up the tab for her apartment at London’s St James’s Palace, set at 68 percent of the open market value, though the tech exec also maintains a private residence in Oxfordshire.
Princess Eugenie
Charles’ private Duchy of Lancaster income also covers the rent on the Kensington Palace cottage Princess Eugenie shares with husband Jack Brooksbank and their sons August and Ernest. (The art gallery director announced she was expecting her third in May 2026.)
However, Eugenie does splash out for her private seaside property in Portugal.
Princess Anne
Though Princess Anne also gets a comped St James’s Palace apartment as part of her job benefits, she works hard for that money. Logging the most engagements amongst her fellow royals in 2023 and 2024, she dropped to second place in 2025, Charles’ 533 official commitments outpacing her 478. (By comparison, William carried out 202.)
As for Gatcombe Park, her 730-acre country home that’s part manor, part organic farm, she received it as a wedding present from her late mom, Queen Elizabeth II when she married first husband Mark Phillips in 1976.
Prince Edward and Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh
Charles also has his youngest brother’s back, Prince Edward and wife Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh receiving a St James’s Palace apartment in exchange for their gig as working royals.
They also pay a nominal so-called “peppercorn rent” for their Bagshot Park residence in Surrey. Though they did pay roughly $6.7 million upfront to the crown estate when they signed their 150-year lease in 2007.
Prince and Princess Michael of Kent
The art of the deal: Before she died in 2022, the queen made arrangements for her cousin Prince Michael of Kent and his wife Princess Michael of Kent to pay less than $100 to week to reside in Kensington Palace’s taxpayer-maintained 10-room Apartment 10 despite not having a role as working royals.
After a public outcry in 2002, the matriarch agreed to cover their roughly $160,000 annual rent for seven years, buying the duo some time. But she continued paying up after the deal ended in 2009, an arrangement Charles has maintained.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com ’
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