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The Mail says that the royals have been removing the contents of Royal Lodge under “cover of darkness,” trucking items “to a Windsor storage facility belonging to the Crown Estate.”
It’s still going to take some time to get former prince Andrew out of Royal Lodge, the report says, as Andrew, a “natural hoarder,” has “filled rooms of his Windsor home with clutter and was not prepared to accept help sorting through his private collections.”
The Mail says “some anterooms are filled to the ceiling with documents and photographs.”
This depiction of Andrew as a mad old man wandering through the ramshackle debris of his former life doesn’t quite mesh with observable reality though.
Actually, Andrew’s had a pretty good week for an allegedly disgraced prince.
First he was a guest at a traditional royal ceremony, the christening of his granddaughter at the Chapel Royal in London.
As Andrew was slipping into the Chapel Royal, one of the most privileged and symbolic royal spaces in the country, up popped an image from Epstein’s collection of Andrew alongside Bill Gates.
The way these images were dumped by the House Dems — without explanation, context, or sourcing — was unhelpful, and it quickly emerged that this particular photo was not some secret snapshot but a cropped version of a professionally taken image available via a global photo agency.
But the problem is that this scandal is not going away. It keeps resurfacing, keeps mutating, and keeps embarrassing the monarchy.
So, on the very day fresh Epstein-linked images of Andrew were zooming around the world, the King’s household allowed Andrew and Sarah Ferguson to attend a family christening in the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace.
The Chapel Royal, tucked within the palace complex, remains one of the most inaccessible and private spaces in the royal world. Access to this breathtakingly lavish jewel of Tudor design is in the gift of the king.
Is it really appropriate for ex-prince Andrew’s kids to be hosting gatherings there?
The king didn’t attend, nor did William and Catherine, which tells you that senior royals had no wish to be in the same room as Andrew. Then why was Andrew there at all, enjoying access to royal spaces and rituals as if nothing has changed?
I’m not saying Andrew shouldn’t be invited to his grandchild’s christening. I am saying the king was foolish to allow this event to take place on hallowed royal ground, as the photo dump quickly proved. There is a difference between allowing a disgraced family member to attend a private event, and allowing that event to take place on the royal estate, in a royal chapel, steeped in royal symbolism, effectively normalizing his presence.
This folds into a wider issue that Charles still seems reluctant to confront. Beatrice and Eugenie continue to enjoy grace-and-favour accommodation, still have royal patronages, still hold HRH titles but appear to be entangled with the dubious interests and networks that have long swirled around their father.
The question is not whether Andrew’s daughters deserve to be punished for his sins. The question is whether the royal family is serious about disentangling itself from a toxic family that keeps dragging it back into scandal.
Then it was announced this week by the British police that the former prince would—big surprise—not face police prosecution over his attempts to get his protection detail to investigate Virginia Giuffre.
If they can’t get Andrew for that, I would say the odds of him ever being prosecuted are now zero.
However, in case you were starting to suspect that the chips are all landing quite neatly for Andrew, here comes that story we started with, in the Mail on Sunday, saying he is set to move to a “temporary” Sandringham property the size of a “shoebox” as a stop gap when he vacates Royal Lodge next year.
Given they regularly describe 6-bedroom homes as “cottage” I wait with bated breath to see the royal definition of a “shoebox-sized” property.
Of course, the real story is that he is still in line for a “substantial home,” once renovations on this mystery abode are complete.
Indeed he is, as The Royalist has long been reporting.
The reason is very simple; it’s because he wasn’t forced out of Royal Lodge, he was bought out, and part of his price was a large home with lots of spare rooms, a cook, gardener, driver and housekeeper and police protection for the rest of his days.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source theroyalist.substack.com ’
