Everyone is suddenly rushing to distance themselves from the frankly absurd idea that a good way to defuse the crisis around Prince Andrew’s ongoing occupation of Royal Lodge would be to give him and Sarah Ferguson two homes — one each! — in exchange for finally giving up Royal Lodge.
Palace insiders are now scrambling to back-pedal on that spectacularly tone-deaf plan, after Andrew’s side told the U.K. press that it was Charles’ idea.
King Charles remains adamant that Andrew must give up the 30-room mansion. Still, nearly three years on from when this kite was first flown, he keeps running into the same problem: Andrew has a cast-iron lease worth tens of millions of dollars that, for some reason, he doesn’t seem particularly interested in surrendering.
Public pressure on Andrew and Sarah has intensified after it emerged they haven’t paid rent for two decades; however, public anger is rapidly focusing on the king’s disastrous management of the affair.
Now, furious briefing wars are ripping through palace circles, with sources in King Charles’ camp denying to the Sun that they ever suggested the two homes plan.
The Sun cited royal sources as saying Adelaide Cottage was never offered to Ferguson, and the same sources apparently also “did not deny that Fergie herself had asked for the beautiful cottage.”
An insider said, “The palace has been trying to get Andrew and Sarah to leave Royal Lodge for almost three years now. But it’s the ugliest it has ever been. Claims and counterclaims about who was offered what and when show it’s not going well.”
The cold arithmetic of the Royal Lodge standoff explains Andrew’s obstinacy—and William’s attempt to provide extra incentive by threatening his daughters.
The duke prepaid £8.5 million (about $10.9 million) for a 75-year lease on the property, effectively buying himself a lifetime tenancy at the bargain rate of around £113,000 ($145,000) a year. In commercial terms, that is ludicrously cheap: a thirty-room mansion on 90 acres in Windsor Great Park whose open-market rent could easily exceed £1 million ($1.27 million) a year.
Were he to surrender his lease early, Andrew would receive only about £557,000 ($708,000) in compensation — hardly enough to tempt him out of one of Britain’s grandest private homes. Over the next half-century, he and his heirs stand to enjoy accommodation worth upwards of £50 million ($63 million) on the open market for no further outlay.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source theroyalist.substack.com ’
