Today, Buckingham Palace announced that King Charles has begun the formal process to remove his brother Prince Andrew’s titles and he will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. In the statement, the Palace also revealed that Andrew will be moving out of Royal Lodge.
“His lease on Royal Lodge has, to date, provided him with legal protection to continue in residence,” reads the statement. “Formal notice has now been served to surrender the lease and he will move to alternative private accommodation. These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him.”
Town & Country understands that Andrew will move to a property on King Charles’s private Sandringham estate, and any future accommodation will be privately funded by the King. Sandringham was purchased as a country home for Edward VII, then Prince of Wales, in 1862, and has remained a private royal estate in the decades since.
Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson will move out of Royal Lodge as soon as possible, but Ferguson will move into her own accommodations which have yet to be specified.
Andrew’s lease on Royal Lodge—for which he paid a “peppercorn” rent, a phrase used to signify that rent technically exists to make the lease valid but in actuality means no money is paid—was meant to last through 2078. It was previously reported that the the Crown Estate would need to pay him around £558,000 (approximately $747,000) if he gave up the lease. Those funds, T&C understands, are a matter for the Crown Estate. The Crown Estate is a collection of lands and holdings belonging to the British monarch, though it is not King Charles’s private property nor does he make decisions about its assets. It is possible that remedial works that will need to be carried out on the Royal Lodge will impact any compensation that is due to Andrew.
Emily Burack (she/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, celebrities, the royals, and a wide range of other topics. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma, a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram.
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