{"id":2446422,"date":"2026-06-05T15:15:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T15:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2446422"},"modified":"2026-06-05T15:15:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T15:15:41","slug":"britains-ex-prince-andrew-profited-from-rentals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/britains-ex-prince-andrew-profited-from-rentals\/","title":{"rendered":"Britain&#8217;s Ex-Prince Andrew Profited from Rentals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-right:0;padding-left:0;\">\n<p>Britain\u2019s disgraced former prince Andrew earned a private income from subletting cottages while paying only a symbolic \u201cpeppercorn rent\u201d for a mansion over more than two decades, government auditors revealed on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nao.org.uk\/reports\/residential-property-arrangements-with-members-of-the-royal-family\/\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/www.nao.org.uk\/reports\/residential-property-arrangements-with-members-of-the-royal-family\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">National Audit Office<\/a> report into the royal family\u2019s residences was sparked by controversy over Andrew\u2019s living arrangements following his banishment from public life due to his ties to late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The findings shed fresh light on the royal family\u2019s often opaque financial dealings.<\/p>\n<p>King Charles III\u2019s younger brother, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor after being stripped of his titles last year, lived until recently in the Royal Lodge on the royal family\u2019s Windsor estate near London.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>While residing rent-free in the 30-room house, Andrew pocketed proceeds from subletting three cottages on the property\u2019s extensive grounds, according to the National Audit Office (NAO) report on royal property income.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe do not know what rent was charged,\u201d the auditors said, adding that the cottages have been vacant since April.<\/p>\n<p>The report also revealed that Andrew\u2019s daughters Beatrice and Eugenie occupy apartments at royal palaces with rent paid from the privy purse, King Charles\u2019s private income, despite neither being working royals.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-public-criticism-mounts\">Public criticism mounts<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cThe royal family is yet again taking the public for a complete ride,\u201d said Norman Baker, a lawmaker for the centrist Liberal Democrats and long-time critic of royal finances.<\/p>\n<p>The report\u2019s release coincided with British media publishing a photo of Andrew with what appeared to be a large bruise on his face. Reports indicated it was not a cause for concern.<\/p>\n<p>Parliament\u2019s Public Accounts Committee is set to launch an inquiry this year into royal properties, as debate continues about the monarchy\u2019s opaque living arrangements.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-3    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>Margaret Hodge, a Labour peer who chaired the committee between 2010 and 2015, told the BBC it was \u201cshocking\u201d that the NAO did not know how much money Andrew made from the sublets.<\/p>\n<p>The Times newspaper reported that some of Andrew\u2019s tenants were long-serving royal staff members.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-ongoing-police-probe\">Ongoing police probe<\/h2>\n<p>Andrew, the second son of the late Queen Elizabeth II, was briefly arrested in February amid new revelations stemming from his friendship with Epstein, who died in a New York prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.<\/p>\n<p>Officers are investigating allegations that Andrew shared sensitive information with Epstein, a former high-flying financier, during the former prince\u2019s time as UK trade envoy between 2001 and 2011.<\/p>\n<p>Police searched the Royal Lodge in February as part of the probe into his suspected misconduct in public office. He has not been charged.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew has since moved to the king\u2019s private Sandringham estate in eastern England.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-complex-lease-arrangements\">Complex lease arrangements<\/h2>\n<p>He paid a \u00a31-million premium to lease the Royal Lodge, agreeing to spend \u00a37.5-million on improvements to secure a 75-year lease on a peppercorn rent.<\/p>\n<p>The lease allowed Andrew to claim compensation for ending it early. By moving out this year, he could claim over \u00a3300 000 but is expected to receive nothing because of needed repairs, according to the Crown Estate.<\/p>\n<p>The Crown Estate, a self-funding public corporation that manages royal properties, is supposed to follow finance ministry guidelines on effective use of public funds.<\/p>\n<p>Charles has been undertaking an overhaul of the royal family\u2019s finances since his mother\u2019s death in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>His heir, Prince William, the Prince of Wales, pays over \u00a3300 000 in annual rent for a house in Windsor, Forest Lodge, the NAO said.<\/p>\n<p>A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said the report was \u201cin line with the royal household\u2019s commitment to transparency\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs the report notes, arrangements for properties managed by the royal household vary based on a number of factors to ensure residences are filled appropriately, depending on their location, tenants and purpose,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n<p>Members of the royal family are due to attend the wedding of Peter Phillips, the son of Charles\u2019s sister Princess Anne, to nurse Harriet Sperling at a private ceremony on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ALSO READ:<\/strong> <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/not-out-of-the-woods-what-now-for-britains-ex-prince-andrew\/\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/not-out-of-the-woods-what-now-for-britains-ex-prince-andrew\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u2018Not out of the woods\u2019: What now for Britain\u2019s ex-prince Andrew?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source novanews.co.za \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Britain\u2019s disgraced former prince Andrew earned a private income from subletting cottages while paying only a symbolic \u201cpeppercorn rent\u201d for a mansion over more than two decades, government auditors revealed on Friday. The National Audit Office report into the royal family\u2019s residences was sparked by controversy over Andrew\u2019s living arrangements following his banishment from public [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2446423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[22931,480287,308662,448110,21987],"class_list":["post-2446422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-prince-andrew","tag-royal-cottages","tag-royal-lodge","tag-royal-properties","tag-top"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Britains-Ex-Prince-Andrew-Profited-from-Rentals.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2446422"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2446424,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446422\/revisions\/2446424"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2446423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2446422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2446422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2446422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}