<\/p>\n
The Prince moved into the 120-room mansion, where he lives with the Duchess and their two children, Lady Louise Windsor and James, the Earl of Wessex, in March 1998.<\/p>\n
The Duke, then Earl of Wessex, boasted that Ardent would become one of the country\u2019s leading production firms when it was launched in 1993.<\/p>\n
However, the ill-fated company was never far from controversy.<\/p>\n
Its first choice of documentary subject was the aristocratic game of Real Tennis \u2013 an indoor racquet sport that has only a few thousand players in the UK \u2013 which set the tone for accusations that Ardent was simply a vanity project.<\/p>\n
Prince Edward was also accused of abusing his position by making a string of programmes about the Royal family, including a documentary about the restoration of Windsor Castle and a history of his great uncle, Edward VIII, called Edward on Edward.<\/p>\n
He stepped down as joint managing editor in 2002 after Ardent was forced to apologise for sending a camera crew to St Andrews while Prince William, his nephew, was at university there, in breach of privacy guidelines agreed by media companies.<\/p>\n
When the production company \u2013 which was initially funded by \u00a3200,000 from the Prince himself and investments from Tom Farmer, chairman of Kwik Fit, Michael Kirkham, owner of the furniture chain DFS \u2013 closed in 2009, investors were left with just \u00a340.27, according to documents published in 2011.<\/p>\n
The housing arrangements of the Royal family have come under increasing scrutiny<\/a> after it was revealed that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor paid a \u201cpeppercorn\u201d rent on Royal Lodge<\/a> for decades.<\/p>\n Last week, the NAO released a detailed report on the leases that the Royal family held on Crown Estate properties, dating back to 2018.<\/p>\n The report will form the basis of an inquiry by the public accounts committee, expected later this month.<\/p>\n