As the Royal Family pays tribute to those who have given their lives for their country, the former Prince Andrew will be hidden in the shadows ‘ranting to himself’
The former Prince Andrew was once centre stage on Remembrance Sunday, joining senior royals to somberly pay his respects to lost war heroes. But today, he will be nowhere to be seen.
With King Charles unceremoniously removing his younger brother from the official roll of the peerage, taking away the use of his titles and styles for good, Andrew Mountbatten, formerly a naval officer, will be licking his wounds at home.
Mired by scandal, the errant royal is said to be spending his days at Royal Lodge largely isolated, playing Call of Duty and “wandering around ranting to himself”. He has just days left to cling onto his virtually rent-free, 30-room property before finally packing up his bags and bidding farewell.
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After Charles finally persuaded his younger brother to leave – Andrew had to agree to move voluntarily thanks to his “iron-clad” lease – the former prince will be vacating the property in the New Year. He is set to move onto the vast Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, though it has not been announced which of the 150 properties on 20,000-acre estate he will call home. Andrew’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson has also been booted out of the Lodge, having shared the home with the ex-prince for decades. She has been told to find her own arrangements, but won’t move back in with Andrew, it is understood. Her next steps are still shrouded in mystery.
The Remembrance engagements are, every year, staple parts of the royal calendar, as the House of Windsor pays tribute to all those who have lost their lives fighting for their country – and once upon a time, Andrew would have been front and centre. But behind closed doors, his life is nothing as he once knew it to be. However, his ‘entitled’ attitude towards his staff has not gone anywhere: he is said to still insist upon being referred to by his royal titles, and that employees bow to him.
“Nothing has changed inside Royal Lodge,” a source said. “The butler still says Your Royal Highness, and the staff still bow. Andrew’s made it clear – palace rules don’t apply inside his walls. He insists it’s his birthright – not something the King can erase.”
Andrew’s dipilated estate is apparently also brimming with endless Amazon packages, meaning packing up will be a mammoth task. “The Amazon deliveries that go up to Royal lodge are unbelievable,” a source told the Daily Mail. “There are rooms full of boxes that haven’t even been opened. It will take weeks, if not months to shift all their s**** out.”
Another insider revealed this week that Sarah and Andrew currently sleep on opposite wings of the huge property and are living “separate lives” under one roof – but still come together for lunches and dinner to discuss the fallout and future plans.
The source told The Sun that Andrew is spending a lot of his time “wandering” around Royal Lodge “ranting to himself,” while Fergie is often found “pouring her heart out” to staff or friends in “The Dog House,” a bar on site. “They are both spending a lot of time alone,” the source said. “Andrew rarely goes out and has been padding around the lodge and ranting and muttering.”
Fergie is “not in a good way” but sees herself as “blameless” despite borrowing money from Epstein in the past and calling him a “supreme friend”, the source claimed. “She feels she is blameless but has taken what has happened recently extremely hard. Sarah still thinks Andrew is a good person and will always support him – but she knows her future is away from him.”
Andrew once jetted around the world as a trade envoy for the UK, but now he spends most of his time indoors, playing video games in what some have dubbed an “arrested adolescence”. The disgraced former duke is said to spend the majority of his days in a large sitting room, which boasts a massive screen that “takes up almost an entire wall”, where he plays video games or watches war films or golf coverage. And according to Andrew Lownie’s recent autobiography Entitled, the ex-duke enjoys watching “endless videos of planes taking off and landing [and] talking on his mobile for hours on end.”
The scandal-hit royal also spends time “reading thrillers” and “his favourite book is The Talented Mr Ripley ” and takes a daily so-called “air shower”. This reportedly is where Andrew, “sits by an open window or on a balcony, closes his eyes and ‘sucks in fresh air – regardless of the temperature outside’.”
A source also told Lownie that Andrew has a lifelong issue with insomnia that has not improved amid his fall from grace. “I don’t think Andrew has slept through an entire night since he was a teenager,” the source was quoted as saying, adding that Andrew can be incredibly “paranoid”.
“He’s the consummate paranoid prince, thinking everyone and their uncle is out to get him”. Despite this apparent tendency towards paranoia, Andrew is also said to be living in “denial”.
A staff member claimed he is “pretending that everything is good when he subconsciously knows that things are really bad”. They also alleged that above all else, losing his titles has been the most major blow, far more than being accused of sexual assault – which Andrew vehemently denies.
“Remember, the most difficult thing for the Duke of York was not the allegations of sexual misconduct. It was being stripped of his royal titles and losing his key role with the Royal Family. He’s never gotten over this,” the source was quoted as saying.
