Andrew Mountbatten Windsor reportedly has a long list of demands regarding his new home that he wants to be met before he finally vacates his long-term home of Royal Lodge
Andrew is reported to be negotiating hard over his new home. It was announced in a shock statement from Buckingham Palace that Andrew Mountbatten Windsor was to be formally stripped of his royal titles, amid ongoing controversy surrounding the former prince’s ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew has firmly and consistently denied the allegations of sexual assault levied against him by Virginia Giuffre, an alleged victim of Epstein’s, but ahead of the release of his accuser’s posthumous memoir, Nobody’s Girl, the claims she made were brought back into the spotlight. King Charles also announced that his disgraced younger brother would be leaving his 30-room mansion near Windsor Castle, Royal Lodge, amid the ongoing scandal.
Public outcry had been building when it emerged that, per the terms of Andrew’s lease with the Crown Estate for the property, he only paid a “peppercorn” rent for the Grade II listed home. He was, however, responsible for upkeep and repairs on the extensive home, which he shared for many years with his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson.
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The pair will be going their separate ways, it is understood, with Andrew heading to a property on the Sandringham Estate, with Fergie reportedly poised to rely on one of her daughters for accommodation. Princess Beatrice has a converted “cattle shed” in her Cotswold home that could be an option, with an alternative reportedly being a suite in Princess Eugenie’s lavish home in Portugal, in a glamorous neighbourhood home to A-listers like Madonna, that is often dubbed the ‘Hamptons of Europe’.
King Charles owns the Sandringham Estate privately, but with the vast 20,000 acres in Norfolk boasting around 150 properties, it is not yet clear which one Andrew will be calling his – with reports claiming that he has a long list of demands about what he wants out of his new home before he will agree to finally vacate Royal Lodge.
MailOnline reported that Andrew wants to make sure he has what he feels is the appropriate amount of staff to cater to his needs in his new home, including requests for a cook and a housekeeper, as well as gardeners and a butler. New reports in the Royalist newsletter, by royal expert Tom Sykes, echo these sentiments, alleging Andrew is after a wide range of staff and that he is “demanding a substantial six or seven bedroom house on the Sandringham Estate” as well as a “driver and police security”.
A former royal courtier was quoted by Sykes as saying: “Knowing Andrew, this was always going to be about money. Andrew is essentially being bought out of the lease, so he will haggle over every last detail of the deal.”
The disgraced royal’s lease on Royal Lodge was for 75 years, and has been often dubbed “iron-clad” – which meant King Charles had no way of forcing his brother out, and Andrew had to agree of his own accord.
Andrew Lownie, who wrote an explosive biography about Andrew and Sarah called ‘Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York’, told the Mirror that Andrew “had a very strong lease,” and that the former prince “had put £8.5million into this house which he expected to have for his children until 2078, so you know just to be fair to him this what happens when you take out long-leases, you know get some benefits from it, so I don’t think we can quibble about that.”
The MailOnline also reported that Andrew wants to ensure his right to move around the estate freely, instead of being trapped within the bounds of whichever property he agrees to take. He and Sarah were initially reported to be planning to move out of Royal Lodge in the New Year, but new reports have claimed that this is likely to be pushed back.
