Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, formally known as Prince Andrew, has been stripped of all titles and forced out of Royal Lodge – one insder has issued a brutal assessment of the ex-Duke’s new life
A royal insider has issued a brutal one-word assessment of what life now looks like for Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, formally known as Prince Andrew.
On Thursday, it was revealed that King Charles was removing all remaining titles and styles from his brother following the scandal over his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew has also been booted out of his 30-room Royal Lodge mansion on the Windsor estate, and will move to a private property at Sandringham.
The move also followed the publication of Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir. Ms Giuffre had accused Andrew of sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager. Andrew strenuously denies the allegations.
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A former royal courtier has now described what life looks like for Andrew in one word – “bleak”. As reported by The Telegraph, the source who has spent time at Sandringham also said the former prince will be “lonely”.
They added: “It’s going to be a lonely life for him. It’s a working farm, so there are always people around – but they are staff, and he’s not someone who has a track record of being friendly with servants
“I wouldn’t want to live there the whole time. It’s remote, there is the wind whipping in from The Wash, it’s cold and he will be pretty much stuck there.”
It is currently not known whether Andrew will have certain privileges that royal life afforded him before, such as a cleaner and a cook. A moving date for when Andrew will vacate Royal Lodge has not been confirmed.
He has lived there for over two decades, with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson having also stayed there since 2008. It is believed she will not be moving to Sandringham with Andrew, and will instead make her own housing arrangements.
A new YouGov poll has found that while 79% of people questioned backed the King’s decision to strip Andrew of his titles, 58% of the 4,739 adults quizzed on Friday felt the Royal Family had moved too slowly in dealing with the controversy.
Andrew stepped down from public duties in 2019, after his disastrous Newsnight interview about his friendship with Epstein, and as a non-working royal does not serve as a counsellor of state, who can deputise for the monarch if he is overseas on an official trip or ill.
He remains eighth in line to the throne but in the highly unlikely scenario Andrew was on the verge of becoming monarch it is likely public pressure would intervene. Yet there have been calls to bring in legislation to stop any chance, however remote, of him becoming King.
York Central MP Rachael Maskell said time should be found in Parliament to remove Andrew from the line of succession. She said: “I don’t think these things will take a lot of time. It’s a couple of small clauses in a piece of legislation.”
