Prince Andrew’s ‘friends’ say “the knives are out” for the disgraced royal as he reportedly refuses to leave his 30-room Royal Lodge estate to make way for Prince William and his family.
The King has reportedly asked the 63-year-old Duke of York to leave the lodge – which he shares with his former wife Sarah Ferguson – and move into the smaller Frogmore Cottage, which was once occupied by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
The tussle over Prince Andrew’s home comes as it emerges official coronation portraits featuring the duke are unlikely to be released to the public by the palace.
Prince Andrew signed a 75-year lease for Royal Lodge in 2003. But he is expected to have difficulty maintaining the estate as per the agreement after his yearly living subsidy of £250,000 ($468,000) was drastically cut in April by his brother, the King.
Prince Andrew was forced to step away from royal duties in 2019 by his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, due to his association with the late paedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein.
The Yorks have reportedly been asked to vacate Royal Lodge by September at the latest by Buckingham Palace officials.
In an apparent bid to reverse the decision, Prince Andrew’s supporters are appealing against the downsize via Britain’s tabloid newspapers.
“He is so fragile. He’s refusing to see anybody,” an unnamed ‘friend’ told the Daily Mail.
They went on to question whether it was the right decision to move Prince Andrew.
“This has been his family home for the past 20 years. Is it really sensible to kick him out?” they were quoted as saying.
“He’s concerned that now the coronation is over, the knives are out.”
The friend said Prince Andrew was worried that his family could even cut off power and water to make him leave.
“We’re dealing with human beings, not real estate,” they said.
Frogmore Cottage, on the royal Windsor estate, was home to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex before they relocated to the US.
Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle oversaw extensive renovations at Frogmore, in which the 10-bedroom residence was transformed to a 473-square-metre, five-bedroom home with a nursery, four bathrooms, two orangeries, a vegetable garden and a yoga studio.
Royal photo omission
Prince Andrew was included in the royal family’s official coronation photo shoot last week. But the images are unlikely to be circulated after he wore his Garter robes, despite him no longer being a ‘working’ member of the monarchy.
According to reports, the King gave Prince Andrew special permission to wear the dark blue velvet robes, which signify the Order of the Garter, one of Britain’s oldest and most senior orders of knighthood in the country, despite the late Queen previously forbidding it.
Several official coronation portraits taken in the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace have been released, including: The King and Queen with working royals the Duke of Kent, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, Princess Anne and her husband, Vice-Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh and Princess Alexandra.
Prince Harry and Prince Andrew would have also appeared in the official images if they were still working members of the royal family.
