Prince Andrew doesn’t want to move into Frogmore Cottage as he sees it as a ‘downgrade’ from his 30-room Royal Lodge – although King Charles has evicted Harry and Meghan from handing him the keys, it emerged today.
The Duke of York doesn’t want to leave his mansion in the grounds of Windsor Castle, despite telling friends he fears he won’t be able to afford maintenance if the King cuts his £250,000 a year allowance.
Andrew is currently reportedly paying £250 a week for a state-subsidized 30-room mansion complete with 98 acres of land and a swimming pool – and doesn’t want to leave it after 20 years.
With Andrew unwilling or unable to pay the going rate, probably thousands of pounds a week, Charles has decided to kick the Sussexes out of the five-bedroom Frogmore Cottage and offer the keys to his younger brother, who is resisting .
The Duke of York will lose £250,000 a year in funding from the King as part of a shake-up of the royal private finances and has had to sell assets including a £19 million ski chalet to cover the cost of settling the matter. sex scandal case with Virginia Roberts Giuffre – a sex slave victim of Jeffrey Epstein.
While friends of the Sussexes described the decision to force them out of Frogmore Cottage as ‘cruel’, the latest salvo in the royal drama escalated tensions within the family ahead of Charles’s coronation in May.
King Charles cracks down on his brother Andrew by kicking him out of the house and reducing his annual allowance
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are seen in the kitchen of Frogmore Cottage, where they have been asked to tidy up their belongings
Frogmore Cottage would not appeal to Andrew, who prefers his current larger home
That reports the Telegraph that by expelling Harry and his wife, the king’s son may no longer be eligible to serve as a state adviser, requiring Harry to be ‘domiciled’ in the UK. But with no UK address of the summer and no alternative to Frogmore on offer, Harry may now be completely sidelined.
The King wanted to evict Harry and Meghan from their Windsor home just 24 hours after the publication of the Prince’s memoir, Spare.
Clearly, Prince Andrew has been handed the keys to their five-bedroom home, a stone’s throw from Windsor Castle.
Harry and Meghan, photographed in 2018, are said to be very hurt by the eviction
But he would oppose the ‘downgrade’ of the 30-room, seven-bedroom Royal Lodge.
The Sussexes are not believed to have been given alternative property on any royal estate. A spokesman for the couple in the US confirmed last night that they had been asked to move.
They said in a statement: ‘We can confirm that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been asked to vacate their residence at Frogmore Cottage.’
Sources claimed they had no idea Frogmore had been offered to Andrew until it appeared in the papers.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment last night. A source said any discussions would be a “private family matter” – and an insider said the move was about “money, not malice.”
But sources close to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were quick to act. One of them told the American gossip website Page Six that Charles had started the deportation process on January 11, a day after Harry’s book Spare – which contained a series of highly revealing claims about the royal family – appeared on book shelves. Omid Scobie, Harry and Meghan’s biographer, described it as a “crushing blow” to the couple, who have been told few details apart from the fact that the property is needed by “someone else.”
He quoted a ‘friend’ as saying: ‘It all feels very final and like a cruel punishment. It’s as if (the family) wants to remove them from the picture forever.’
The Duke of York reportedly told friends he is unlikely to be able to maintain his Windsor home (pictured) without receiving hundreds of thousands of pounds a year from the King
Mr Scobie described the Sussexes as ‘appalled’ by the king’s decision and claimed two other members of the royal family are ‘appalled’.
Harry is known to be particularly close to his cousins, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, who would naturally have their own opinions on whether their father should leave the Royal Lodge.
Mr Scobie, who was previously described as the Sussexes’ unofficial spokesman, said the couple were initially given just weeks to leave but now have until ‘early summer’ to leave.
“Now they have at least until after the coronation,” a source tells him.
The Sun newspaper also quoted an insider as saying, “This definitely marks the end of Harry and Meghan’s time in the UK.”
The Sussexes were given use of Frogmore Cottage by the late Queen in 2018 after complaining that their existing home, Nottingham Cottage in Kensington Palace, was too small and not private enough.
Frogmore Cottage was originally five dilapidated staff residences, but was reduced to one large residence with a private garden using £2.4 million of taxpayers’ money. The pair paid for everything but the basic equipment themselves.
But they only spent six months in the house before moving to North America, first to Canada and then California, where they bought an £11 million mansion in Montecito.
Despite several public statements from Harry that he now sees his future in the US, he and Meghan agreed to reimburse the Crown Estate for the cost of renovations in a deal that included leasing Frogmore Cottage for several years. The couple said it would mean ‘their family would always have a place to call home in the UK’ as they pursue lucrative commercial deals abroad.
But their decision to launch a series of bitter and deeply damaging tirades against the royal family, first in a series of interviews and then in their Netflix series and Harry’s book, has taken their relationship with their relatives to an all-time low.
His father and brother have not spoken to him in months, while many of Harry’s friends have also disowned him. As a result, the couple only used Frogmore on a few occasions, including a few days during the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and when she passed away in September.
There was also a flute visit last spring, while Harry stayed there when he returned for Prince Philip’s funeral and the unveiling of a statue in memory of his mother in 2021. It was briefly loaned to Princess Eugenie and her family, but she then moved to Portugal with her family. Otherwise it was empty.
The couple — who were only three years into their perpetual lease — were drawing up plans to ship the rest of their belongings to California, according to The Sun, and have requested items including an ornate ottoman and chaise longue.
In an interview last year, Meghan told US website The Cut that when she returned to the UK last year, she rediscovered a diary she had kept during her time as a working royal, sparking fears she too might plan to be to bring a diary. a memoir like her husband as part of a multi-book publishing company.
Harry is currently taking legal action against the Home Office over the decision to shut down his Scotland Yard security detail now that he is no longer a working member of the royal family. He claims it is unsafe for him to bring his family to the UK without it.
The fact that he no longer has a permanent home in this country is likely to further muddy the waters.
Sources have said the king does not want to make his youngest son an outcast, but is “worried” about the royal family’s finances and keen to cut costs where he can.
The Frogmore plan is part of a large-scale internal review to better balance the books.
Charles is also well aware of how bad it looks for the Royal Family to have his disgraced brother, Andrew, rattled off at Royal Lodge with his ex-wife, Sarah, Duchess of York, despite being forced to to step down from royal duties over the Epstein. scandal.
The King also knows that Frogmore is in need of a new tenant now that Harry and Meghan’s initial promises to return to the UK on a regular basis have dried up amid ongoing friction with the family.
Royal Lodge could become a long-term home for the Prince and Princess of Wales, who recently moved to Windsor and live in the four-bedroom ‘cosy’ Adelaide Cottage with their three children George, Charlotte and Louis.
Despite the news, Harry and Meghan were spotted together for the first time in months when they visited Hollywood hot spot San Vicente Bungalows, a Los Angeles private club and restaurant for A-list actors, music stars and studio executives, on Tuesday night.
