As far as parlor games go, the issue of who has stepped in to fund Prince Andrew’s future in the white stucco grandeur of the Royal Lodge, Windsor, has been the only one in play for weeks.
Since the revelation that the Duke of York had secured a cash lifeline for the 30-bedroom mansion, the search for its mysterious benefactor has consumed London society.
Who, everyone wants to know, has the wherewithal to stand up to King Charles, following his demands that his brother be reduced to the more modest Frogmore Cottage, once the home of the Sussexes?
Rich names from the Middle East to the Russian steppes have been in the frame, but I can now reveal that there are some in aristocratic circles who believe the Prince’s secret patron is someone much closer to home.
In fact, you may have a fairly large property right next door.
They suspect that the threat of “eviction” is an elaborate double deception on the part of the King. I have heard from multiple sources that, far from interrupting Andrew, Charles personally paid his errant brother’s bills for his upkeep and promised that his problems at the Royal Lodge would be resolved, allowing him to remain there for the foreseeable future.
The question is not how he did it, but why. Why would the monarch go through the chaos of Andrew’s finances and social life to save his brother’s position in the wake of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal?
The first person to suggest that the King had opened his private purse on his brother’s behalf was someone close to Andrew.
King Charles with Prince Andrew. Charles has demanded his brother reduce the size of Royal Lodge to the more modest Frogmore Cottage.
Royal Lodge is crumbling from the outside and cramped inside, greatly reduced from its glory days as the Queen Mother’s residence in Windsor.
‘He (Andrew) just doesn’t have that many friends anymore. “He barely goes out, he’s not welcome anywhere,” the source says.
‘So it has to be the family, and the obvious person is the King. I mean, why would someone who isn’t family want to give you money when you won’t get anything out of it except a lot of criticism?
Gone are the days when the wealthy in the Middle East could bail out the Prince, as disgraced Turkish banker Selman Turk once did for a sum of £1.4 million (which Andrew repaid in 2021).
Since wealthy investors give Andrew a wide berth, his money is likely coming from the Windsors, and with Prince William reluctant to please his uncle, Charles enters.
I would hardly have believed it if the same story hadn’t been shared at another glamorous (and usually ultra-discreet) table a few days later. “Charles has paid for everything,” revealed someone who has been a guest at the Royal Lodge in years past. ‘The King has authorized it. It’s all done.’
For greater clarity, my companion insisted that the funds did not come from the public treasury but from the monarch’s personal pocket. “Private financing,” they hoped.
Royal Lodge is crumbling from the outside and cramped inside, greatly reduced from its glory days as the Queen Mother’s residence in Windsor. It was there that Charles sought his grandmother’s company when his relationship with his parents was declining.
So could it be that this house has an emotional claim on him, which predates his brother’s acquisition of the 75-year lease in 2003? Is Charles protecting a place that is precious to him?
The Mail story last month
If that’s true, could the King’s reasons for funding Andrew be less fraternal than practical? He is known for his passionate interest in architecture and conservation. Charles knows that a long standoff over Royal Lodge, in which Andrew refuses to budge but is unable to maintain the Grade II-listed 19th-century mansion, could cause irreparable damage to its structure.
Finally there is the argument presented by the first person who shared this statement with me: Charles simply cannot betray his brother.
We know that the late queen ensured the happiness of her eldest son by asking her subjects to accept Camilla as queen consort. Is it true that Charles has shown similar generosity toward his brother and is honoring his late mother’s wishes, which were that her second child be cared for?
If this were correct, there is probably a path leading to the Duchy of Lancaster. That is the real estate empire that provides the monarch with his personal wealth. While the Sovereign Grant, the King’s official support mechanism, is transparent, the Duchy is a more private matter between it and its accountants.
Lancaster’s net estate surplus was £27.4m in 2023/24, according to accounts published last July. That would be enough to cover Andrew’s costs.
My colleague Robert Hardman revealed last month that the King had stopped paying his brother’s personal allowance, believed to be in excess of £1m a year, and his £3m security bill.
Andrew’s expenses include the Royal Lodge’s annual rent of around £260,000, plus the estimated £400,000 needed to “repair, renovate, maintain, clean and, where necessary, rebuild” the property.
If my sources are to be believed, and Charles has taken personal financial responsibility for these minor sums, it would be a double deception worthy of a Le Carré novel.
We may never know the truth, but royal observers will soon be able to evaluate the relationships between the brothers. On Christmas Day there will be the traditional walk around the Norfolk estate. If Andrew is present at the King’s invitation, we can assume that the blood (blue blood, of course) is proving thicker than water.