Prince Andrew is convinced King Charles is trying to force him out of Royal Lodge, where he has lived rent-free for over 20 years because he wants to give it to Queen Camilla, it has been claimed.
The disgraced prince, 65, is refusing to move out of the lavish 30-room property near Windsor Castle, despite pressure from MPs and the public to relocate to a more humble home.
The King has desperately tried to persuade his problematic younger brother to downsize and move out of the Grade II-listed mansion in recent years.
He believes many of Andrew’s problems – particularly those that saw him drawn to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein and other shady characters – stem from chasing a lifestyle he simply cannot afford.
But Andrew has stubbornly insisted that he has a cast-iron lease on the house and as long as he pays the rent, the King has no legal right to throw him out.
Family friends have said he believes the King has an ulterior motive, according to The Telegraph.
Andrew and his daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, have allegedly divulged to pals that the King wants Royal Lodge to be Queen Camilla’s base in Windsor should she outlive him – a similar arrangement to that of Queen Elizabeth II’s mother, who moved into Royal Lodge when she became a widow.
The King’s aides have denied the family friend’s claim, but Andrew is apparently fixed on the theory that Royal Lodge was being earmarked for the Queen – which first surfaced last year.
However, Queen Camilla may have a preference to live in Ray Mill House – which she purchased in 1995 with the divorce settlement from her first husband Andrew Parker Bowles – if she outlives the King.
The Grade II-listed family house in Wiltshire is said to be where she feels the most at home.
Earlier this year, she chose Ray Mill as the backdrop for her official 78th birthday portrait, and in March the King purchased the Old Mill estate next door to avoid it being turned into a wedding venue and ruining his wife’s privacy.
On Monday, it was revealed Andrew has not paid rent on his Royal Lodge mansion where he and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson have lived for two decades.
An unredacted copy of his lease shows that while he paid £1million to lease the property in 2003 and spent £7.5million on refurbishments, he has paid only ‘one peppercorn (if demanded)’ of rent a year since taking on the mansion.
This is because Andrew is deemed to have paid the rent – which was in the region of £260,000 a year – up front through the work he has funded to bring the palatial property up to scratch.
It also means the Crown Estate will have to pay him around half a million pounds if he were to quit his mansion before the lease on it runs out in 2078.
The original lease agreement, submitted to the Land Registry by Andrew 20 years ago, redacted sentences which would have shown he was not paying rent – essentially hiding the fact from the public and skewing their perception of his living arrangements.
Sources have stressed to the Daily Mail that questions still remain over how the King’s brother can afford the vast 30-bedroom property, which comes with multi-million running costs.
This week, the Daily Mail exclusively revealed that Andrew is not believed to have received any significant inheritance from the Queen or Queen Mother, raising fresh questions about how he can afford to stay in the property – particularly when he now receives no personal allowance from the King, or public funding.
Having been forced to give up his Duke of York title – following fresh scandals over his friendship with Epstein and his relationships with suspected Chinese spies – the Prince is facing a possible parliamentary inquiry into his living arrangements.
Sir Keir Starmer yesterday said he would back a parliamentary inquiry into the disgraced Prince’s living arrangements.
It came after Sir Ed Davey said an inquiry by a select committee should be able to grill witnesses ‘including the current occupant’ – a reference to Andrew.
Today, chairman of the Commons public accounts committee Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown confirmed he would be writing to the Treasury and the Crown Estate Commissioners ‘seeking further information on the lease arrangements for Royal Lodge’.
The answers to the questions will determine whether the committee takes the matter further.
