Prince Andrew’s Royal Lodge ‘in a shocking state’ as disgraced duke maintains garden to pinch pennies: report
Prince Andrew is getting his hands dirty as his Royal Lodge home reportedly continues to crumble.
The disgraced Duke of York has been attempting to maintain the 21 acres of garden that surrounds his home, the UK’s Daily Mail reported on Friday. According to reports, the 64-year-old is trying to develop a green thumb in hopes of pinching a few pennies after his brother, King Charles III, paid his rent.
"It is in a shocking state," Todd Longstaffe Gowan, the Historic Royal Palaces gardener, told the outlet.
"I won't be knocking that into shape! It is impossible!" he declared. "I've been at Kensington Palace for 30 years, and I think Royal Lodge would be quite impossible."
A spokesperson for Buckingham Palace didn’t immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Insiders claimed that Andrew’s efforts were no match for the royal garden. According to the report, the 30-room mansion is surrounded by shrubbery and woodland, as the flowers that once bloomed are nowhere to be seen.
It’s not the only drastic change that has been occurring on the grounds of Windsor Castle.
Over the last few weeks, Charles has reportedly ordered precious artifacts to be removed from Andrew’s home, due to maintenance and security concerns. Now, only empty shelves are reportedly seen where the pricey relics were once proudly displayed.
Charlotte Griffiths, the Mail on Sunday’s editor-at-large, originally reported in November that the monarch was extending a generous olive branch to his scandal-plagued sibling and paying his rent. It's believed that's what their late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, would have wanted.
Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine and author of "My Mother and I," agreed with Griffiths' scoop. She believes there’s a good reason why the king would still be coughing up the bill for his younger brother, despite the fact that several royal experts claimed to Fox News Digital that the relationship between Charles, 76, and Andrew had soured.
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"There’s absolutely no doubt that Charles is the one who is providing the money for Andrew, because the [late] queen wouldn’t have left Andrew bereft," Seward previously explained to Fox News Digital.
"She would’ve made a provision for him, and maybe that provision came through his elder brother as monarch," she shared. "When the king dies or the queen dies, the money goes to the next monarch. Everything goes to the next monarch. So, she either would have made provisions for Andrew before she died, or she would’ve made provisions through Charles."
"I believe that Charles is helping him," Seward continued. "I don’t see who else would. I’m sure [Andrew’s ex-wife] Fergie would help him. I know Fergie does very well with her books, but I [can’t] imagine she would make enough to run Royal Lodge on her own."
"I certainly think that the only person who could really be doing this is either monies from the queen or monies from the king," she said.
Griffiths claimed that, according to "multiple sources," the king "has personally cleared his errant brother’s bills for his upkeep and promised his Royal Lodge woes would be taken care of, enabling him to stay there for the foreseeable future."
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The editor also claimed that someone at a "glamorous — and usually ultra-discreet — dinner table" told her that "Charles has paid for it all."
"The King has cleared it. It's all done," the source claimed.
The palace insider, "who's been a guest at Royal Lodge in years gone by," claimed that not only did Charles handle the finances, but none of the funds came from taxpayer money.
The Sunday Times previously reported that Andrew raised enough money to live in Royal Lodge. The estate is worth a reported $38 million. According to the outlet, the prince's funds were approved by the Keeper of the Privy Purse as coming from "legitimate sources."
"The Duke of York, or Prince Andrew as we like to call him, always lived in a palace," said Seward. "He was in the navy, yes, but apart from being in the navy, he’s always lived in a palace. He lived in Buckingham Palace, and then his home was Royal Lodge, which is a very grand home — and he doesn’t want to leave it."
"I think King Charles . . . said to him, ‘Andrew, it would be so much better if you moved out of Royal Lodge and moved into Frogmore Cottage . . . because it’s been modernized inside. It’s been beautifully done up. It’s easy to run. It’s not expensive to run. And you’re within the security of the Windsor Castle compound, so it’s not going to cost millions in security.' But Andrew said, ‘No, I want to stay here.’"
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Seward stressed rigorous upkeep — and plenty of funds — are required to keep the royal property in tip-top shape.
"It’s not just a little house in the middle of nowhere," said Seward. "It is huge and therefore needs a lot of upkeep. But I think that there’s no way he and Charles would’ve had a row about it, because Charles isn’t like that."
"He wouldn’t have said, 'You’ve got to get out,'" Seward insisted. "He would’ve suggested why it would be easier to get out. And Andrew said, ‘No, I want to stay.’ So, Charles said, ‘Fine, but I’m going to have to remove this very expensive security, and we’ll need to find an alternative.'"
It's also believed that Charles tried to use a loophole to get Andrew out of Royal Lodge.
London's Sunday Times previously reported that the king would have covered his brother’s living expenses if he had moved into Frogmore Cottage, the former home of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. After Andrew reportedly refused to downsize, the king axed his allowance.
Andrew has been living on the estate since 2004. He resides there with his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson.
According to reports, he has spent over $9 million on repairs and renovations and $1 million to take it over. His annual rent is a reported $337,000. The property requires an estimated $503,000 annually for upkeep.
The Sunday Times reported that the king didn’t renew the contract for Andrew’s private security team. The monarch was paying for Andrew’s security after the prince lost his police protection in 2022. The security team is said to cost Charles nearly $4 million annually.
At the time, a spokesperson for Buckingham Palace told Fox News Digital that the palace wouldn’t comment on "security matters."
"The Crown Estate would’ve loved to get Andrew out of Royal Lodge, because they could rent the whole thing," said Seward. "It needs to be seen as making money. And as long as Andrew lives in Royal Lodge, that’s preventing them from making as much [money] as they could. It’s just too bad that he is the late queen’s second son."
While the duke secured a real estate win, Seward noted, "I don’t think the future holds anything for Prince Andrew."
"He has to do something, but for the last five years he’s been doing absolutely nothing," she said.
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"If he was my son, I’d say, ‘I’m going to give you a beautiful farm in Scotland. Go up there and go into farming, and just disappear from life as we know it.’ You can still have a wonderful life, but Andrew doesn’t want to do that."
"There’s an old-fashioned expression, which is ‘hoist with your own petard,’ which means you’re strangled by your wishes," Seward added.
Andrew stepped back from royal duties in 2019 after his Newsnight interview.
During the disastrous televised sit-down, he attempted to address his connection to late American financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. He was also stripped of his honorary military titles.
A lawsuit filed in 2020 by Virginia Roberts Giuffre accused Andrew of sexually exploiting her on three occasions in 2001 when she was 17. Andrew has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
In 2022, a U.S. judge dismissed the sex abuse lawsuit against Andrew, who settled with Giuffre. The prince made a substantial donation to his accuser’s charity and declared that he had never meant to malign her character.