November 9th 2024.
Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, is facing financial challenges as he relies solely on his Royal Navy pension for income. However, despite this, he has somehow managed to find the funds to cover the hefty £3,000,000 annual security bill for his residence at the Royal Lodge.
At first, it seemed that Prince Andrew's days at the prestigious 30-room house in Windsor Great Park were numbered. His older brother, King Charles, had expressed his desire for Andrew to vacate the property and move to Frogmore Cottage, the former home of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. This move would have also relieved Charles from the burden of paying for Andrew's security out of his own private funds.
Despite stepping down from his official royal duties and remaining largely out of the public eye for the past five years, Prince Andrew has continued to receive round-the-clock security, thanks to the generosity of his brother. This has allowed him to continue living at the Royal Lodge, where he currently resides with his former wife, Sarah Ferguson, under a lease agreement that is valid until 2078.
As the tense situation at the Lodge, dubbed by some as "the siege of Royal Lodge," dragged on, King Charles issued an ultimatum to Andrew earlier this year – either move out or face being cut off financially. In response, Charles stopped paying for Andrew's security, hoping to force him to find the funds to cover the costs himself.
However, it seems that Prince Andrew has successfully convinced Palace authorities that he has the means to pay for his own security. Sir Michael Stevens, the keeper of the privy purse, has approved the source of Andrew's funds as legitimate. While the money may have been deemed legitimate, its source remains a mystery.
Since stepping down from his royal duties, Prince Andrew's only known source of income is his Royal Navy pension. However, speculation has arisen over how he is able to afford the expensive security bill. Some believe that he has made money from property sales over the years, such as the sale of Sunninghill Park – a wedding present from Queen Elizabeth – for £15,000,000 in 2007 to Timor Kulibayev, son-in-law of Kazakhstan's president.
In 2022, Andrew and Sarah Ferguson also sold their ski chalet in the Swiss resort of Verbier. Following the sale, Ferguson purchased a £5,000,000 property in Mayfair, London. However, the couple has also faced financial struggles in the past, including accepting a £15,000 payment from Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted child sex offender and friend of Andrew's, to pay off a debt in 2012. Ferguson later described this as a "gigantic error of judgment."
In 2017, Andrew took out a £1,500,000 personal loan from Luxembourg-based private bank Banque Havilland, which was then paid off 11 days later by companies linked to David Rowland, a multimillionaire Conservative donor and financier. Andrew's biographer, Andrew Lownie, believes that now that he is no longer a working royal, there is less scrutiny on his business activities, but it is an area that still needs to be closely monitored.
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