If the fight against cancer wasn’t enough, king Charles III must also fight with Prince Andrew of York. For months it has been said that the monarch wants to dislodge his brother from the Royal Lodge of Windsor, the majestic one thirty-room residence in which he has lived for about twenty years and of which it is unable to pay the monstrous maintenance costs: around £400,000 a year. The mansion is falling apart, says the British press, showing evidence of the collapse of the external plaster, and there is no trace of the renovation to which the duke is obliged by contract. So King Charles would have put his brother in front of an out: either he leaves the Royal Lodge, or he will be deprived of the funds for his support.
Andrew, after the Epstein scandal which cast the shadow of pedophilia over him, became the black sheep of the Windsors: he was deprived of royal titles and militaryobliged to withdraw from public life and marginalized, on official occasions, by the royal family. And, above all, he has a lot less money: until the end of 2022 he received around 250 thousand pounds from the monarchy per year, but at the beginning of 2023, also by virtue of the fact that it is no longer a royal senior, the king has diminished his prerogative. Despite everything, King Charles certainly doesn’t intend to put him in the middle of the street. Instead of the Royal Lodge he would have offered him the Frogmore Cottage once occupied by Harry and Meghan Markle. The Duke of York, however, would have none of it. From here, as he explained to the Times an insider close to the court, Charles’s ultimatum: “If Andrew refuses to leave within a reasonable time, then the king may be forced to reconsider the entire package of grants he provides him. The duke would be forced to finance most of the expenses himself for safety, accommodation and his lifestyle. Which, given the sums at stake, it is highly unlikely that he will be able to do for long.”
The sixty-four-year-old Prince Andrew moved to Windsor Royal Lodge in 2003. First the villa with thirty rooms, swimming pool and tennis courthad been the residence of the grandmother, the Queen Mother (who lived there from 1931 until the day of his death, March 30, 2002, aged 101). The Duke of York shares the house, worth an estimated £30 million, with ex-wife Sarah Ferguson. In the past, writes the Times, the former couple spent almost £7 million carrying out extensive repairs and renovations. But now the mansion is falling apart. And Charles III wants his brother to go. So far «the king’s illness and that of Sarah Ferguson (who defeated two tumors) have guaranteed Andrea a reprieve from “eviction”». Now, however, the two brothers seem to have reached the final clash: if the Duke of York does not leave the royal Lodge, King Caharles will further close the (royal) purse strings.
