King Charles is hoping to “strong arm” brother Prince Andrew out of Royal Lodge after “refusing to budge” from the 30-room royal residence, it has been claimed.
According to royal insiders, the monarch has fired the Duke of York’s ten-man private security team based at the Windsor property, effective from the autumn.
Andrew currently lives at Royal Lodge with ex-wife Sarah Ferguson and has over five decades remaining on the lease he signed in 2003, which he had planned to leave to his daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.
A source told The Sun that it “isn’t a secret that the King wants him out”. Speaking to GB News, royal commentator Sarah-Louise Robertson claimed Charles is hoping to “subtly strong-arm” his brother out of the property.
Robertson explained: “What King Charles is hoping to try and do is try and subtly strong-arm him out of Royal Lodge and into another property, which happens to be Harry and Meghan’s old house, Frogmore Cottage.
“But Prince Andrew is going nowhere. So far he’s resisting, shall we say, any attempts by the King to actually go of his own accord.”
Noting Prince Andrew’s lease agreement, Robertson added that the royal believes the agreement is “cast iron”, despite Charles’s latest decision to fire his security team.
She told GB News: “The King has taken away his security, as he believes he doesn’t need to have this round-the-clock, 24-hour protection, which the Duke of York right now does have. This is part of the king sort of stripping things back.
“The only security really that the taxpayers should be paying for, the King believes, is himself, Queen Camilla and the Prince and Princess of Wales, because obviously they are the heirs, and that’s how it will be.”
Until King Charles fired the security team surrounding Prince Andrew, he had been privately funding the force, costing £3million a year, since losing his armed police protection in 2022.
Detailing the security arrangements for other working royals, including the King and Duke’s sister Princess Anne, Robertson said: “Princess Anne doesn’t get security around the clock privately.
“But when she is working, she does benefit from security when she’s actually on an official working visit.
“Other members of the Royal Family, the Prince and Princess of Wales, the King and Queen, do receive 24/7 security as they should, given the high profile of their roles and the inherent risk that does carry.”
The royal insider also told The Sun: “Everyone is speculating this means the Duke will have to leave the Royal Lodge because what other reason could there be to take his security away?
“They are all working the final weeks of their contract till the end of October. It’s not thought anyone is being lined up to replace them.”
The Duke of York had originally wanted to pass the lease to ex-wife Sarah Ferguson but is unable to do so due to a clause in the agreement with the Crown Estate.
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Source: The Wall Street Journal
