Jeffrey Epstein associate Prince Andrew has reportedly secured enough funds to continue living on the British royals’ Windsor property, despite allegedly being financially cut off by big brother King Charles.
Sir Michael Stevens, the keeper of the privy purse — the royal family’s allowance for sovereign expenses — has approved the money raised by the Duke of York, The Sunday Times reported. Andrew himself has no discernible income outside a Royal Navy pension and it’s unknown where the money came from, though it’s said to be from “legitimate sources.”
As a result, the problematic prince can continue living at the 30-room Royal Lodge, which sits outside the Windsor security cordon and therefore costs a “substantial seven-figure sum” each year for private security, according to royal biographer Robert Hardman, a former adviser to Queen Elizabeth.
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Prince Andrew, Duke of York and King Charles III
In an updated version of Hardman’s “Charles III: New King. New Court. The Insider Story,” the author writes that Charles instructed Stevens to stop paying the bill for his brother’s personal security and £1 million ($1.3 million) living allowance, as revealed in an excerpt published last week.
“In August it was widely reported (and not disputed) that the King was no longer prepared to renew that [security] contract beyond the autumn of 2024,” Hardman writes, noting Andrew was essentially told he could foot the bill himself or leave.
Andrew, who lives at the estate with ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, currently has a lease to the Royal Lodge that expires in 2078. He reportedly already pays a yearly rent of about $337,000.
Andrew was allegedly cut off after he refused his brother’s insistence that he relocate to the “considerably smaller” Frogmore Cottage in Windsor, which is within the security cordon and would dramatically reduce the cost of round-the-clock protection.
According to Hardman, Andrew’s refusal to move out has “soured family relationships” even more than they already had been in recent years.
The Duke stepped away from public royal duties in November 2019, following a disastrous BBC interview about his connection to billionaire Epstein, who just months earlier died by hanging in his jail cell while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.
The royal infamously took that interview as an opportunity to deny having had sex with Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s accusers, when she was a teenager.
