Royal Lodge Dispute: Prince Andrew's Financial Struggles and Renovation Debacle

King Charles already wanted to evict his brother last year. But Prince Andrew refused to leave the Royal Lodge, the splendid residence three miles from Windsor Castle worth 30 million pounds, reaching an agreement with the monarch: the payment of renovation expenses. And here lies the problem. Because, apparently, the Royal Lodge is literally falling apart and is in desperate need of repairs, which could reignite the dispute with Charles and William about whether or not to live there. Harry will meet his father in London on May 8: 'He is very concerned about the King's health'. But William will not show up. It is said that Andrew, 64 years old, is not able to cope with the maintenance of 400,000 pounds a year of the 19th-century property which has a swimming pool and 90 acres of land. Images published by the Daily Mirror show cracks in the masonry and peeling paint. A source said: 'The Duke of York has a clear responsibility for the maintenance of the Royal Lodge estate, something that is certainly not happening. Prince Andrew has been told he will have to take care of the necessary renovation works otherwise he will have no reason to stay at home.' In August 2003, Prince Andrew had received a 75-year lease from the Crown Estate, in exchange for a renovation worth more than seven million pounds. After the initial work in 2004, the prince and his family moved into the renovated facility and here they lived in total tranquility until 2019. In November of that year, however, Prince Andrew resigned from public duties, definitively renouncing royal and military titles in 2022. Having become sovereign, King Charles III had to cut the annual subsidies guaranteed to his brother, making it effectively impossible for him to support all the expenses of managing the Royal Lodge. Charles had offered his brother the old house of Harry and Meghan with five bedrooms, Frogmore Cottage in the Crown Estate. It was speculated that William and Kate and their three children George, Charlotte, and Louis could move into the Lodge. At the time of the agreement, however, Andrew's ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, who shares the property with him, had promised to help him financially. The duke, however, procrastinated on an agreement with the Crown Estate to prove that he could afford the repair bill and 'was not available' with the financial details. Even without the royal salary of 250,000 pounds a year, revoked by the sovereign last February, the prince would have assured he could pay the 2 million pounds required to bring the residence back to its former glory. Last summer the Duke of York had already spent 200,000 pounds to repair the roof. A 'provisional payment', says the Mirror, which would have prompted Charles III to reconsider his decisions. It seems that during these works Andrew stayed at home, refusing to move temporarily for fear 'of not being able to return'. Andrea's finances continue to be shrouded in mystery. In 2022, he paid a compensation of 12 million pounds to sexual abuse accuser Virginia Giuffre to stop a civil trial in the United States after she claimed to have been sexually assaulted three times when she was 17 years old, something he has always vehemently denied. To the Daily Mail an insider declared: 'No one, not even His Majesty believes it is realistic that the duke can keep a roof over his head for a long time. It is a large property, an estate that requires significant maintenance expenses. Honestly, I do not expect to see the Duke of York living at the Royal Lodge for a long time. If he could pay the expenses he would be invited to stay, but the chances of that happening are, frankly, remote.'