In this divided nation there is one issue we all appear to agree on. Prince Andrew. The latest YouGov poll on the subject confirmed, completely unsurprisingly, he’s the least popular member of the royal family by far.
Now, King Charles is taking the example set by his mother - putting the country first - up a notch, by doing what she could never quite manage with her favourite child. Correctly assessing the public mood, he is no longer willing to indulge this arrogant outcast. Andrew, whose association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein led to him paying millions to settle out of court claims he strenuously denied, was told in 2022 there was no way back for him when it came to royal duties.
So Charles wants to move Andrew from the stately-home-esque spread he’s currently kicking his heels in, to Frogmore Cottage.
A little clarity, because some of the words here could be misleading. Although it’s called a cottage, Frogmore is a beautiful, ten bedroom, historic Grade II listed home, renovated by the woman responsible for the stunning interiors of high end members club Soho Farmhouse via Meghan Markle. Andrew is not being shipped off to a two up two down in the Outer Hebrides, he’s being asked to leave the lap of luxury for a slightly smaller lap of luxury in the exact same area. Charles is being entirely reasonable, and kinder than many would be in his position. But still Andrew, a man who famously described himself as having “a tendency to be too honourable”, refuses to budge.
His current home, where he is thought to live alone, has 30-rooms, seven-bedrooms, and is set on 40 hectares of land. There’s a swimming pool with changing rooms, a tennis court, private woods, and an area for practising golf. Now he has no work, Andrew is said to spend his time watching TV in a darkened room.
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What he has on his side, however, is a 75-year lease on the property until June 15, 2078. The terms include repainting the outside every five years and redecorating inside every seven. The external work was due to be completed last year, however in the last week scaffolding and a skip were suddenly seen outside the house. Perhaps he was having ‘I shall not, I shall not be moved’ daubed on the front.
But although Andrew has the lease, it’s assumed he pays for it with money from the King. A friend of Charles’ revealed at the weekend, “Unfortunately, if Andrew refuses to leave within a reasonable time frame, then the King may be forced to reassess the whole package of support he provides and the duke would be required to fund the lion’s share of his security, accommodation and lifestyle costs all on his own — which, given the sums involved, is highly unlikely to be possible in the long term.”
Charles obviously has many other things on his mind at the moment, which makes it even more admirable that he is tackling this uncomfortable issue head on. This is his brother, of course – he’s not going to banish him to the tower, no matter how many of his subjects might thoroughly approve.
What is staggering is how tone deaf Andrew continues to be – seemingly wilfully so. This isn’t just a post-Newsnight world, it’s a post-Scoop world; his downfall was so stupendous dramas are being made of it, Netflix’s Scoop being just the first. Charles needs support at the moment, not extra battles, but instead his brother is passing up yet another opportunity to do the right thing. To paraphrase a baying crowd outside the Big Brother house, GET ANDREW OUT.
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