In the wake of the ongoing scandal surrounding his former ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has lost quite a bit.
At the beginning of October, the disgraced royal willingly gave up the use his royal titles and honors (not including his prince title, which his older brother, King Charles, formally stripped him of later), but early reports suggested that the former prince would cling to his right to live at Royal Lodge, the 30-room mansion in Windsor that he and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson (who has been embroiled in her own Epstein-related scandal) have called home for years, no matter what happened.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, are both being forced to move out of Royal Lodge.
Experts explained that it would be difficult for the King to evict Andrew against his will, thanks to what was widely described as a "cast-iron" lease the former Duke of York held that guaranteed his right to live in the extravagant royal residence until 2078. Still, it soon became clear that Andrew's days at Royal Lodge were numbered, no matter what the terms of his lease were.
In an October 24 post on his The Royalist substack, royal expert Tom Sykes wrote confidently that Prince Andrew would move out of Royal Lodge and reported that sources told him the issue is a matter of “when not if” he would leave the property.
"He is moving," a courtier insisted to The Royalist at the time. "It’s just a matter of getting the choreography right now.”
Those predictions proved true and just days later, it was reported that Andrew had agreed to move out of Royal Lodge. While early reports about Andrew's impending move suggested that he was negotiating to take up residence in Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's former Windsor home, Frogmore Cottage, it soon became clear that the former prince wouldn't be staying in Windsor at all.
!['Royal Lodge, Windsor: The Country Home of the Royal Family', 1937. A Grade II listed house in Windsor Great Park in Berkshire, England, known as the Royal Lodge since the late 1820s. From "George VI, King and Emperor", by Major J. T. Gorman [W. & G. Foyle Ltd., London, 1937]. (Colorised black and white print).](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Wir7oeCrkgZ4RZQ9HLctzJ-1920-80.jpg.webp)
Royal Lodge, as seen in 1937.
Faced with an unrelenting onslaught of backlash and public scrutiny, the royal family decided not to move Andrew into another taxpayer-funded royal residence and to instead move him into one of the King's privately-owned homes on his Sandringham Estate in Norfolk.
Although the Palace hasn't announced any official timeline for Andrew's relocation, many assumed the move would happen before the end of the year. According to a report from The Sun, however, Andrew's move will take longer than that.
The outlet reports that the former Duke of York's eviction from Royal Lodge "is likely to be delayed until February" and definitely won't happen before Christmas. The reason, according to the Sun's source, is because the disgraced royal is struggling to downsize.
“He has a large house where he has lived for a long time and he will be moving into a more modest house so, logically, it won’t happen this side of Christmas," the source explained, adding that moving out of Royal Lodge will take time and that it's not known when Andrew's new home—which has not been announced yet—will be ready.