This Christmas, as the Windsors gather in Norfolk for their usual days-long celebration of carolling, football (that is, soccer), and charades, one notorious name is notably not on the invite list: Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the British commoner formerly known as Prince Andrew. As he did last year—and every year since he stepped down from his royal duties in 2019—the late Queen Elizabeth II’s third, and allegedly, favorite son will likely spend his last Christmas at his longtime home, Royal Lodge, alone perhaps, but for his ex-wife and some moving boxes.
In October, when Andrew-accuser Virginia Robert Giuffre’s damning posthumous memoir Nobody’s Girl debuted atop international bestseller lists, King Charles III stripped his younger brother of his title and served an eviction notice heard across the world. “His lease on Royal Lodge has, to date, provided him with legal protection to continue in residence. Formal notice has now been served to surrender the lease and he will move to alternative private accommodation,” read the stern statement from Buckingham Palace.
But this reportedly unemployed 65-year-old’s “alternate private accommodation” probably won’t be a one-bedroom flat. Instead, the ex-duke is expected to move to the king’s private residence, Sandringham—ironically, the very same Norfolk estate that won’t allow his awkward presence at Christmas dinner. That is, if he moves at all. The black sheep brother reportedly isn’t keen to relocate—or even cooperate. Especially when he’s got a deal signed by his mom and tenants’ rights working firmly in his favor. (A spokesperson for the palace did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
A Rock-Solid Royal Lease
When Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, died in 2002, the then-prince took over his grandmother’s lease at Royal Lodge, where she had resided for 50 long years. As is the way of the royal family, details were negotiated individually and kept private. That is, until recently, when the UK’s Public Accounts Committee publicized Andrew’s so-called “peppercorn deal,” in which a very nominal payment serves to recast a gift as a sale. For the 30-room mansion worth an estimated £30 million ($40.2 million USD), the then-Duke of York paid £1 million upfront and £7.5 million in refurbishments to live at Royal Lodge for 75 years. He was set to pay a symbolic “one peppercorn (if demanded)” annual rent—in other words, almost nothing, until the lease expired in 2078. At that point, Mountbatten-Windsor would be 118 years old.
Until then, Andrew has tenants’ rights just like the rest of us serfs. And provided he pays his peppercorn, he actually cannot be legally evicted—whatever the palace says. Officially, their hard-stop move-out day for Andrew is January 31, per People. Unofficially? “Charles is appearing to act tough, but it’s all smoke and mirrors and window dressing,” says biographer Andrew Lownie, author of Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York. “Behind the scenes, there’s nothing they can do. Andrew can only go voluntarily.”
As such, explains Lownie, the monarchy is “operating like they always do: with a mixture of pressure and patronage.” The strategy works both ways. Mountbatten-Windsor is reportedly “insisting on another big house, an extensive staff, his daughters being protected, and shielded guarantees for when William becomes king—since William wants him out and gone by the time he comes to the throne,” says Lownie. Which prompts another question: Where to? And why? (A spokesperson for Buckingham Palace did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
Sandringham’s Not-Big-Enough Big House
Short of leaving the country entirely, the furthest possible royal property where “Randy Andy” could be tucked away is the privately owned Sandringham Estate, some 112 miles northeast of the royal family headquarters in London.
