King Charles has officially cut off his brother Prince Andrew’s estimated $1.3 million a year allowance, according to a biography of the new king.
In an updated version of his book, “Charles III: New King. New Court. The Inside Story,” author Robert Hardman claims the king’s relationship with his younger brother is at an all time low, owing to Charles’ tightening of the royal purse strings.
Charles has instructed the Keeper of the Privy Purse, essentially the finance director for the monarchy, to eliminate Prince Andrew’s estimated $1.3 million (£1 million) a year personal allowance and stop paying for his seven-figure private security, according to Hardman’s book, excerpted by the Daily Mail.
“The duke is no longer a financial burden on the King,” a source told the Daily Mail.
The turning of the financial screws follows Charles’ insistence that Andrew leave the 30-room estate known as Royal Lodge in Windsor. Andrew has thus far balked, refusing to leave and move into Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s former UK home, Frogmore Cottage.
The house, which the Duke and Duchess of Sussex spent $2.8 million renovating after marrying in 2018, is significantly smaller than Royal Lodge, with only five bedrooms. Frogmore was also briefly the home of Andrew’s daughter, Eugenie, and her husband, Jack Brooksbank, who leased the home from Harry and Meghan before the royals were evicted by the king.
Well-placed sources also told Hardman that had Queen Elizabeth II lived another year, she would have forced Andrew to leave Royal Lodge and move to Frogmore. The monarch, who passed away in September 2022 at the age of 96, was often accused of being overly lenient on the prince widely believed to be her favorite child (Season 4 of “The Crown” even did an episode on the subject).
But Her Majesty was keenly aware of what she called “the Andrew issue,” a turn of phrase she used to refer to the many scandals that dogged Andrew over the years, not least of which being his friendship with the late pedophile-billionaire Jeffrey Epstein.
Following his disastrous 2019 interview with NewsNight in which he failed to apologize for his friendship with Epstein, the prince was forced to step down as a senior working member of the royal family. He was stripped of his patronages and military associations and barred from using the style of ‘HRH,’ His Royal Highness.
While it’s unclear if Queen Elizabeth would have been able to force Andrew to downsize, she likely stood a better chance than her son King Charles, who has thus far not been able to get Andrew to budge.
Andrew has long argued that he has an airtight long-term lease on the Windsor Great Park mansion, which once belonged to his grandmother, the queen mother, according to sources close to the Duke of York. He has also reportedly told the king’s advisers that they have no right to evict him.
With Andrew’s intransigence keeping his feet squarely planted at Royal Lodge, Charles, according to Hardman, has “effectively called his brother’s bluff.” Though Charles might not be able (or willing) to physically kick Andrew out of his mansion, he can deprive him of the allowance needed to pay for its upkeep and for his security.
Andrew has reportedly claimed that he has “other sources of income” related to his contacts in international trade that are enough to keep him in the lifestyle to which he has become accustomed, per Hardman.
Some courtiers, however, are doubting the voracity of Andrew’s assertions.
“If he can find the money, then that is up to him, but if not, he will find that the king does not have unlimited patience,” one insider told Hardman.
