Prince Andrew is in advanced talks with the King’s representatives about quitting his Royal Lodge home, it has been claimed.
Andrew, 65, is under intense pressure to vacate the 30-room country home in Windsor amid the continuing furore over his past relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and outcry over his “peppercorn rent” on the property.
Buckingham Palace is trying to crank up the pressure on the King’s brother to voluntarily give up the residence, from which he cannot legally be evicted from under the terms of his “cast iron” lease, the Telegraph reported.
While the Prince’s initial response was to push back and cite the fact he has 50 years left on his pre-paid lease, there is a growing sense of inevitability that he will now move out, royal sources told the newspaper.
Key issues relating to Andrew leaving are said to be where he will live instead and the level of compensation he will receive for the millions he has spent on the home, sources told the paper.
It is claimed that the palace is strongly pushing to force Andrew out and reassure his daughters Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie that their own homes in St James's Palace and Kensington Palace respectively will be unaffected.
Andrew could potentially live in a property on one of the King's privately-owned residences such as Sandringham or Balmoral in Aberdeenshire.
But the prince is said to be keen to stay in London or Windsor near his daughters – and does not want to be sent to Norfolk or Scotland.
It comes after reports the Royal Lodge lease agreement was redacted to conceal the fact he did not pay rent for two decades.
Documents imply that the estranged royal was obliged to cover costs to stay at the Grade II-listed Berkshire mansion.
The full version of the lease agreement released on Monday contains a clause which reads: “Rent means one peppercorn (if demanded).”
However, in the original version filed to His Majesty's Land Registry in 2003, the section simply reads: “Rent means.”
The newly released forms also reveals that Andrew — who shares daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie with ex-wife Sarah Ferguson — is obliged “to pay the rent if demanded”.
However, the terms submitted to the Land Registry more than 20 years ago insist that Andrew must “pay the rent”.
He reportedly agreed to cough up £1 million for a 75-year lease, as well as £7.5 million for housing refurbishments, but was never charged rent.
According to The Times newspaper, Andrew is legally entitled to withhold the information on the document.
A source said: “Where there is information that is commercially sensitive, they are able to do that. It’s not illegitimate.”
But Mark Loveday, a property barrister at Tanfield Chambers, said the move to hide his lack of rental payments was unusual.
“I don’t think I have ever seen that done, redacting ground rent information from a lease,” Mr Loveday said.
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, chairman of the Commons’ Public Accounts Committee, is writing to the Crown Estate and the Treasury to seek further information on the lease arrangements.
Further attention has been brought on Andrew’s sexual assault allegations following the publication of a posthumous book by his accuser Virginia Giuffre, who died in a car crash in Australia earlier this year.
Last week, Andrew was forced to surrender his royal titles after it emerged he had lied about cutting ties with Epstein, the convicted paedophile who died in a New York prison in 2019.
