Earlier this week, the Sun reported that Prince Andrew had agreed to leave his longtime home, Royal Lodge, but was asking for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's former home, Frogmore Cottage, instead. Despite reports that workers were seen at the property "day and night" in recent weeks, it turns out King Charles has chosen another location for his brother's future home—and it's far from Windsor.
On Thursday, October 30, Buckingham Palace announced that The King was formally removing Prince Andrew's "style, titles and honours," and he would now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. The statement continued that the ex-duke was given "formal notice" to leave Royal Lodge and that Andrew "will move to alternative private accommodation."
The former Duke of York will be moving into a property on the Sandringham estate in Norfolk, England, although specific details of which house he'll be living in have been kept under wraps to date. GB News royal correspondent Cameron Walker pointed out that it's "very telling" that The King opted to reject the idea of Andrew living in Windsor.
"I think it's very telling that he's being moved to a property on the Sandringham estate, because that's owned privately by the Mountbatten Windsor family, which means no taxpayers are funding the property," Walker said.
"There's no public money whatsoever tied up in that property," he continued. "It is purely going to be funded by King Charles as the brother of Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, so that is effectively as much as King Charles can do in that regard."
Because the estate is King Charles's private property, any protection for the former duke is understood to be covered by the security setup Sandringham currently has in place. As a non-working royal, Andrew currently does not have state-funded police protection. Andrew's living expenses will also be covered privately by The King.
In addition to removing any burden on the taxpayer, Sandringham is located nearly three hours away from Windsor, placing Andrew far away from the Prince and Princess of Wales. The couple will be leaving their current home, Adelaide Cottage, in November and moving to Forest Lodge, which is located about a mile from Royal Lodge.
"Catherine shudders at the thought of living so close to Royal Lodge while Prince Andrew is still in it," a royal source told the Mail on Sunday on October 25. "William wants him gone before they start to move in next week. It's not about what Andrew doesn't want to do anymore. It's about what he's going to be told to do."
