Inside Prince Andrew’s ‘narrow world’ this summer from being ‘stuck’ at ‘crumbling’ Royal Lodge to Balmoral break
PRINCE Andrew is said to be spending his summer holidays “stuck” at “crumbling” Royal Lodge – but will find “refuge” at Balmoral, claims an expert.
The disgraced Duke of York, 64, is said to go days without emerging from Royal Lodge, his 30-room mansion in Windsor, where he has lived since 2004.
Editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine Ingrid Seward claimed to Fabulous that Prince Andrew’s world is “very narrow.”
She claimed: “The Duke of York is quite limited as to where he can go, because he obviously doesn’t want to be photographed and then subsequently criticised.
“So his world is very narrow.”
When he’s not at Royal Lodge – which he shares with ex wife Sarah Ferguson – Andrew spends a lot of his time horse riding in a remote part of Windsor Great Park, where he can relax without bumping into the public.
The Duke of York, who stood down from royal duties in 2019 amid an angry public backlash to a car-crash television interview in which he tried to counter claims he slept with a 17-year-old victim of sex trafficking, also enjoys playing golf.
Ingrid added: “He does have things to do, but they’re very minimal.
“He does have a few friends, though many fewer than before. I think what he really lacks is a purpose.”
BALMORAL BREAK
It has been reported by The Mail on Sunday, that the royal family, including William, Kate, King Charles and Queen Camilla, will do their annual trip to Balmoral this summer.
Ingrid claims that Prince Andrew will “obviously go” too, and added: “He loves Balmoral.
“He’s been there every other year, and I think he can find a bit of refuge there, away from cameras and prying eyes.
“It also gives him a chance to see members of the rest of his family.”
‘CLINGING TO TITLE’
The royal expert even claims there is a possibility that Andrew will have to relocate to Scotland at some point.
She explained: “We know there’s no coming back for him, so he has to kind of reconstruct a different sort of life.
“It has been said, why doesn’t he go and live in the north of Scotland, in some remote place? “Well, maybe that’s what he will have to do.
“But Andrew clings on to the fact that he is the Duke of York, the Queen‘s second son, and he’s very aware of his royalty and who he is, which, of course, has partly been his undoing.”
TIME WITH GRANDKIDS
Prince Andrew is said to have a tight bond with daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie and their kids and they are a “united family together”, according to Ingrid.
She shared: “He has a very, very good relationship with his daughters’ children, and I think that’s one of the main things that sustains him.
“They all get on very well.
“He gets on extremely well with Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice, always has, though they’ve had their fallouts.
“He does see a lot of his grandchildren and enjoys spending time with them.
“I think because they know that he’s kind of stuck at Royal Lodge, they will go out of their way to go and see him rather than him coming to see them.”
Inside Prince Andrew's 'crumbling' Royal Lodge
THE disgraced Duke of York resides at the £30million Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park, Berkshire - at least for now.
King Charles has redoubled his efforts to evict the Duke – with insiders branding the stand-off the “siege of Royal Lodge“.
Despite his divorce from Sarah Ferguson in 1996, Prince Andrew lives with his ex-wife at the countryside estate.
Prince Andrew‘s royal residence, with its eye-catching white exterior, boasts 30 rooms with plenty of space for entertaining, plus seven bedrooms spread across the two topmost floors.
The Duke of York is said to spend all day “watching TV in a dark room” like a prisoner at his “crumbling” home.
Royal Lodge is said to “need extensive repairs”, thought to be about £400,000 a year.
The monarch is said to be becoming increasingly frustrated at Andrew’s refusal to care for the colossal mansion.
Andrew is said to have promised King Charles he would take care of its expensive repairs – despite having no apparent source of income.
QUEEN’S ‘ANDREW FUND’
It has been reported that Prince Andrew, who resides at the £30million Royal Lodge, is struggling to pay the £400,000 a year needed for “extensive repairs”.
Recent photos showed the Stucco-like outside of the mansion falling away and mould growing on it.
The shamed Duke has reportedly already poured £7.5million into repairs but sources say he cannot continue to meet the bill.
The monarch is said to be becoming increasingly frustrated at Andrew’s refusal to care for Royal Lodge.
King Charles, 75, has reportedly redoubled his efforts to evict the Duke – with insiders branding the stand-off the “siege of Royal Lodge“.
He does have things to do, but they’re very minimal. I think what he really lacks is a purpose
Ingrid Seward
The disgraced Duke’s police protection was removed when he stepped down from public duty amid the Epstein scandal.
Charles is said to have stepped in to pick up his multi-million pounds private security bill, but is said to be unwilling to keep paying out of his own pocket to fund Andy’s lavish lifestyle.
However, Ingrid claims that Andrew isn’t entirely destitute.
She alleged: “Well, I don’t think Andrew is actually as financially insecure as we think, because the late Queen knew, by the time she died, that her favourite son was in serious trouble, and I’m absolutely convinced she would have made provisions for him.”
'There is no way back for Prince Andrew', claims PR guru
PRINCE Andrew’s reputation is damaged beyond repair and he will never be able to engineer a return to public life, according to one of Britain’s top PR gurus.
Brand and culture expert Nick Ede, who runs East of Eden PR agency, called the shamed royal “deluded” for thinking he could ever return to royal duties and urged him to give up and ‘enjoy his life’ in exile.
It follows the release of Scoop – a Netflix movie based on the 2019 interview he gave to Newsnight.
Nick said: “There is no way back for him.
“I think you know this perpetual idea that he could still be back. Nobody cares. He hasn’t got fans.
“There’s nobody out there who’s going ‘We want to see Prince Andrew’, not one single person. I think he has to realise that. But I think it’s going to take a long, long time for him to actually understand. It’s very deluded.
“In my opinion, the best thing that he could do is just enjoy his life. He’s got gorgeous daughters. He has a great relationship with Fergie, he has a lovely house.
“Just live a quiet life.”
Reflecting on the interview five years ago – the fallout of which saw Andrew step back from royal duties “for the foreseeable future” – Nick compared the fallout to Frost vs Nixon and said he would have urged him not to do it.
He said: “If I had been advising him, I would say, go quiet, be quiet, just go to ground. You know you’re a prince. Enjoy the life that you lead, but do not open this can of worms, because that’s what it is.
“There was no admission that a relationship with somebody like Epstein was terribly toxic. There was no idea that there were loads of victims of trafficking whose lives were completely ruined by Epstein. He didn’t seem to think that the association he had with that man was anything but positive.
“I think his worst gaffe was obviously being in that interview and agreeing to it in the first place, for not realising that he’s actually going to be interviewed by a very, very good journalist who is going to ask him questions which he might not like.
“But I think what this has done is really shown how archaic Prince Andrew is in his opinions and thoughts.
“Read the room. He’s never read a room at all.”