Why Charles Let Andrew Stay at Royal Lodge — But Evicted Harry and Meghan (No, It’s Not Their US Move)
While Frogmore Cottage was reclaimed the day after Harry’s tell-all memoir, Andrew’s near-permanent lease shields him.
Prince Andrew may have relinquished the use of his Duke of York title, but that doesn't necessarily mean he has given up on his royal lifestyle yet. The seven-bedroom Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park, which has been Andrew’s home since the death of the Queen Mother, remains firmly under his control. King Charles’s repeated attempts to persuade his younger brother to move out have clearly failed, with Andrew still sharing the opulent estate with his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson.
However, it was relatively easier for Charles to evict Prince Harry and Meghan Markle from their humble abode, in Frogmore Cottage, when they stepped back as senior working royals. The Sussexes had been given the lease on the property by the late Queen Elizabeth upon their marriage in 2018. They invested heavily in its renovation, repaying the $3.2 million spent from the Sovereign Grant and even renewed their lease in 2022.
Yet when they stepped down in 2022 and publicly criticized several aspects of the monarchy, they were asked to vacate. Their eviction came just a day after Harry’s tell-all memoir, Spare, hit the shelves in January 2023.
However, for Andrew, the story has been one of contrast. The reasons for his continued occupancy lie largely in the legal and financial details of his lease. Signed in 2003 for $1.3 million, his 75-year lease on the historic property was obtained from the Crown Estate, which requires him to pay only ‘one peppercorn’ in rent if demanded.
He also invested nearly $10 million in refurbishments, the BBC reported, which, under the ‘cast-iron’ lease, are considered his until 2078. Even if he agreed to surrender the lease, the Crown Estate would reportedly have to pay him about $7,43,000. With no significant inheritance from his mother or grandmother, and an annual allowance from the late Queen now stopped by Charles, Andrew’s ability to maintain a large property like that is a mystery.
Royal author Omid Scobie, in his book ‘Endgame’, noted that Frogmore Cottage, just a “five-minute walk from Windsor Castle, and ensconced within the Metropolitan Police-led ring of steel surrounding the Windsor Estate, [was] the couple’s only sufficiently secure refuge in the country” after losing automatic police protection in 2020. A friend of the Sussexes told Scobie, “It all feels very final and like a cruel punishment... It’s like they want to cut them out of the picture for good.”
However, it is the technicalities that made it easier to evict the Sussexes. Andrew’s long-term, near-permanent arrangement with Royal Lodge makes eviction virtually impossible. Frogmore, however, was a shorter-term lease contingent on their status as working royals. Once Harry and Markle stepped back and relocated to California, Charles had the legal grounds to reclaim the property, grounds that don’t exist for Andrew.
Scobie’s book Endgame sheds further light on the Sussexes’ eviction, noting that an official notice was delivered by Sir Michael Stevens, Buckingham Palace’s Keeper of the Privy Purse. Harry allegedly called his father in frustration, asking, “You don’t want to see your grandchildren anymore?” The eviction, Scobie wrote, was executed quietly, without public fanfare.
