Andrew, Sarah & a Royal Lodge question

[MoondustandFairies]

Following some of the news stories about Andrew relinquishing Titles & a more local news story saying that he & his ex wife will continue to live in the Royal Lodge makes me wonder how that can be funded. Can they be made to leave if they can't pay?

It has 7 - or 12? - bedrooms so I expect it requires a bit of mopping & dusting each week - so do A & S also employ staff to maintain the property.

Not sure how old they both are either, maybe close to retirement?? but how do they fund a lifestyle without being propped up by the RF. Which prob won't please William too.
Just my tuppence worth question wondering how non working ex Royals with no marketable skills will pay staff wages & buy groceries.

It’s 30 rooms.

Giant rooms.

Once the Renters Rights Bill comes into law later this yet Andrew will have even more protection. He obviously doesn’t have an Assured Shorthold Tenancy but I understand the new protections apply across the board. Better to get him to agree to downsize now voluntarily… (chances not high though I imagine, he will likely cling to Royal Lodge as the last vestige of his status).

No I’ve just double checked. He was Greek/Danish but part of the Greek royal family who were exiled while he was a baby.

No.
The Greek part is because the Greek throne (then vacant) was offered to a son of Queen Victoria, who turned it down. It was then offered to Philip's grandfather, (a Danish prince) who became George I of Greece.
The family name was Schleswig Holstein Sonderberg Gluckstein (Danish/German). Philip's mother was a Battenberg, later anglicised to Mountbatten, which is the name he adopted.
So his family were not Greek, but appointed to the Greek throne, then deposed.

Phillip was himself born in Greece, though. On the kitchen table at Mon Repos Palace on Corfu. His father Prince Andrew of Greece had also been born there. It was his grandfather (King George I of Greece) who moved from Denmark to Greece to take the throne.

(George’s sister Alexandra had married Bertie, Victoria’s oldest son and so eventually became Queen Alexandra).

Yes, that's right. It was very wise to emphasise that he was "Greek" when he married the late Queen just after WW2, particularly as his sisters were married to Nazis.
They escaped from Corfu when the RF went into exile. I think it's interesting how he then became an Englishman after attending Gordonstoun, connecting with the the Milford Havens/Mountbattens and joining the Royal Navy. I find him a fascinating character, and am always amazed at what a dysfunctional and difficult early life he had, and how he forged a role for himself.

His mother sheltered Jews from the Nazis. A rather complicated family.

I imagine Andrew has a lot more stashed away than anyone will ever discover, courtesy of the years he spent as Trade Envoy and the contacts he made while doing deals for himself on the side. All those shady billionaires in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijani et al that he schmoozd with, the offshore trusts and companies he was involved with, the deals he took a percentage cut from….. The funding that KC3 cut off would be like a drop in the ocean compared to all that. According to reports, he has the use of a palace in Abu Dhabi that has been made available (fully staffed) for his exclusive use by the ruling royal family there, so he’s not going to be without a roof over his head should he ever leave Royal Lodge.

Yes, she was an extraordinary woman.

@TheExcitersblowingupmymind 30 rooms not 30 bedrooms.
Just perfect for a couple in their 60s now their DC have flown the nest.
Andrew is 65, Sarah 66.

@TheignT , his granny wasn't rich. She was a spender.

Oh yes, those friends in Azerbaijan, and of course the fully staffed palace in Abu Dhabi. No, he'll always be rich.

I'm not sure how much more people want from the man,he retired from public duty, he doesn't get a penny from Charles, he only attends family events, he's said he won't use his titles (he is a Prince by birth and that takes an act of parliament to take away so won't happen).

By all accounts he doesn't leave the grounds of the Windsor estate much, he rides his horses in the grounds most days.

I'm not a fan of his, or any of the royal family, but this is a spectacular witch hunt, and I get a feeling some people won't be happy until he's lying 6 feet under. Some of the reporting is misleading at the very least, the number of rooms being one.

People want him to admit he had non consensual sex with trafficked young women at events and parties provided by jeffrey Epstein and ghislane maxwell, people also want prince andrew and sarah ferguson to admit they were enmeshed in seedy corruption connected to jeffrey epstein that is what people want. @xSideshowAuntSallyXx

@xSideshowAuntSallyXx , that's quite similar to what I think.

I don't believe they don't have staff. They might not live in but they definitely have staff.

Yes, I think it's just that they're not "live in". I suppose it makes it more of a private family home.

And? By that measure I have staff too. So do an awful lot of people in the UK.

The Greek royals were most definitely the poor relations, mostly in exile and bailed out by the wealthy Edwina Mountbatten when Philip was young. They were pretty much looked down on by other European royals as a result.

Andrew is unlikely to have inherited from his mother, as it all goes Sovereign to Sovereign, but she may have set up trust funds for him, Anne and Edward.

@Serenster

Well the 'and' for me is that they want to portray themselves as just an ordinary family who live just like everyone else and that's utter bollocks.

If they owned there privilege I would feel much more positive about them.

Yes, as pp have said, foreign "businessmen" seem to have kept Andy in style.

I'm amazed that when this thread began we were under the impression that Andrew paid rent on Royal Lodge!

And now that has been revealed to be absolute nonsense. He pays nothing!

I hope this doesn't die down and the government finally admits it has to do more than just allow Andrew not to use his titles.

Both the government and the monarchy are taking us for fools.

I think it's all gone too far now, and more stuff is coming out.

I agree

There is a 'Schedule of Dilapidation' apparently. I read somewhere that the grounds are in an awful state

Why on earth Charles doesn't insist that Sarah moves out given she is not a member of the royal family anymore having been divorced for nearly 30 years. That might set the ball rolling!
The monarchy has access to 27 properties within the United Kingdom. They are a mixture of palaces, royal estates right down to cottages
Surely he can live in one of those

And yet it was Charles who welcomed her back in so she was seen with the family again.