Will Fergie stick around ....

[Umy15r03lcha1]

.... With the prospect of no more title, no charities, no free mansion?

How long before she leaves the ghastly ex to wallow alone in the pile of shit he's created?

according to the Mirror she could move to Switzerland

although that is confusing because it was sold but they do say
Sarah's sale of a Belgravia property earlier this year could help make a fresh start away from the UK, should she so wish. It's understood Fergie owned the £4.25million terraced property mortgage-free

I'm sure the corgis could easily be rehomed if necessary. There are plenty of people who would be happy to accommodate one of the late Queen's dogs. The Venn diagram of dog lovers, royalists and sentimental old duffers isn't a perfect circle but it has a lot of overlap. SF, on the other hand, would be a distinct challenge to rehome.

According to Andrew Lownie the man was licking her toes, not sucking. 😂😂

Posh families have been dealing with 'difficult' relatives for generations.

AMW will be given a comfortable 'cottage' well within the Sandringham estate, away from long lenses. He will be kept on a tight financial leash. He might be given a non job to keep him busy - bossing around gardeners or something similar.

He will have been left with no doubt that this is the only option unless he wants to push off to the middle east where someone will give him a dusty palace to roam around.

SF will bounce between her two daughters who will each get heartily fed up with her.

'SF will bounce between her two daughters who will each get heartily fed up with her.' perhaps for some of the time but her daughters main residences are grace and favour apartments in St James's and Kensington Palace and not huge compared to what she's used to.

Still with the sale of her Mayfair investment house I'm sure she can buy a large home and still have plenty left to invest and live off assuming of course it was her money to begin with and not say a cover for an overseas investor.

@GnomeDePlume ALL families have been dealing with "difficult" relatives since the dawn of time.

Yes, but not so publicly.

I imagine it's a tricky legal conundrum. They would have to sign NDAs because of their proximity to the private lives of the protectees. If it is decided that they can speak up in some circumstances and report the protectee then a line needs to be drawn and where do you draw the line? I am not saying it couldn't done but sometimes black and white is much easier than grey and creates more confidence. If the line is drawn that they need to report criminal behaviour then is that all criminal behaviour or only something regarded as serious and who grades the seriousness of a crime?

This could create another problem, if the protectees can't trust their protection officers then they might not be willing to obey their instructions which could lead to problems in an emergency. Any guidelines would cover everyone who is given a protection officer, not just any royals.

Why doesn’t she buy a place in Portugal in the gated community where Eugenie apparently lives? Her son in law is selling property there isn’t he? I’m sure he could cut her a deal.

why do Beatrice and Eugenie have grace and favour apartments in the heart of London? They are non working. Presumably people like Duke of Kent, Princess Alexandra, Gloucesters etc. were given them as they were working. I assume when they die the properties will be rented out at a commercial rate.

I do feel William is aware how necessary it is to slim things down, the younger generation appear to have little interest in a monarchy.

They don’t have grave and favour houses - the royals who rent apartments and houses pay market rent now - it changed in the 90s I think from when they paid a peppercorn rent. Andrew was the only one who still had a ‘deal’ based on his down payment and then upkeep commitments.

Beatrice and her husband rent an apartment in St James Palace. There are actually apartments in the palace which are rented to non royals too - Michael Douglass and Catherine Zeta Jones rent one there.

I think William should do the same with Kensington Palace - open it up to non royals too renters and commercial opportunities. He can use Clarence House or an apartment in BP is he needs a London base when King.

I doubt very much any of the Royals are paying market rent. Why would Beatrice want to live at KP anyway? She has a rich husband. Why are they all unable to cut the apron strings?

They are. Many will have been getting paid by the Queen, then Charles at various points, but after the furore over the Michael's of Kent and their peppercorn rent years ago there is no chance the royals haven't been paying h Crown Estates the money.

That caused an absolute shit storm at the time. No chance they'd risk that again - and it would have come out.

The press using the phrase "grace-and-favour" incorrectly really muddies this issue.

Who decides on what the market rent would be I wonder! Also why would they choose to rent rather than buy elsewhere? It makes no sense.

Who decides on what the market rent would be I wonder!*

Interesting question that one. I think there was questions at the time over the market rents for Kensington Palace, but I honestly don't remember how it was said Crown Estates make their determinations.

*Also why would they choose to rent rather than buy elsewhere? It makes no sense.

I definitely think it'll change going forward, but I do think in relatively recent times it made sense. Even minor royals were a target for the like of the IRA and with the higher profile ones definitely being a target it makes sense from a security POV of the neighbours are other royals.

Not saying I completely agree with it btw, I just can see why from each side there is an element of it making absolute sense.

All living in KP simplifies security. Princess Anne's brood all live on her Gloucestershire estate, including her son's ex-wife and even Anne's ex-husband's daughter from his second wife! I think being THAT posh means family has to stick together as there are only so many nom-relatives you can comfortably be close with and trust.

Beatrice has an apartment at St James’ palace where she lives with her husband. They also own a country place in the Cotswolds.

Eugenie and husband were living in KP in one of the cottages for a while. But there was a story about them moving to Portugal - I’m not sure if they have a London base still.

I mentioned KP because although William has his offices there now, by the time he becomes King and has use of the BP offices, there will probably be few if any Royals there. So they can do what they have partially done with St James’ palace and start renting to non royals.

Why do the non working royals want to rent apartments in a historical Royal palace? Probably because they like the building, like the historical connection to their family, like being near other family, like the added security. As I mentioned non royals can rent some of these properties too, obviously appealed to Catherine Zeta Jones.

But then it came out that Andrew has been paying peppercorn rent to live in Royal Lodge...?

Why the hell do we owe Beatrice or Eugenie anything?

An apartment in Kensington palace? Ridiculous!

They are non-working connected to royals people, what the hell do they need this for?

I think the British public have been duped over years and years and they need to wake up.

My daughters are the same age as them, perhaps they could have a an apartment in Kensington Palace? Why not?
They pay their taxes they are good upstanding citizens why the heck not?

- My daughters are the same age as them, perhaps they could have a an apartment in Kensington Palace? Why not?
They pay their taxes they are good upstanding citizens why the heck not?

Beatrice's apartment is at St James where there are apartments that folks can rent.

One of the first ones that went up to rent was 20k a month in 2015.

I will eat my hat if they are paying market rent.

The times suggest they pay well under market rent https://www.thetimes.com/uk/royal-family/article/princess-beatrice-eugenie-andrew-mountbatten-windsor-sarah-ferguson-c5mg5t35b

But then it came out that Andrew has been paying peppercorn rent to live in Royal Lodge...?

He wasn't paying peppercorn rent. They did a deal in exchange for him doing the repairs.

Something that definitely needs looked into to see how often CE does that with tenants (if nothing else it's leaving buildings - some historic - at risk).

But that's not what peppercorn rent is. Again the media are using the wrong working. Dodgy deal and peppercorn rent aren't the same thing.

Peppercorn rent is like when the Michaels of Kent were paying a few quid a week for KP, just to make their tenancy legit.

Okay - reading that article makes the question more about whether all the apartments and properties inside the palaces are rented below market value because of the security cordons no matter who the renter is.

When the apartments in St James palace came on the market to rent the advert did say it would be subject to a security clearance.

So if the Crown estate which manages the rents offers them all across the board lower than would normally happen for a prime location like that because the added security measures means less privacy - does that apply to everyone?

For example if Beatrice is paying 50% less of the rent for her apartment than Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglass simply because she’s the King’s niece then that is unfair.

But if all renters Royal or not are paying 25% less than the equivalent market value if it was managed by a regular real estate landlord then that’s a different issue.

But none of them are in ‘Grace and Favour’ properties (which is for staff and retired staff) and none of them are paying ‘peppercorn rents’ in the fashion they used to be when the scandal broke about that the last time.