Prince Andrew’s Ready to Unleash a ‘Secret Weapon’ in His Royal Lodge Battle With King Charles: Report
The Royal Lodge drama rages on as Prince Andrew is prepared to use his “secret weapon” on King Charles III. The Duke of York, 64, is reportedly ready to turn to two royal relatives for help as he fights to keep his longtime Windsor, England, despite mounting repairs. They are—drumroll, please—his daughters, Princess Beatrice, 35, and Princess Eugenie, 34.
Andrew’s daughters are his ‘secret weapon’
Getting other family members involved is where things seem to stand in the ongoing saga of the Royal Lodge. Andrew, according to a Sun report, is prepared to use his daughters—and their popularity—as his “secret weapon.”
“The princesses are Andrew’s secret weapon,” Ingrid Seward, a royal biographer and editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine, said. “They are very popular amongst the royal family. And Charles is especially fond of them. They are his passport now [that] he has lost everything.” (King Charles has even been tapped to have Beatrice attend more events over the summer.
Andrew went from working to non-working royal status following his widely panned 2019 Newsnight interview. In it, he discussed the sexual assault allegations against him as well as his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew’s interview and subsequent retreat from the royal spotlight has since become the subject of movies, TV shows, and books. Netflix’s Scoop premiered earlier in 2024, with A Very Royal Scandal on the way at Amazon.
Per the U.K.’s The Times, Andrew “plans to bequeath the lease of Royal Lodge to his two daughters” after his death.
Meanwhile, King Charles is “losing patience with his younger brother and has threatened to withdraw the funding of more than £4 million”— approximately $5 million—“a year that allows Andrew to continue living there.”
A source close to the discussion quoted in the report described it as the “siege of Royal Lodge.”
Beatrice and Eugenie ‘want to help’ Andrew with the Royal Lodge
According to Seward, the York sisters want to be of assistance to their dad if at all possible. “They love their dad and want to help him if they possibly can. Their mum [sic] can’t do anything—but they can,” the My Mother and I author said.
Although Eugenie and Beatrice haven’t lived at the Royal Lodge in some time, they still think fondly of the 30-room house and, as their mother revealed in a 2023 podcast episode, it’s where they occasionally have family get-togethers.
“It is his home, and it has been their home for many years, too,” Seward said of the princesses. “Their childhood was all over the place, and Royal Lodge was the one stability they had.”
King Charles may decide to re-examine the ‘support’ Andrew gets as the Royal Lodge dispute continues
So, how could the Royal Lodge drama play out? Well, in a few ways. Andrew could be forced to leave his home of more than 20 years in favor of a smaller royal residence, such as Frogmore Cottage, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s former U.K. home near the Royal Lodge.
(Andrew’s youngest daughter, Eugenie, lived there with her husband, Jack Brooksbank, shortly after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex removed the last of their belongings from the property in the summer of 2023.)
That could, in turn, as palace sources told The Sun, make the king “reconsider the levels of support he is willing to provide” Andrew.
Another option is for Andrew to stay where he is. However, how he might foot the bill for costly renovations, whether out of his own pocket (an unlikely scenario as he has no formal income) or someone else’s, remains uncertain.
For now, he and the Duchess of York still call the Royal Lodge home.
