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After several agonising months of heel-dragging, there were tantalising signs this week that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is finally packing his bags and heading into exile.
First came the sight of workmen sprucing up the remote and, by royal standards, pokey Norfolk farmhouse widely tipped to become the disgraced former prince’s home.
Days later, a royal household removal van trundled through the gates of 30-room Royal Lodge on the Windsor Estate.
With the royal rumour mill grinding furiously – not to mention reports that the Grade II-listed mansion is in chaos as he sorts through his belongings – there has even been talk that the erstwhile Duke of York might be out on his ear by his 66th birthday next month.
In readiness for this ignominious downsizing – Marsh Farm on the Sandringham Estate has, horror of horrors, just five bedrooms – Andrew is said to have taken advice on how to declutter his belongings. While apparently ‘trying to block out’ the move, he has accepted the help of his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson who, like him, will also soon be hoofing it out of the door.
There has been talk that the erstwhile Duke of York might be out of Royal Lodge, pictured, on his ear by his 66th birthday next month
A former secretary has also been drafted in to help with the Herculean task of sorting boxfuls of Andrew’s documents, photographs and letters, some of which are potentially sensitive.
This week a source told the Daily Mail: ‘Royal Lodge is in quite a state. Andrew has finally accepted he needs to get on with things. There is simply no room for it all at Marsh Farm.’
Among the once treasured possessions which will not be going with him to his new home, I can reveal, are expensive guns given as gifts by well-heeled friends over the years. They were removed from Royal Lodge in November and are now in the possession of his brother, the King.
The Daily Mail has also discovered that Mountbatten-Windsor quietly surrendered his gun licence in November at the request of Metropolitan Police firearm officers after they went to Windsor to consult with the King’s private secretary, Sir Clive Alderton, before going to Royal Lodge for an ‘awkward conversation’ with a furious Andrew in the presence of his ex-wife.
‘Eventually, having been calmed down by Sarah, Andrew accepted that he needed to surrender his licence and handed over the guns he kept at the Lodge,’ says the source, who has spoken exclusively to the Daily Mail.
‘The guns seized were handed over to the King rather than being impounded as would normally be the case.’
A household removal van trundles through the gates of 30-room Royal Lodge on the Windsor Estate
The removed weapons are not the guns that Andrew, a shooting enthusiast, keeps in the royal armouries at the King’s estates in Sandringham and Balmoral. In future, if he wants to go shooting, he will be able to use those only under supervision.
While his collection of ceremonial swords – which require no licence – have been allowed to remain in Andrew’s possession, the removal of his guns, barely a month after he was stripped of his titles and reduced to commoner status, was yet another slap in the face amid his vertiginous, and seemingly unending, fall from grace.
More, later, of concerns among some members of the Royal Family that the King has gone too far in his harsh treatment of his brother.
The biggest humiliation – after the stripping of his titles – is undoubtedly Marsh Farm itself, which has sat abandoned for years and is now hastily being refurbished, apparently in readiness for Andrew’s arrival. This week, workmen started fitting a new six-foot security fence around the red-brick property, replacing the existing flimsy wire enclosure.
Engineers from Sky were also seen clambering up ladders placed against the walls of the farmhouse in Wolferton, a tiny village around two and half miles west of Sandringham House. The village is also the location of the now defunct railway station that from the late 1800s to 1966 brought the Royal Family by train to their Norfolk estate.
A JCB digger, which was seen in situ at the farm, is said to be excavating new drains.
Modifications, including new security lights on the walls, CCTV cameras and a no-fly zone banning drones from flying over the property, are thought to have been made in anticipation of Andrew’s arrival at some point in the forthcoming months.
The Palace, however, is yet to officially confirm that the property, parts of which were built in the 18th century, will be his new home.
The removal van which arrived at Royal Lodge early on Thursday morning led to speculation that Andrew might be embarking on his flight into exile sooner rather than later.
Marsh Farm, pictured, on the Sandringham Estate has, horror of horrors, just five bedrooms. Andrew is said to have taken advice on how to declutter his belongings
Insiders say, however, that Marsh Farm still requires extensive work to become habitable and that Andrew hasn’t yet ‘signed on the dotted line’ to move there.
‘He really didn’t want Marsh Farm,’ says the source. ‘Andrew won’t have lived anywhere that small since he left his apartment at Buckingham Palace – and then he had free roam of the building and grounds when he needed space.’
With no staff accommodation at the property, his hopes of taking one or two faithful retainers from Royal Lodge have also been dashed. It is said that the King will provide a cleaner, a groundsman and a cook from Sandringham to look after Andrew’s needs on an ad hoc basis.
‘That hasn’t gone down well,’ says the source, ‘nor has the lack of suitable garaging for Andrew’s cars, although that may be dealt with during the refurbishment.’
In the meantime, however, it is looking increasingly likely that the father of two – who was second in line to the throne when he was born on February 19, 1960 – will move to some kind of interim accommodation while the finer details of his resettlement agreement are hammered out. This is being done, it is understood, ‘to spare him seeing his world literally crumble around him’.
There is a growing possibility that Andrew will be temporarily housed at another Sandringham property, Wood Farm, where Prince Philip lived quietly out of view in the final years of his life and where the late Queen was a frequent visitor.
According to the source: ‘He is trying to block it [the move] out. His personal rooms have to be kept clear of any sign of packing cases. He is likely to move into temporary furnished accommodation provided by the King at Windsor or Sandringham as a stop-gap to spare him dealing with it all.
‘A trusted member of staff is to be left behind to supervise the packing at the Lodge.’
But this won’t include Andrew’s legendary 72-strong teddy bear collection, because the Daily Mail can also reveal that it has, in fact, been disbanded.
It is not clear when, exactly, this happened but insiders say that the former prince has retained just one cuddly monkey – a relic from the days when he used to test Buckingham Palace cleaners by hiding it in unlikely locations to see if they spotted it and returned it to its rightful place in his bedroom.
On a more serious note, there are wider concerns among family members about the suitability of Marsh Farm, tucked away on the Sandringham Estate, as a home for Andrew who was stripped of his titles over his links to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in October. He has always denied any wrong-doing in relation to the late paedophile financier.
‘The main concern is that it’s too remote and that leaving Andrew cut off may not be wise,’ says the source.
The property once accommodated tenant farmers. During the 1970s, it hosted welly-throwing contests, ‘barn discos’ and Girl Guide camps, as well as Conservative Association barbecues.
There are concerns about what Andrew will find to do in a village with a population of around just 200 and where he has no established connections. Aside from a circular walk around nearby Dersingham Bog, or perhaps a round of golf at one of several courses in the area, Andrew will be cut off from the busy social life he once enjoyed in Windsor, not to mention its easy access to Heathrow Airport for the frequent trips abroad he likes to make.
Princess Anne and, to a degree, Prince Edward are said to feel that their brother, King Charles, has gone too far in his treatment of Andrew.
Left to right, former prince Andrew, Princess Anne, Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, and Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh, in 2022
‘Anne has been vocal with both the King and William about Andrew’s treatment,’ says the source, ‘with Edward backing her to some extent.
‘There are several arguments going on between Andrew and the King and between the King and the wider family – some of whom are convinced the King has treated his brother too harshly.’ The source adds: ‘It is easy to forget that Andrew has not been found guilty of anything and he denies all allegations.’
Even King Charles himself is said by insiders already to regret not allowing his brother, who is almost 12 years his junior, to remain at least as ‘Prince Andrew’, reflecting that he is the son and brother of a Queen and a King and the son of a Greek and Danish Prince.
‘The King remains of the view that Andrew is innocent until proven guilty and has yet to see evidence that he is [guilty],’ the source said. ‘The late Queen went to her grave believing in Andrew’s innocence in the Epstein scandal.
‘It doesn’t fit well with the King to have to treat Andrew as harshly as he has to in the circumstances.
‘William and Camilla take a harder line, which has caused a lot of family angst.’
Said to be plagued by feelings of doubt and guilt about his heavy-handed treatment of his sibling, the King has back-tracked on some sanctions – reinstating Andrew’s access to the royal stables at Windsor, for example.
The King is deeply involved in discussions about his brother’s future, particularly the subject of where he will live. Andrew, it is said, would prefer to make Wood Farm – which is more spacious than Marsh Farm and often used as a guest house for Sandringham visitors – his permanent home. But this has been ruled out as ‘inappropriate’ given Wood Farm’s all too recent royal connections.
He also, briefly, turned his attention to York Cottage, which is currently used as estate offices and holiday lets. Aside from its name – utterly inappropriate given his loss of the York title – that property was deemed by the Palace to be too large and costly.
Friends, in any case, say that whenever he moves, Andrew is unlikely to stay in Norfolk full time. There are suggestions he could even relocate to the Middle East, possibly Bahrain, where he has established business interests and where his daughters have been frequent visitors in recent years.
If Andrew is still taking time to come to terms with his future life as a commoner, then his former wife, Sarah Ferguson, appears to have been more decisive about the drastic changes required of her.
‘Sarah has largely sorted her own possessions and papers,’ says the source.
Box loads of her belongings – as well as clothes and items belonging to the couple’s daughters Beatrice and Eugenie – have been moved to the Cotswold home of Princess Beatrice, although it is not clear if Beatrice is merely storing the items or whether her 66-year-old mother will be moving full-time into the converted cow barn in her eldest daughter’s garden.
It’s understood that she and Andrew – known as ‘The Odd Couple’ by other members of the Royal Family – had hoped to stay on at Royal Lodge until the summer, giving them the chance to host one last knees-up in its extensive gardens.
Despite divorcing in May 1996, the pair have weathered recent storms by clinging together like a pair of shipwrecked sailors, even continuing to mark their wedding anniversary on July 23 each year with either a dinner or a party for friends.
This coming July will mark 40 years since the glorious summer day the pair walked down the aisle, watched by the great and the good packed inside Westminster Abbey, as well as millions of TV viewers across the globe. At the time they seemed to have the world at their feet.
The final flight from Royal Lodge will mark the end of an era, not to mention the start of an uncertain future – apart – in exile for the disgraced former Yorks.
What a difference four decades has made to ‘Andy and Fergie’, the handsome Falklands War hero and his extrovert bride.
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