Scandalous prince could lose both titles and home
Jenny Alexandersson
Revealing documents, a scandalous book and rape allegations - Prince Andrew was forced to renounce his titles.
Now the British are demanding that he leave the royal estate.
- He has lived like a prince at the taxpayers' expense, says Lisa Smart, the Liberal Party's spokesperson in parliament, to ITV.
The British are furious and politicians want to see a change in the law.
- The prince is embarrassing the king and his behavior goes against all British values, says Lisa Smart to the TV channel.
More and more people are questioning whether Prince Andrew should be allowed to stay in the royal estate Royal Lodge. It is a large white villa with 30 rooms that he shares with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.
According to the Times, Andrew paid a large sum of money when he got the lease on Royal Lodge in 2003. But the rent is minimal.
– He has a lease, but only pays a symbolic amount – usually one pound – so that you can say that he is actually paying for the house, says property expert and broker Henry Sherwood to the Daily Mail.
Receives millions if the contract is terminated
According to British media, King Charles has been trying to persuade his little brother to move to a smaller property for several years. But Andrew has refused, his lease extends until 2078. If the state breaks it, they will have to pay 558,000 pounds to the prince.
– It looks like Prince Andrew secured a very secure deal in 2003 and it will be very difficult to kick him out. Unless there is enormous public pressure, says royal expert Chris Ship to ITV.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer tells the Daily Mail that he will support a review into how and why the prince has lived rent-free in Royal Lodge for more than two decades.
As for the princely title, several politicians want to change the law so that King Charles has the right to strip Andrew of his princely title altogether.
The fact that he renounced his titles last week does not mean that they are gone - he is just stopping using them. The title Duke of York is dormant and could be given to someone else in the royal family in the future.
It is the first time in over 100 years that a senior member of the royal family has stopped using a ducal title. The last time it happened was when Queen Victoria's grandson, the Duke of Albany, was stripped of his title in 1917 for fighting on the side of the Germans during World War I.
Sharing terrible experiences with the prince
The reason the prince renounced his titles has several reasons. The US Congressional Oversight Committee recently released additional documents about convicted pedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. Several of them mention Prince Andrew. On Tuesday, Virginia Giuffre's memoirs were also published in which she shared terrible experiences with Epstein and the British prince.
The pressure from King Charles and the rest of the royal family to force Andrew to renounce his titles is said to have been very great.
Andrew was banned from representing the country and the royal family back in 2019. At that time, he was caught lying after trying to clear his name in a controversial interview with the BBC.
But the prince has continued to appear at some official events. At the Duchess of Kent's funeral in September, he was seen maneuvering his way to the front row outside the church gates to stand close to King Charles and Prince William - who looked embarrassed.
"Will soon play with each other again"
The previously secret documents about Epstein reveal that Prince Andrew had lied about his friendship with the billionaire. Outwardly, he condemned Epstein, but privately they continued to have contact.
In an email to Epstein on February 28, 2011, he wrote to his friend that they would both rise above it (the allegations) and that they would “keep in close contact and soon play a little with each other again”.
The prince also emailed Queen Elizabeth’s press secretary and announced that he had given his bodyguard information about Virginia Giuffre, the woman who accused him of rape. This included her date of birth, social security number and that he believed she had a criminal record in the United States. It was probably an attempt to smear her.
The police are now investigating whether Andrew misused his taxpayer-paid security guards to spy on Giuffre, writes the Daily Mail.
– We are aware of the media reports and are actively investigating the allegations, a police spokesman told the newspaper.
The police are investigating the allegations
Virginia's relatives have reacted strongly to the information. They say in a statement: "This reveals the methods those involved are prepared to use to discredit and slander survivors".
The family has also requested an investigation into how Andrew obtained Virginia's private information.
In Giuffre's memoir, which will be published posthumously after Virginia's tragic suicide this spring, she talks about her meetings with the prince.
The first time she was forced to have sex with Andrew, Epstein's friend Gishlaine Maxwell said that Virginia, just like Cinderella, would soon meet a real prince. The mission was to do the same thing for him as she did for Epstein.
Virginia said that the sex act itself lasted less than half an hour and that the prince politely said thank you and left her $15,000.
Had a miscarriage after the sex orgy
Another traumatic experience from the book is about a miscarriage. Virginia and eight other girls had a sex orgy with the prince on Epstein's Caribbean island of Little St James. She did not know she was pregnant and four days later Virginia suffered severe pain and was admitted to hospital.
She does not claim that the child was the prince's, but writes that none of the men who exploited her used condoms.
Sometimes Epstein put a dog collar on her. He and several other men raped her and abused her so horribly that she thought she would die.
Non-disclosure agreement to protect the queen
She also says that she signed a non-disclosure agreement in which she was forbidden to reveal anything about the events with Prince Andrew in 2022 when Queen Elizabeth celebrated her platinum jubilee.
Mirror royal expert Kevin Maguire says the British monarchy is rotten and that it is clear that the royal family puts its own interests first and does everything to protect this system.
– People are furious. He may not be a duke anymore, but he still lives like a prince, says author Ingrid Seward, who has written several books about the royal family.
She believes it is time for the king to kick his brother out of the fancy 30-room villa Royal Lodge.
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