The disgraced royal is haggling over leaving Royal Lodge and has a list of what he wantsSally McLean Head of Lifestyle, Trends and Showbiz and Emma Mackenzie
09:35, 02 Dec 2025
The King has stripped Andrew of his royal titles and he is to move from Royal Lodge next year (Image: ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty)
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is said to be negotiating hard over his move to a new home after King Charles effectively ‘evicted’ him from Royal Lodge. The former prince is reportedly haggling over the number of staff he will get and even the size of his new house.
After being stripped of all royal titles amid the controversy surrounding his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Andrew, 65, is preparing to vacate his current 30-room mansion near Windsor Castle for a move to a smaller premises on the King’s Sandringham estate.
His ex wife, Sarah Ferguson is also moving out. But before the move, which was initially expected to happen in the New Year but is now thought to have been pushed back until February, Andrew is setting out what he requires.
MailOnline reported that he wants to make sure he has what he feels is the appropriate amount of staff to cater to his needs in his new home. And this apparently includes requests for a cook and a housekeeper, as well as gardeners and a butler, reports The Mirror.
New reports in the Royalist newsletter, by royal expert Tom Sykes, echo these sentiments, alleging Andrew is after a wide range of staff and that he is “demanding a substantial six or seven bedroom house on the Sandringham Estate” as well as a “driver and police security”.
A former royal courtier was quoted by Sykes as saying: “Knowing Andrew, this was always going to be about money. Andrew is essentially being bought out of the lease, so he will haggle over every last detail of the deal.”
The move from Royal Lodge came after the King took heed of public outcry over Andrew paying only a ‘peppercorn’ rent for the Grade II listed home. He was, however, responsible for upkeep and repairs on the extensive home, which he shared for many years with his ex-wife, Fergie.
It is understood the pair will be going their separate ways and Fergie is said to be relying on one of their daughters to accommodate her after her own fall from grace.
Princess Beatrice has a converted “cattle shed” in her Cotswold home that could be an option, with an alternative reportedly being a suite in Princess Eugenie’s lavish home in Portugal, which is in a glamorous neighbourhood often dubbed the ‘Hamptons of Europe’ and is home to A-listers like Madonna.
King Charles owns the Sandringham Estate privately, but with the vast 20,000 acres in Norfolk boasting around 150 properties, it is not yet clear which one Andrew will be calling his.
Andrew will leave the Royal Lodge and Sarah is being forced out too (Image: Getty Images)
Andrew has firmly and consistently denied the allegations of sexual assault levied against him by Virginia Giuffre, an alleged victim of Epstein’s, but ahead of the release of his accuser’s posthumous memoir, Nobody’s Girl, the claims she made were brought back into the spotlight.
It led to Andrew being asked to leave Royal Lodge by his brother and, although the King had no way of forcing him out thanks to an often dubbed ‘iron-clad’ lease, Andrew did agree of his own accord.
Andrew Lownie, who wrote an explosive biography about Andrew and Sarah called ‘Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York’, told the Mirror that Andrew “had a very strong lease,” and that the former prince “had put £8.5million into this house which he expected to have for his children until 2078, so you know just to be fair to him this what happens when you take out long-leases, you know get some benefits from it, so I don’t think we can quibble about that.”
The MailOnline also reported that Andrew wants to ensure his right to move around the estate freely, instead of being trapped within the bounds of whichever property he agrees to take.