Surprise, Prince Andrew is having a great time. He’s not living in disgrace, ignored and lonely in some Norfolk shack. He’s living in a completely refurbished cottage on the Sandringham estate, and he’s got private security and a full household staff, all of which is paid for by his brother. King Charles is also giving Andrew £1 million a year as a “stipend.” It turns out that when Andrew finally agreed to leave Royal Lodge earlier this year, it was only because Charles finally agreed to quietly buy him out of his lease too. So, Andrew has millions in the bank, his entire lavish lifestyle is being financed by the king, and Andrew is still welcome in elite circles too. All of this is the focus of a new Times piece, which Tom Sykes discussed on his Substack:

The former Prince Andrew is having “a very nice time” in Norfolk, where he is hanging out with “chums,” visiting friends, shooting and generally enjoying the delights of an Edwardian gentleman’s social life, all of it funded by a generous £1 million-plus per annum allowance from the King’s own pocket, although his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, ak “the red setter”, has fallen out of favor and has been banned from visiting him, according to a rash of reports in British newspapers Wednesday morning.

The portrait of Andrew’s Norfolk idyll comes from Kate Mansey, assistant editor of The Times. For months, she writes, the speculation was that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was idling away his days in misery in front of the television and flight tracking apps, having been ordered out of palatial Royal Lodge and into the far more modest Marsh Farm on the Sandringham estate. But now, those familiar with his lifestyle say it is much jollier than that. “He’s having a very nice time, thank you very much,” one well-placed source tells her. He goes out. He goes shooting with friends. The “old guard,” as the paper has it, has rallied round and is very loyal to him. He is, we learn, no longer sitting around feeling sorry for himself.

There are no travel restrictions on him while he remains under police investigation, Mansey reports, but those who know him say he has not been abroad, nor taken up the hospitality previously offered by wealthy foreign friends. Why would he? Norfolk is lovely at this time of year.

The one person not invited is Sarah Ferguson, who went on living with Andrew long after their divorce in 1996 and has now returned to the UK, where she is keeping a low profile. A source tells The Times that “the red setter,” as she is apparently known, is persona non grata at Marsh Farm. What she has done to be exiled from the exile is unclear, although the paper notes that documents released in the US appear to show it was Ferguson who introduced Andrew to Jeffrey Epstein.

All of which has prompted a good deal of renewed interest in a simple question: how is Andrew funding his life? The answer was casually dropped into a story in The Times this week, almost as an afterthought. Andrew is “understood” (code for “the press office told us”) to be receiving in excess of £1 million a year from the King’s private funds, enough to pay for round-the-clock security, a valet, a chef and whatever else he wants in his personal life. He does not have to seek the King’s approval for how he spends it. Mansey’s piece today describes a generous ongoing stipend covering his security detail, his other staff and however he chooses to fill his considerable leisure hours. Bear in mind that, as a gift from one royal brother to another, this is probably tax-free. And bear in mind the wording: in excess of. A million pounds is the floor, not the ceiling. For all we know, it could be two.

There is, we are told, precisely one string attached. Andrew may spend the allowance as he chooses, The Times reports, provided it is not on his latest legal battle. But predictably there is no way of enforcing this one modest condition, what with money being fungible and all.

[From The Royalist Substack]

I’ve always believed that Andrew has lived like this? I never bought the storyline that he was depressed or licking his wounds or that he ever felt like he was living in disgrace. It was clear as soon as he moved to Norfolk that Andrew and King Charles had come to a gentlemen’s agreement about who pays for what and how much. The palace has pushed the storyline, this whole time, that Andrew is embattled or distraught and it was always a PR fiction to justify Charles handling Andrew gently and generously. And as always, compare this with how Charles treats his younger son.

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