Prince Andrew, 65, is said to be living in some kind of ‘arrested adolescence’ within the crumbling walls of his 30-room mansion, Royal Lodge, with ex-wife Sarah Ferguson
With his royal life lying in tatters, Prince Andrew has holed himself up at his crumbling home, Royal Lodge, amid ongoing public fury and attempts to evict him.
The 65-year-old is now living in what has been described as a “kind of arrested adolescence”, with his “lonely” lifestyle revolving around video games and golf.
His days are said to involve rising late before taking breakfast served by staff. After that, he spends much of the day in a large sitting room where a giant screen “takes up almost an entire wall”, playing video games or watching war films and golf coverage.
Andrew is said to wander through the rooms of his 30-room Windsor mansion with very little else to do, bar going out for a twice-weekly horse ride.
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A source told the Sun: “He loves games like Call of Duty, war games with helicopters. He certainly doesn’t play FIFA – he’s got no interest in football.”
The source also said that disgraced royal rarely leaves the estate except to ride or to shoot on nearby grounds. Even then, he is said to be nervous about being photographed.
“He’s not a particularly popular figure [at the stables],” said royal biographer Ingrid Seward, who added that local photographers often hang around near the park hoping for a picture.
Seward further said that a friend who visited Andrew’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson at Royal Lodge divulged that “Andrew was just lying there on a massive sofa watching TV on the biggest screen my friend had ever seen. It seemed to take up the whole of a wall.”
She added: “His life is very empty, he’s very lonely, and he’s probably extremely bored.”
On Monday, it was revealed that Andrew has not paid hardly any rent at Royal Lodge since moving into the property in 2003.
READ MORE: Outrage as Sarah Ferguson sold £4.2m property months before ‘demanding new royal home’
The news sparked outrage, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer subsequently announcing he will support an inquiry into Andrew’s deal with the Crown Estate.
It is now believed that he has been convinced to vacate the Lodge – and has requested to move into Frogmore Cottage instead.
New reports now suggest that Prince William threatened to remove the titles of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie unless they pressured their father to move out of Royal Lodge.
Emily Maitlis, the broadcaster who grilled Prince Andrew in his infamous Newsnight interview in 2019, claimed the Prince of Wales may have met with the princesses to give them the ultimatum last week.
Speaking on The News Agents podcast, Maitlis discussed the media circus that erupted outside Royal Lodge on Thursday night after journalists were tipped off about a possible development in the Andrew scandal.
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She said: “There was a question over whether there had been, earlier in the day, a meeting between Prince William and the princesses, Beatrice and Eugenie, saying you guys have to get your dad to move out of Royal Lodge otherwise we will start re-examining the state of your own titles.
“They are at the moment allowed to be princesses, but there was a bit of pressure, we understand, being put on the princesses to say this is going to happen. Obviously you can see why Andrew as a father would want to keep their daughters happy and keep their titles in place come what may.”
She continued: “What we learned about what was going to happen on Thursday was that Charles, fresh from the Vatican and his audience with the Pope, was going to come via Royal Lodge to be seen, in other words reading the riot act to his brother.”
She said journalists had earlier in the day been tipped off by the Palace that there ‘may be passing traffic’ outside Royal Lodge, but further details were unclear.
Maitlis added: “Nobody was going to film the conversation or see him stepping out the car but there was going to be the moment caught on camera of King Charles’s car heading to Royal Lodge.
“What happened, I understand, was that the Palace then got very nervous and when they saw the choppers and helicopters, they thought this has all got too big, this has got out of control, they cancelled the whole thing. The King just went straight home and never came by.”
