Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, previously generally known as Prince Andrew, made cash subletting cottages at his royal residence, the place he lived rent-free for twenty years, in response to a report on the Royal Household’s properties launched by the U.Ok. public spending watchdog on Friday.
The Nationwide Audit Workplace report stated the previous prince had acquired revenue from renting out three cottages on the Royal Lodge property, “with revenue generated payable to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor,” his dwelling close to Windsor Fortress.
“These properties have been vacant since April 2026,” it added.
It additionally stated his daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, reside in rent-controlled properties, owned by the Crown, and paid for by their uncle, King Charles III.
The rents on Eugenie’s cottage on the grounds of Kensington Palace in London and Beatrice’s dwelling at St. James’s Palace, additionally in London, are set at a portion of the open-market worth, which may differ considerably, the audit says. In each situations, rents are paid out of the Privy Purse, the King’s non-public funds.
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The princesses will not be thought of “working” royals with public duties, and each work different jobs.
Eugenie is a director on the London department of the worldwide artwork gallery Hauser & Wirth. Beatrice is the vice-president of partnerships and technique on the U.S. software program and information analytics agency Afiniti.
A lease for Royal Lodge, signed in 2003, reveals Mountbatten-Windsor paid solely a nominal charge, generally known as a “peppercorn lease,” for the property, which included a 30-room mansion and eight cottages, three of which he was allowed to sublet.
The report reveals that 11 royals are granted free housing on palace properties in change for his or her public duties, together with King Charles and Queen Camilla, Prince William and his spouse Catherine, in addition to the king’s youngest brother, Prince Edward, and his spouse Sophie.
William and Catherine even have a household dwelling close to Windsor, for which they pay 307,200 kilos (about CAD $571,000) a yr, The Related Press reported.
A police officer walks previous the gate of the Royal Lodge in Windsor on Feb. 19, 2026, after the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor by British police on suspicion of misconduct in public workplace.
AP Photograph/Alberto Pezzali
The quantity the previous prince produced from the rental properties was not disclosed within the report, an omission famous by Margaret Hodge, a Labour member of the Home of Lords, as a trigger for concern.
“It’s stunning that the Nationwide Audit Workplace was not capable of set up how a lot cash Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor secured from the properties he let,” she stated.
The audit was carried out on the request of lawmakers after Mountbatten-Windsor was stripped of his royal titles and compelled to vacate his dwelling amid revelations about his alleged ties to the late convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Mountbatten-Windsor moved earlier this yr to the Sandringham property, a royal residence in jap England.
He was arrested and questioned by police in February over allegations of misconduct in public workplace.
Whereas Mountbatten-Windsor has persistently denied any wrongdoing in connection along with his ties with Epstein and has not been charged, considerations about his hyperlinks to the disgraced financier have dogged the Royal Household for greater than a decade.
Buckingham Palace stated the audit workplace report “is in keeping with the royal family’s dedication to transparency. We hope that the findings will assist appropriate, make clear or contextualize various factors concerning royal properties.”
— with information from The Related Press
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