Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson are said to have finally agreed to leave Royal Lodge – but only if they get two alternative houses in return.
The royal, 65, has reportedly requested Frogmore Cottage in Windsor is handed over to him in exchange for his departure from the 30-room mansion, which is just down the road.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex‘s old residence in Home Park sits just under three miles away from Windsor Great Park.
Meanwhile, Fergie, 66, has apparently set her sights on nearby Adelaide Cottage, also in Home Park – the current residence of the Prince and Princess of Wales.
It comes as William and Kate are set to move with their three children to Forest Lodge – in Windsor Great Park and a stone’s throw from Royal Lodge – next month.
As exit talks over the duo’s entanglement in the Epstein sex scandal continue, a friend told The Sun: ‘No one is really sure how it’s going to go down at the Palace yet.’
Andrew’s brother King Charles has reportedly long wanted the ex-Duke and Duchess out of the Lodge, for which they have not paid rent in 20 years.
And it had, in fact, been hoped they would move to Frogmore Cottage, which was Harry and Meghan’s home from 2019 to 2023.
Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson (pictured together at the Duchess of Kent’s funeral last month) are said to have finally agreed to leave Royal Lodge – but only if they get two alternative houses in return
The royal, 65, has allegedly requested Frogmore Cottage in Windsor is handed over to him in exchange for his departure from the 30-room mansion (pictured), which is just down the road
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s old residence (pictured) in Home Park sits just under three miles away from Windsor Great Park
Neither demanded property would need renovation or further protection at the taxpayers’ expense as both lie within Windsor Castle’s security perimeter.
Discussions are ongoing as to how much rent Andrew and Fergie would be charged.
And it is unclear what would happen to Royal Lodge if the pair were to move out – though insiders think a new tenant is likely, to fund much-needed renovations.
Andrew, who has the lease until 2078, has struggled to afford to keep the property going – despite living there rent-free.
The friend said: ‘[Andrew] is realistic and knows the writing is on the wall and that his time at Royal Lodge is up.’
But it would mark an enormous move for the pair, who, despite their divorce in 1996, have lived together at Royal Lodge since 2008, when Fergie moved in.
A transfer to Frogmore and Adelaide, respectively, would see the duo part ways for the first time in nearly 20 years.
The friend added: ‘They have been under immense strain this year and need a break from one another. It’s a fresh start for both.’
The location of the properties, just around the corner from each other, would allow the pair to still see each other easily when they like, they said.
And though Frogmore would have been too small for them to live together, the source added, each house alone is big enough for their daughters and family to visit.
Other friends have also said Fergie feels she deserves a royal residence of her own.
The ex-Duchess has previously confessed to feeling the pinch after her divorce settlement, of between £600,000 and £800,000.
Princess Diana, by contrast, is said to have bagged £17million from her split from Charles in the same year.
But Adelaide would not offer her the palatial scale she is used to at Royal Lodge.
The Grade II-listed Georgian mansion, with its parkland setting, boasts 40 hectares – or around 60 football pitches’ worth – of grounds.
Past the gated, manned entry, it offers a drawing room, conservatory, seven bedrooms and a nearly 50ft long saloon.
Meanwhile, Fergie, 66, has set her sights on nearby Adelaide Cottage (pictured), also in Home Park – the current residence of the Prince and Princess of Wales
It comes as William and Kate are set to move with their three children to Forest Lodge (pictured) – in Windsor Great Park and a stone’s throw from Royal Lodge – next month
After a £7.5million renovation when Andrew took over the lease from his grandmother, the Queen Mother, it would fetch up to £30million on the market.
Adelaide, meanwhile, has been called a ‘modest’ family home, with four bedrooms.
It was overhauled in 2015, with Kate and William moving straight in three years ago.
But the work did not get rid of the property’s period charm, with golden dolphins and rope from a 19th-century royal yacht reportedly festooning the master bedroom.
The main reception room, meanwhile, would offer a Greco-Egyptian fireplace for Fergie to warm herself by on cold winter nights.
It has previously been the home of Group Captain Peter Townsend, who the late Queen’s sister Princess Margaret famously had an affair with.
The property would likely go for around £6million if put up for sale.
Frogmore is similarly cosy, with five bedrooms, four bathrooms and a nursery.
The Grade II-listed cottage, formed from two properties knocked into one, was given to the Sussexes in 2018 as a wedding present from the late Queen.
Harry and Meghan spent £2.4million of taxpayers’ money renovating it, with underfloor heating, a copper bath, barbecue and vegan paint, before paying it back.
The couple stepped down as working royals in 2020 and left the UK for California shortly after.
But they were reportedly kicked out of the property completely in 2023, after the Prince published his explosive memoir Spare.
The Palace previously said, in summer, there were ‘no immediate plans’ for anyone to move in.
The property would go likely go for around £5million if put on the market – or an eye-watering monthly rent of around £30,000.
It comes after Andrew was offered a palace to retreat to by Abu Dhabi’s ruler Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
But it is understood the ex-Duke does not wish to leave Britain, where his daughters and grandchildren live.
The Grade II-listed cottage, formed from two properties knocked into one, was given to the Sussexes (pictured after their wedding reception at Frogmore House in 2018) as a wedding present from the late Queen
Andrew has previously been offered a palace to retreat to by Abu Dhabi’s ruler Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (pictured with the Prince in 2010)
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson has previously declined to comment.
The row over Royal Lodge comes after Andrew last week agreed to give up all his remaining royal titles amid the ongoing controversy around his friendship with convicted paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died in jail in 2019.
He relinquished his dukedom, his membership of the Order of the Garter, the country’s most ancient order of chivalry, and his position as Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victoria Order.
But while Andrew remains a prince, as the son of the late Queen, his ex-wife is now just plain Sarah Ferguson.
The move saw the Palace go a step further after Andrew was stripped of his HRH title and made to step down from public duties in 2022.
It came after an excruciating week of headlines for the Royal Family, with damning new revelations in a new posthumous memoir from Andrew’s sex abuse accuser Virginia Giuffre, who took her own life this year, aged 41.
Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice is scheduled for release in October, with the manuscript finished before she died.
The explosive book revolves around her years spent as a sex slave to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein and his British madam Ghislaine Maxwell.
Extracts published by The Guardian show Ms Giuffre, who said she was trafficked by Epstein three times for sex with Andrew, calls the ex-Duke ‘entitled’ and viewing sex as his ‘birthright’.
Within the 400-page autobiography, she also claims the ex-Duke said ‘thank you’ in a ‘clipped British accent’ after their alleged first encounter when she was 17.
She also recalls how Ghislaine Maxwell heaped praise on her after the encounter, saying, ‘You did well, the Prince had fun’.
Prince Andrew denied having sex with Ms Giuffre, but forked out millions in an out of court settlement in February 2022.
The Royal Family had been prepared for the further scandal the book would likely cause, knowing it was to be published this month.
But a kind of tipping point came when scandalous emails from Andrew to Epstein were uncovered by the Mail on Sunday in a world exclusive last week – causing fears more are yet to emerge.
In the astonishing message, the Prince told the paedophile ‘we are in this together’ a day after the MoS released the infamous picture of the Prince with his alleged then-teenage sex victim Ms Giuffre.
He said he was ‘concerned’ about the impact this newspaper’s revelations would have on his friend but reassured the vile billionaire they would ‘rise above’ press scrutiny.
It was sent to Epstein 12 weeks after Andrew had supposedly ceased all contact with the convicted sex offender.
The row over Royal Lodge comes after Andrew last week agreed to give up all his remaining royal titles (pictured, his statement) amid the ongoing controversy around his friendship with convicted paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died in jail in 2019
The leaked email provides definitive proof the Prince lied in his car-crash interview with BBC’s Newsnight when he claimed he ‘never had any contact’ with Epstein after the pair were famously pictured walking together in New York’s Central Park in December 2010.
The revelation comes just weeks after the MoS exposed how the former Duchess of York wrote Epstein a gushing message calling him her ‘supreme friend’ – despite telling journalists she would never have anything to do with him again.
Writing to Epstein on February 28, 2011 – the day after the MoS published the now infamous picture of him with a teenage Virginia Giuffre that led to his downfall – Andrew said: ‘I’m just as concerned for you! Don’t worry about me!
‘It would seem we are in this together and will have to rise above it.
‘Otherwise keep in close touch and we’ll play some more soon!!!!’
Andrew signed off with: ‘A, HRH The Duke of York, KG’.
KG refers to Duke’s ‘Knight of the Garter’ – a prestigious position he has held since 2006 and which he retained until it was removed on Friday.
The hugely embarrassing email heaped further pressure on the Royal Family to sever all ties with the disgraced ex-Yorks and raised fresh questions about their future at Royal Lodge.
And internal talks on the matter began weeks ago after Prince William was left ‘seething’ by his uncle’s behaviour at the Duchess of Kent’s funeral last month.
Andrew was pictured sidling up to the Prince and Princess of Wales, which the heir to the throne saw as him being distracted from the ceremony.
No 10 has also reportedly been pressuring the royals to deal with the scandal, which has run on for years and saw Andrew step back from public life in 2019.
The intervention from Downing Street came after the Prince was entangled in the ongoing Chinese spying row.
He was suspected of receiving sensitive information after meeting senior Beijing official Cai Qi at least three times in 2018 and 2019.
After Andrew and his ex-wife agreed to relinquish their titles, Buckingham Palace released a statement on the Prince’s behalf.
It marked the first time it had spoken for him since his car crash Newsnight interview in 2019.
The statement read: ‘In discussion with The King, and my immediate and wider family, we have concluded the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Family.
‘I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first. I stand by my decision five years ago to stand back from public life.
‘With His Majesty’s agreement, we feel I must now go a step further.
‘I will therefore no longer use my title or the honours which have been conferred upon me. As I have said previously, I vigorously deny the accusations against me.’
