As the removal vans roll in, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is leaving behind his Windsor mansion in the coming weeks after 22 years.
He has shared the property with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson since 2008 and its walls will echo with memories of quality time with their children and more recently their grandchildren.
Having finally agreed to leave Royal Lodge, he is faced with packing up a lifetime of belongings to move out with the help of staff after months of dragging his heels.
But the disgraced former Duke of York is said to now begrudgingly ‘accept’ he must move out – in fact he is not dreading everything about his Sandringham exile, a royal insider has said.
Andrew was never keen on moving to Marsh Farm but has been described by one source as being ‘sanguine’ as long as he has Sky TV, fast broadband and access to horses and a good local golf club.
Whereas Sarah Ferguson is said to be ‘beside herself’ about being kicked out of Royal Lodge, sparking increasing fears with their daughters and amongst their ‘dwindling’ group of friends.
Andrew’s new life in Sandringham, apart from the absence of his ex-wife and a new postcode, will not change a great deal because he apparently spends most of his time lounging at home in front of the television.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor still enjoys riding, pictured in the torrential rain close to Royal Lodge, but is said to spend more time watching TV or playing video games
A removal lorry leaves Andrew’s Royal Lodge in Windsor this week
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor drives to Windsor Castle earlier this month
The Duke and Duchess of York are divorced but have lived together for years and remain very close to their daughters
Although the Daily Mail’s Barbara Davies has revealed that Marsh Farm will not house his infamous collection of 72 teddies, which reportedly had to be lined up by a servant in size order every morning.
Many of his expensive possessions, such as guns, will also not come with him after he quietly surrendered his gun licence in November at the request of Metropolitan Police firearm officers.
Andrew is decluttering, she says, because Marsh Farm only has five bedrooms.
The King will provide a cleaner, a groundsman and a cook from Sandringham to look after Andrew’s needs on an ad hoc basis.
And Andrew may even see more of his brother Charles, who is known to feel a deep sense of duty towards his younger brother despite the shame he has brought on the family.
‘Charles and others will visit him privately when he is living on the Sandringham estate’, the source said, adding: ‘Although Beatrice and Eugenie didn’t spend Christmas with Andrew and Fergie, I’m told they remain supportive’.
They went on: ‘It’s a longer journey to Sandringham for the grandchildren than Windsor is, and Fergie not being with him in Norfolk may mean their visits are fewer. But I think family support is going to be crucial for him’.
The insider added: ‘It’s clearly a huge humiliation and a big change in their lives but I think Andrew is more sanguine about – some of his critics say slow to grasp – the position in which he finds himself’.
It came after The Mail on Sunday said that Princess Eugenie has cut off all contact with her disgraced father in the wake of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
The MoS source said that far from being supportive, she is refusing to speak to Andrew.
The former prince is said to have become rather a ‘couch potato’ in his mid-sixties, a far cry from his partying and jetsetting in his thirties and forties.
Dinners and nights out in Mayfair have been replaced by meals for one at home.
A team of engineers employed by Sky TV to support VIP customers was spotted installing satellite TV and broadband at his new residence, Marsh Farm, just this week.
These engineers are only used on the most exclusive and challenging jobs, often on large properties that require challenging installations where ropes might be needed due to the height.
The VIP team also help set up sophisticated Wi-Fi networks and ultra-secure cloud-based systems, which might be needed by celebrities, royals or high-profile customers.
For telly addict Andrew, months of being holed up at Windsor’s Royal Lodge has had the advantage of allowing him to spend even more time watching golf and war movies.
The super-fast broadband being installed at Marsh Farm will also help with his other rumoured passion: video games. He is said to have a soft spot for Call of Duty and flight simulators. In his isolation he is also believed to love watching airport clips on YouTube.
When his bank of TV screens are switched off, Andrew loves to settle down with a new crime novel or thriller, unless he is re-reading his favourite book The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith.
‘Friends have said he spends a good deal of time watching videos of planes landing and taking off. Inevitably, he spends quite a lot of time watching golf on TV’, the source said.
Andrew has lived at the Royal Lodge in Windsor since 2003
Marsh Farm on the Sandringham Estate on Thursday, which is believed to be Andrew’s next home after a short stay in temporary accommodation
A removals van arrived at his Windsor home on Thursday morning as the disgraced ex-prince prepares to leave the mansion.
The former Duke of York is expected to move into a temporary property on the King’s Sandringham estate in Norfolk at some point over the coming fortnight.
Andrew is set to stay at that property until Easter, when renovation works on Marsh Farm – anticipated to be his new home on the estate – are scheduled to be finished.
Photographs taken outside Royal Lodge on Thursday also appeared to show Andrew leaving in a Range Rover, before the van was also seen leaving in the afternoon.
Marsh Farm, which will require a great deal of improvement, is also having a new security fence installed.
Last month the no-fly zone over parts of Sandringham was extended to include Marsh Farm. CCTV is going in along with other security features.
Andrew will hope that his two daughters will visit as regularly as possible with his grandchildren, although it will be harder for his children to do so because Beatrice lives in Oxfordshire and Eugenie at Kensington Palace.
The royal insider has said work to upgrade the security and tech at Marsh Farm is part of what his brother King Charles considers his duty care for his exiled brother, despite his anger with him over the Epstein scandal.
But the source added that his sociable ex-wife Sarah Ferguson is really struggling.
It is not yet clear where she will move to, but she is said to have the offer of a home at Beatrice’s house as well as Eugenie’s property in Portugal.
‘Sarah is beside herself’, the source claimed.
‘In some respects both feel they have suffered disproportionately because of their friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
‘They accept they made a serious mistake but they see others who continued their friendships for longer with Epstein who haven’t suffered anything like the same consequences.
‘But they do realise they have to get on with dealing with the fallout now’.
A Sky engineer up a ladder against the wall of Marsh Farm where Andrew is expected to move. The former Duke of York is said to enjoy watching the golf on TV
A workman measures up for the installation of new security lights on one of the red brick walls
A solid six-foot high wooden fence has sprung up around parts of the perimeter
Andrew is unlikely to receive a penny of compensation upon leaving Royal Lodge in Windsor, despite the potential of getting around £488,000 back for an early surrender of his 75-year lease.
After disgraced Andrew was stripped of all his titles, the Daily Mail learned he was playing hardball with his brother about the move, even though Charles was said to be paying for it instead of the taxpayer.
Andrew also wants the right to roam outside, rather than being confined to quarters as he has been for months in Windsor.
The vast Sandringham estate, which runs for miles all the way to the Norfolk coast, should mean that his recent need to be smuggled out of Royal Lodge three to four times a week to ride horses could be a thing of the past.
A membership of a local golf club will also be essential, with the area of Norfolk he is moving to boasting a number of wonderful courses.
Charles is said to have a ‘weakness’ for Andrew and he is worried about his brother after being cooped up for months.
‘I gather Andrew and Fergie are both feeling the strain. Their family and friends are worried and the King does feel he has a duty of care to his brother’, another source said late last year.
Marsh Farm is getting a revamp with workers installing Sky TV and a new security fence while Andrew leaves Royal Lodge before his 66th birthday next month.
Sky engineers were spotted up ladders this week outside the property in Wolferton, just two miles away from Charles’s Sandringham home.
A six-foot wooden privacy fence has also sprung up, replacing the wire mesh previously on the perimeter.
Insiders have said Marsh Farm needed a lot of work to ‘make it habitable’.
Workers have also been spotted using a JCB digger and installing security lights on the walls.
King Charles believes his brother can’t cope without a life of luxury so will pay to support him at Sandringham, with servants, and to keep him quiet, Tina Brown and others have claimed
Sarah Ferguson is said to be struggling more with their Epstein exile than her ex-husband
A local security firm’s van was parked on the driveway, and team of at least six people have been toiling through the cold and the rain all this week.
Before his defenestration and exile inside Royal Lodge, Andrew loved his riding and shooting parties. He was playing golf regularly in the Ascot area.
Friends talked about having lunch with him in the West End – Harry’s Bar in Mayfair was one place where he has been spotted – or at swanky places in the Windsor area.
One of his favourite haunts for lunch was Coworth Park, the luxury 5-star hotel.
But in recent years Andrew has also become a homebird, exacerbated by the Epstein scandal and his exile.
‘He and Fergie still have a small band of loyal friends but the number is dwindling. The phone has stopped ringing regularly. More than one society hostess has said Andrew and Fergie are no longer welcome at gatherings’, the Daily Mail’s source said.
And as his group of friends has shrunk, he has needed to entertain himself.
A source told The Sun last year: ‘He loves games like Call of Duty, war games with helicopters. He certainly doesn’t play FIFA, he’s got no interest in football. He really enjoys war films’.
A friend told the Daily Telegraph that he is a ‘couch potato’, adding: ‘He does watch a lot of TV’.
‘What’s he going to do with the rest of his life? It’s a very interesting question, and I don’t think anyone has the answers’, another source said.
But Andrew no longer really dines out either and nights out at clubs in London are a thing of the past, meaning that a quieter life in Norfolk won’t make a huge amount of difference to him.
The King does spend periods of the year at Sandringham – and while Andrew will not been seen at royal events, Charles will see his brother privately from time to time, it is claimed.
Sandringham is a huge estate and it will allow him more freedom, although he will be seen out and about, likely on a horse or driving in his Range Rover.
‘The palace will argue he is a private citizen entitled to privacy but there is public access to large parts of the estate. So I think Andrew will be spotted quite regularly’, the insider added.
Andrew’s life watching TV at home in his mid-sixties is quite a contrast from the partying days of his youth.
Anthony Holden, the first biographer of the now King Charles, said of him: ‘Dull. Thick. Couch potato. Pro-am golf and Stallone videos, yawn, yawn. This is the message now coming from Sarah’s camp about the man she once adored … Fergie thought she was marrying Warren Beatty but found herself hitched to Mr Blobby with all the conversational sparkle of Nigel Mansell.’
When the couple were married Fergie would have up to 20 guests staying each weekend, with her food and booze bill said to be at least £40,000-a-year.
But Andrew was not keen.
‘You’d hardly ever see the Duke except for the occasional meal. He obviously hated having any guests at all but it kept her happy’, one guest at the dinners told Andrew’s biographer Andrew Lownie.
Princess Beatrice’s first boyfriend, Paolo Liuzzo, said they mainly discussed ‘golf and helicopters’, adding: ‘The other topic he talked about was Bea’s driving lessons. One evening he got out a manual and was telling her how to enter and yield at roundabouts. It went on for a bl***y hour.’
Mr Lownie’s book Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York was the bombshell royal biography of last year, serialised in the Daily Mail.
He said of Andrew’s life: ‘His protection officers were called on to collect his golf balls after he had driven them down the fairway and maids summoned from four floors below to open the curtains beside him.
‘He once called a television technician at night to show him how to work the remote control on a TV set at Sunninghill. Wendy Berry, the housekeeper at Highgrove whose son worked at Buckingham Palace, noted that for the duke, staff were basically invisible, “there to serve and not to question his actions”.’
Mr Lownie said of his life today: ‘In most practical senses, Andrew’s life has changed little – he already spent most of his time at home. Ask those who know him about his hobbies, and they will say the same words on repeat, unchanging through the years. There’s golf; shooting; riding; hours of television; school-dinner-style puddings; the military; and the newer and admittedly niche “watching videos of aeroplanes landing”.’
So in many ways, his new life in Sandringham with his Sky TV, broadband, and chef at home surrounded by a huge estate for riding and shooting, will suit him down to the ground.
