BEHIND the towering gates of his palatial Windsor home, disgraced Prince Andrew cuts a ghostly figure – whiling away the hours playing video games, clinging to the piles of teddies in his bedroom.
The 65-year-old’s continued residence at the sprawling Royal Lodge has sparked outrage this week, with revelations that he has not paid rent for decades further fuelling calls to kick him out over links to paedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein.
Extraordinary details of the royal’s 75-year cut-price lease were revealed by The Sun, as it emerged Andrew has only been required to pay water bills “from time to time” – while thousands of hard-up Brits see rates rocket.
The growing scandal comes on the week his sex accuser Virginia Giuffre – whose claims he has always denied – published her posthumous memoir, and follows the bombshell announcement that he will relinquish his Duke of York title.
With his reputation in tatters, the Royal Lodge is viewed in many quarters as the prince’s last status symbol, though details of his life there with ex-wife Sarah Ferguson have remained shrouded in mystery.
However, now insiders have revealed to The Sun how – following the death of his beloved mother, the late Queen – he spends large portions of his day like a bored teenager, sitting in front of a wall-to-wall television playing video games.
A source says: “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 and watching golf on TV.”
Opening up on his day-to-day routine, insiders explain Andrew rises in the late morning from his bed, surrounded by dozens of teddy bears, in the master suite – one of seven bedrooms over two floors of the vast home, where he has lived since 2004.
After bathing and dressing for the day in country casuals, he descends the oak staircase to the grand entrance hall – big enough to host his daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie’s wedding receptions.
The hall – with its intricate intricate wooden ceiling and tapestries hanging on the walls – leads to a large drawing room, known as the ‘formal room’.
A more comfortable family room, which has never been seen by the public, leads to a saloon and conservatory.
After breakfast, served by one of his staff, Andrew spends most of the day watching TV and playing video games on a giant television screen, which almost covers one wall.
Royal author Ingrid Seward revealed: “A friend of mine went there to have a meeting with Fergie.
“The door was opened by a butler, and they went into a very grand reception room, which was hung with beautiful paintings from the royal collection and there were fine carpets and furniture.
“He and Fergie sat at a huge mahogany table. The butler served hot drinks but there was no sign of Andrew at all.
“But as he was about to leave, Fergie said she ‘you must meet Andrew’.
“The prince was in a huge sitting room and 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.
“It seemed to him that their lives were quite separate. She was carrying on with the business of doing business and he was watching television.
“His life is very empty, he’s very lonely and I think he’s probably extremely bored.
“I remember Fergie telling me way back that Andrew always loved video games and he’s an aficionado of television.”
Lonely outings
Last week, as the Epstein scandal hit the headlines again, Andrew cancelled a party at Royal Lodge to mark Fergie’s 66th birthday.
A source also reveals how, earlier this year, he turned up at a marquee during a cricket game between a King’s XI and a team representing the Sultan of Brunei, but people who were there said ‘the prince was a bore’.
Royal watcher Ingrid said: “Andrew has always had very few friends and as we know he’s not a very good picker of his friends.
“His friends were Fergie’s friends. It was her that brought life into their social world.”
Twice a week Andrew goes riding and heads to the Royal Mews, where the King’s horses are kept at Windsor.
Ingrid said: “I don’t think he’s a particularly popular figure there. The staff will have a horse waiting there for him to be ridden. With one of the grooms at his side, he rides round the Windsor estate.
“But I know he’s very wary of being photographed and there are always the local Windsor photographers hanging around hoping to get a picture of him.
“He’s not a great walker despite playing on the private nine-hole Windsor golf course.”
She adds: “At least when his mother was still alive, he had a reason to go out during the day to take tea or lunch with the Queen. And in her declining years she’d get great comfort from Andrew’s presence.
Luxury abode
Arched panels feature throughout the Royal Lodge, which reflect arched windows with views on to the vast 98-acre grounds. These include a gardener’s cottage, six lodge cottages and police security accommodation.
The grounds also include a miniature cottage called Y Bwthyn Bach, a gift to Princess Elizabeth as a child from the people of Wales in 1932.
Outside, there’s a patio area with a wooden dining table and two benches and a swing, which has been engraved with Eugenie’s name.
One of few glimpses inside the property, which has an indoor pool, show a young Princess Margaret and her then-fiancé Anthony Armstrong-Jones pictured in the lodge’s first-floor formal room in 1960.
I remember Fergie telling me way back that Andrew always loved video games and he’s an aficionado of television
Ingrid Seward
Pictures worth thousands adorn the walls, while a massive Persian rug covers the floor. The blue-green painted walls feature arches and are topped with family shields and crests.
Ingrid adds: “Royal Lodge is a very big house to upkeep and it’s a big house to live in and they have a lot of staff.
“They have a butler and cook, plus someone who serves the food.”
The mansion, which has been there since the 1600s, was the Queen Mother’s country residence for half a century until her death in 2002, aged 101.
After the passing, Prince Andrew approached the Crown Estates to take over the house and spent £7.5million on renovations before moving in a year or so later.
It’s thought the Royal Lodge was then partly restored in 2012 under a plan managed by Princess Beatrice, as part of the Queen’s diamond jubilee.
Andrew has a 75-year lease with the Crown Estate and his moving in was on condition of making a £1million down payment and paying for repairs. He has been paying a peppercorn rent for more than 20 years.
It is understood that the Crown Estate would like to get Andrew out of the Royal Lodge, because it would free up a large house that could be let at a commercial rent.
The six cottages, currently used by personal protection officers, could also be rented out.
Ingrid adds: “Andrew is under pressure to leave such a grand residence because he’s no longer anything really to do with the Royal Family, except by being royal by blood.
“I think that he should put all his titles in abeyance – not just his titles he already has already agreed to stop using.
“He should put his ‘Prince’ title in abeyance. It doesn’t stop him being a prince, but he doesn’t have to use it.
“Andrew could use his Mountbatten-Windsor surname, which is something he was given at birth, and he was the first of the Queen’s children to hold that name.
“It’s something his father, Prince Philip, was very proud of because he fought to have his name Mountbatten included with the Windsor.
“Personally, I think the only future available to Andrew is for him to go and live away from Windsor and start a new life, somewhere that he can’t be extradited to America.
“Otherwise, he’s just stuck in a rut where every day will be the same and he will be pilloried at every turn.”
