In January of this year, Robert Hardman released his palace-approved book, Charles III: New King. New Court. The Inside Story. Hardman had a lot of tedious royal gossip, straight from the horse’s mouth (IYKYK). Hilariously, the biggest headline from the book was Hardman initially claiming that Queen Elizabeth II was “furious” and “very angry” that Prince Harry and Meghan named their daughter Lilibet, which was QEII’s family nickname. For a full week or longer, royal commentators lined up to describe QEII’s fury over a baby’s name… only for Hardman to walk it back quickly, because he inadvertently made QEII sound like an a–hole, and he made Buckingham Palace sound like they were a group solely devoted to hating on the Sussexes over every little thing, including their daughter’s name. Well, Hardman is releasing an updated version of the book with three new chapters. His latest tea is that King Charles has stopped giving Prince Andrew an allowance, plus more lies about QEII and the Sussexes.
Prince Andrew has officially been financially cut off by the King, marking a new low in relations between the brothers. An updated biography by acclaimed royal writer Robert Hardman, serialised by the Mail, reveals that despite the Duke of York’s attempts to call the monarch’s bluff, Charles has acted decisively.
In recent weeks he has instructed his Keeper of the Privy Purse, the monarchy’s finance director, to sever his beleaguered younger brother’s annual personal allowance – believed to be in the region of £1 million a year – and no longer pays for his seven-figure private security detail.
‘The duke is no longer a financial burden on the King,’ confirms a source. The King, who has also long made clear his wish to see Andrew move out of his vast 30-room mansion at Windsor, Royal Lodge, has now placed the ball firmly back in his brother’s court. In doing so, he has, Hardman also reveals for the first time, made good on his late mother’s determination to solve the ‘Andrew issue‘ once and for all.
Indeed, impeccably placed sources reveal that had she lived another year, Queen Elizabeth, who had long been accused of being reluctant to take action against her rumoured favourite son, would have forced him to leave his family home and downsize to Frogmore Cottage, the former home of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
Royal insiders have also hit back at suggestions that they failed to help Meghan when she joined the Royal Family, saying she threw their offer back in their faces. They insist, far from throwing the Duchess to the wolves, as she has suggested, they did everything in their power to help her – and it was she who said no. Sources say the King is not against some sort of rapprochement with the Sussexes despite the barrage of criticism he had received. But it has not been an easy process.
When Harry returned to the UK in May the two did not meet. The prince was offered a room at Buckingham Palace but instead chose to stay in a hotel. ‘We were told it was for security reasons,’ says a member of the King’s staff. ‘I’m not sure you could get anywhere more secure than the Palace.’
As for Andrew, it can now be revealed that his attempts to play a dangerous game of high-stakes poker over Royal Lodge against his brother have backfired. Now that the King has effectively called his brother’s bluff, Andrew is going to have to find the money for the upkeep of his vast property, as well as his security detail, with no visible sign of independent income. According to Hardman, this apparently includes the cost of protecting several valuable and historical works of art and pieces of furniture borrowed from the Royal Collection, the treasure trove of antiques held in trust by the monarch on behalf of the nation.
Andrew has repeatedly asserted that he can continue to pay for his own upkeep, claiming to have found ‘other sources of income‘ related to his contacts in international trade, sufficient to cover all his costs. But His Majesty will be watching with interest. ‘If he can find the money, then that is up to him, but if not, he will find that the King does not have unlimited patience,’ adds an insider. Family friends say although the matter has been temporarily resolved, Andrew’s ‘obstinacy’ has ‘soured’ family relationships.
These new book chapters are going to be big royal gossip for the next few weeks, so pace yourselves when it comes to fact-checking and yelling. I’ve already seen additional reporting around some of this stuff (which I’ll cover separately, of course), but let’s just keep it to the Mail’s initial coverage for now. Re: Andrew being cut off, he’s said this entire time that he actually had money stored away. No one knows how or where it came from, but I’ve long known/suspected that Andrew never really “paid back” his mother after he “borrowed” millions of dollars to settle out of court with Virginia Giuffre. So, he still has millions from the sale of his Swiss chalet, plus other mysterious funds, I’m sure. Charles trying to haughtily declare “Andrew can support himself” falls flat when you think about how much money Andrew has squirreled away.
The storyline about “had she lived another year, Queen Elizabeth…would have forced [Andrew] to leave his family home and downsize to Frogmore Cottage” is also a hilarious rewrite from Charles and his courtiers. Charles is trying to blame some of his most unpopular decisions on the mother he hated, forgetting that everyone else loved his mother and no one believes that QEII was as petty and short-sighted as Charles. “My mother was totally going to evict Harry & Meghan, she was totally going to cut off her favorite son, I swear!!!” No one believes you, Chaz.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.