Frogmore Cottage STILL empty over a year after Harry & Meghan booted out – as Andrew ‘refuses’ to downsize from lodge
FROGMORE Cottage is still uninhabited more than a year after Harry and Meghan were booted out – and Andrew is said to be refusing to budge from his lodge.
Palace officials at the annual Sovereign Grant briefing said there were no new tenants in the Grade II Crown Estate property in Windsor Home Park.
It has been said that Prince Harry, 39, has stayed in a hotel on recent visits to the UK, rather than at a royal residence.
The Sussexes were asked to move any remaining possessions out of their UK home close to Windsor Castle in 2023, just weeks after the duke criticised his family in his controversial memoir Spare.
A Palace official said: “During the year, Frogmore Cottage has remained empty.
“I don’t think, at this point, I would speculate on who will be the future occupants of the cottage.”
He added: “The Sovereign Grant has been fully reimbursed for the refurbishment costs of Frogmore cottage when it was initially provided to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and, therefore, there is no cost to the Sovereign Grant other than some routine maintenance, but it would be required for any of the buildings.”
In 2019, royal accounts showed Harry and Meghan, 42, paid £2.4million to cover the cottage’s refurbishment and rental.
It was previously reported the disgraced Duke of York, 64, was offered the much smaller Frogmore Cottage in a bid to relocate him from the larger Royal Lodge.
But Andrew was said to have signed a 75-year lease on the Royal Lodge mansion in 2003.
Frogmore was a gift to the Sussexes from the late Queen, but after moving there after the birth of Prince Archie they relocated to the US, only using the property a handful of times afterwards.
In June this year, The Sun revealed that King Charles wants to rent out Royal Lodge for £1million a year when he finally gets his younger brother to leave.
Andrew has rejected other homes offered and is relying on his “cast-iron lease”, which includes a proviso the dilapidated £30million lodge in Windsor Great Park is kept in good order.
The monarch, 75, is said to have redoubled his efforts to evict the disgraced Duke – with insiders branding the stand-off the “siege of Royal Lodge“.
Andrew is now said to be spending all day “watching TV in a dark room” like a prisoner at his “crumbling” home.
The Duke has now become a “prisoner of his own pride” as he refuses to bow to his brother’s wishes, a friend told The Times.
But that prison is falling apart as Royal Lodge “needs extensive repairs” thought to be about £400,000 a year.
The stately home sits in Windsor State Park, Berks, several miles south of Windsor Castle.
Andrew moved in after the death of the Queen Mother in 2002.
Very little work has been carried out on the property since Andrew spent £7m on repairs when he moved in.
The royal, who no longer has official duties, shares the sprawling 30-room mansion in Windsor with just his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.
Prince Andrew lost his public funding when he quit as a working royal over sex abuse allegations.
As part of losing his public funding, he also lost his £3million a year taxpayer-funded Metropolitan Police protection, which were replaced by private security officers.
The monarch is said to be increasingly unwilling to keep paying out of his own pocket to fund Andrew’s lavish lifestyle – and has threatened to withdraw £4million-plus a year that he reportedly provides.
It has been reported that Prince Andrew plans to bequeath the lease of Royal Lodge to his two daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, after his death.
Podcaster Svar Nanan-Sen said on The Royal Record podcast: “One report this week discussed that a possible motivation for Andrew is holding out is that he sees the Royal Lodge as part of Beatrice and Eugenie’s inheritance.
“The lease has got another 54 years on it to go, Andrew is 64, and so there is very much the possibility that at some point it could pass on to his daughters.”
According to GB News royal correspondent Cameron Walker Beatrice and Eugenie “do not want Royal Lodge”.
Their two children, Princess Beatrice, 35, and Princess Eugenie, 34, live with their respective husbands, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, 40, and Jack Brooksbank, 38, and kids.