As well as being a royal pariah, Andrew remains the subject of a mystery many are flummoxed by.<\/p>\n
The king’s brother has not had a paid job for large chunks of his life, yet somehow he has managed to fund a luxury lifestyle.<\/p>\n
A chalet in the Alps, first-class globe-trotting, hordes of personal staff and a fleet of flashy cars.<\/p>\n
But for years there have been questions about how he has been paying for it all.<\/p>\n
The finances of many royals, including Andrew, are shrouded in secrecy and the former prince’s status as a member of the British monarchy makes him immune from freedom of information enquiries.<\/p>\n
It means Andrew’s earnings and financial gifts remain hidden from public view, despite being stripped of his titles and kicked out of the Royal Lodge.<\/p>\n
Andrew’s ‘extravagant lifestyle’<\/p>\n
The prince has earned a reputation as a profligate spender with a penchant for the finer things in life.<\/p>\n
According to author, Andrew Lownie, who wrote an unauthorised biography on Andrew called Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York,\u00a0published earlier this year, the royal owns a collection of luxury cars, including a top-of-the-line Bentley.<\/p>\n
He also possesses a collection of expensive watches, among them a Patek Philippe time piece worth almost 150,000 British pounds ($300,000).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Andrew, 65, has been living in Royal Lodge since 2003.<\/p>\n
A person close to Andrew once described him as a “hot air balloon that floats serenely in rarefied circles without any visible means of support”, Lownie wrote.<\/p>\n
Andrew’s only publicly-listed source of income is a pension he receives from his time in the navy between 1979 and 2001, which reportedly amounts to 20,000 British pounds a year.<\/p>\n
“It remains a mystery how Andrew has been able to afford such an extravagant lifestyle without any sources of income beyond his naval pension,” Lownie wrote.<\/p>\n
He reportedly earned a generous salary for pressing the flesh and attending various royal engagements as a working member of the royal family.<\/p>\n
His wage was never publicly disclosed but reportedly amounted to \u00a3249,000 British pounds a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Norman Baker, author of a book on royal finances, And What Do You Do? described it as a “tax-free handout”, according to the Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n It is believed the “salary” covered the period between 1978 and 2010.<\/p>\n Andrew’s payments have not been publicly disclosed since then because of a legislative change in Britain, which shifted the way the monarchy was funded by taxpayers and prevented the regular publication<\/a> of how much public money the Windsors received.<\/p>\n Andrew stepped down as a full-time working royal in 2019.<\/p>\n It has been reported that Queen Elizabeth II dipped into her personal wealth to prop up the fallen prince after he stepped back.<\/p>\n Long seen as the Queen’s “favourite son”, Andrew’s finances are under a cloud. (Reuters:\u00a0Andrew Winning)<\/p>\n In Lownie’s book, it is speculated that Andrew inherited a large trust income from his grandmother, the Queen Mother.<\/p>\n “It’s reputed that Andrew inherited trust income from the Queen Mother, either at birth, on reaching majority (legal age) or in the 1990s,” he wrote.<\/p>\n The Swiss chalet\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2014, then Prince Andrew and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, bought a stunning chalet in the Swiss ski resort town of Verbier, a known winter getaway for Europe’s high society and uber rich.<\/p>\n He purchased the home from French socialite Isabelle De Rouvre, for 14 million British pounds, according to court filings.<\/p>\n At the time, sources told the BBC<\/a> that no “external party” helped with funding the purchase of the glamorous seat on the slopes.<\/p>\n Andrew sold the chalet in 2022 for 19 million British pounds.<\/p>\n The timing of the sale prompted many to speculate that Andrew needed the profits to partly fund his settlement payment to Virginia Giuffre.<\/p>\n Virginia Giuffre’s memoir released<\/a><\/p>\n The late Virginia Giuffre’s memoir details how she became involved in the shadowy world of notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which led to her abuse at the hands of some of the world’s “wealthiest and most powerful” people.<\/p>\n Giuffre, who took her own life in April this year, accused the royal of sexually assaulting her when she was a 17-year-old in 2001.<\/p>\n If you or anyone you know needs help:Suicide Call Back Service<\/a> on 1300 659 467Lifeline<\/a> on 13 11 14Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander crisis support line 13YARN<\/a>\u00a0on 13 92 76Kids Helpline<\/a> on 1800 551 800Beyond Blue<\/a> on 1300 224 636Headspace<\/a> on 1800 650 890ReachOut<\/a> at au.reachout.com<\/a>MensLine Australia<\/a> on 1300 789 978QLife 1800 184 527<\/a><\/p>\n In her posthumous memoir, she wrote that she was forced by sex traffickers Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell to sleep with Andrew on three separate occasions.<\/p>\n Andrew has repeatedly denied the allegations but in 2022 he paid Giuffre what is widely believed to be around 12 million British pounds in a settlement<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lownie’s biography states that as well as the windfall from his Switzerland sale, Andrew received a bridging loan from his brother, then Prince Charles, to pay Giuffre.<\/p>\n The portion of the settlement set aside for charity, 2 million British pounds, was provided by his mother, the queen.<\/p>\n A luxury lease at the Royal Lodge<\/p>\n It has often been claimed that Andrew was the Queen’s “favourite” son.<\/p>\n In 2001, she signed off on a Crown Estate lease that would see the then prince take residence of Royal Lodge.<\/p>\n The home had previously been the residence of the queen’s mother, and the sprawling 30-room mansion in Great Windsor Park was in desperate need of repair.<\/p>\n It was recently revealed that the prince is only required to pay the Crown Estate rent of “one peppercorn (if demanded) per annum” as part of the leasehold agreement.<\/p>\n But Andrew did agree to pay 7.5 million British pounds to fix the digs up.<\/p>\n The enormous refurbishment cost \u2014 as well as a 1 million British pounds one-off payment for the 75-year lease \u2014 meant that Andrew was spared from paying rent<\/a>.<\/p>\n Prince Andrew’s peppercorn lease deal<\/a><\/p>\n Prince Andrew is facing growing\u00a0pressure from British ministers and\u00a0senior politicians to give up his lifelong possession of a grand mansion on the grounds of Windsor Castle.<\/p>\n Andrew also agreed to pay to maintain the property, with running costs for the large home built in 1840 reportedly extremely expensive.<\/p>\n He must also foot the bill for almost all the large security presence that surrounds the premises.<\/p>\n Given King Charles reportedly cut Andrew off financially last year, it is unclear how the prince has been funding it all.<\/p>\n This week, the ABC paid a visit to Royal Lodge to investigate.<\/p>\n When we ventured up to the front gate of the property, about an hour’s drive west of London, two men in a Range Rover swiftly stopped us in our tracks and asked us to leave.<\/p>\n At least three uniformed police officers observed us as we sheepishly made our way out of the Great Windsor Park.<\/p>\n The security seemed comparable to a large government building.<\/p>\n Andrew’s luxe travel as unpaid trade envoy<\/p>\n Even when Andrew had a job outside his role as a working royal \u2014 albeit unpaid \u2014 questions were raised about his expenses.<\/p>\n More than a decade ago he represented the United Kingdom as a “trade envoy”, a role that earned him the nickname “air miles Andy”.<\/p>\n Andrew’s finances have been under scrutiny for years. (AP:\u00a0Scott Heppell)<\/p>\n Andrew did not earn a salary, but his expenses were paid for by the taxpayer.<\/p>\n The former prince was known to travel lavishly, often to the Middle East with the remit of promoting investment in the UK.<\/p>\n Former deputy ambassador to Bahrain Simon Wilson told British broadcaster Channel 4 that when Andrew travelled to the Gulf country he “always refused to stay in ambassador’s residences”.<\/p>\n “He’d only want to stay at the Royal Suite at the best hotel,” he added.<\/p>\n “He’d often travel with a large entourage which would often include a clerk whose sole purpose was to write thank you letters.”<\/p>\n Eyebrows were raised when Andew held meetings with Muammar Gaddafi’s son, Saif, and also when he entertained the son-in-law of Tunisia’s ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali at Buckingham Palace.<\/p>\n The prince’s relations with Timur Kulibayev, the son-in-law of the president of Kazakhstan, also came under scrutiny when Mr Kulibayev bought Andrew’s former home for 3 million British pounds more than the asking price in 2007.<\/p>\n In 2011, Andrew stood down from the role as trade envoy due to his ties to Epstein, who three years earlier had been convicted of soliciting a minor for prostitution.<\/p>\n Multiple media outlets have reported that both Andrew and Sarah Ferguson maintained contact with Epstein well after they claimed to have broken off contact with him in 2010.<\/p>\n Ferguson later admitted to receiving 15,000 British pounds from Epstein to “cover debts”. She apologised for accepting the money in March 2011.<\/p>\n ‘His last bit of royal status’<\/p>\n With much of Andrew’s finances still a mystery, there have been growing calls for more transparency.\u00a0<\/p>\n Andrew \u00a0has been stripped of his title as prince and been kicked out of Royal Lodge. (Reuters: Toby Melville)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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