End of Week Prince Andrew Update

Royal Lodge rumors, explosive reports, and more

It’s been a stop-and-start 48 hours of royal news. Here are some tweets from a baffled Emily Maitlis describing Thursday night:

Last week, Buckingham Palace released a statement by Prince Andrew stating he would publicly give up using his “Duke of York” title for the good of The Crown and the country.

And while there was anticipation of another Friday night news drop, Buckingham Palace is silent tonight.

What a Week

Interest in his 30-room mansion, Royal Lodge, piqued the public’s interest in particular this week. Reporting from The Times, uncovered that Prince Andrew hadn’t paid his below-market-value rent in over 2 decades. Extraordinarily enough, according to The Times, rent was only due on request.

Must be nice.

Investigations like this one and public pressure matter when you have an extremely reactive Palace. The latest is that there are “serious talks” about Prince Andrew vacating the Royal Lodge.

The hope is that this will be enough to satiate the public and for the media to move on.

But not so fast.

Earlier today, the BBC dropped this piece:

Prince Andrew was paid tens of thousands of pounds by a British businessman linked to a wealth management company which ripped off pension savers.

Talk about not burying the lede.

According to the BBC, High Court documents in London, “show that Andrew received £60,500 from a British businessman, Adrian Gleave in December 2019.”

This is less than a month after his Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis.

The funds were “funnelled through a British company owned by Mr Gleave, Alphabet Capital Limited.”

(This is definitely on my future post ideas board)

Add this to a laundry list of reasons Prince Andrew should be investigated. It’s not just his business dealings—particularly when he was the U.K. trade envoy—it’s also the allegations wrapped up in his friendship with Epstein that deserve further scrutiny. The Monarchy has proved time and time again that its concern is moving on quickly with as little damage to the institution from any Prince Andrew story, and not accountability.

At the end of the day, it’s a reminder that they serve themselves first and foremost.

This point was driven home by a Mirror piece quoting

Andrew Lownie

's book “Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York” writing about the bullying claims against Meghan, Duchess of Sussex:

“The report on Markle has never been released, some say because it would also raise questions about the behaviour of the Queen’s second son.”

The oppo dump before Prince Harry and Meghan’s 2021 Oprah interview didn’t consider the impact on other Royal Family members. Because the Monarchy does not function as one unit.

It’s always been about protecting blood royals > anyone else. Announcing an investigation and never showing results is insulting to Meghan and the entire staff.

More to come,

Meredith