THE Queen had barely been laid to rest when it began.
Message after message, delivered through the Buckingham Palace machine, warned that life was about to change for Prince Andrew — and not for the better.
Prince Andrew’s annual allowance will be severely reduced or possibly even axed
King Charles has been talking about a ‘slimmed-down monarchy’ for years
Finding money to maintain Royal Lodge may prove impossible for Andrew
I was told by a source close to him: “They didn’t even wait ten days from the end of mourning the Queen. That’s when courtiers started to send the bad news.”
It was recently made clear to Andrew that the annual allowance he has received from the monarch since he left the Navy in 2001 was about to be severely reduced — possibly even axed — as soon as April.
His mother paid him the subsidy, last reported to be £249,000, out of her own private fortune, enabling him to fund his family home at Windsor’s Royal Lodge.
Now the Prince — who I’ve been told is “distraught” — may have no choice but to give up his home of 19 years as soon as September.
Even people appalled by his association with late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein would surely ask: “What’s the rush?”
But, while the news was a bombshell to Andrew, it was openly discussed in royal circles.
One senior member of the family joked about his plight at a recent Windsor gathering, teasing: “We’ll kick Andrew out of that house.”
Andrew, often said to have been the Queen’s favourite, knew as long as she was alive he would be protected.
But King Charles has been talking about a “slimmed-down monarchy” for years.
The situation is not quite hopeless for Andrew.
He has a 75-year lease and cannot simply be evicted.
But finding money to maintain the 30-room lodge may prove impossible.
He has already made a multi-million pound payment to US accuser Virginia Giuffre — whose abuse claims he denies.
He wants to challenge the terms of the settlement but knows another legal battle will cost him.
Will he follow the example of his nephew Harry and seek commercial deals previously unthinkable to Royals?
Friends of the Yorks are already discussing financial independence.
Money talks.
Cut off from front-line royal duties and family support, at risk — in his view — of losing his home, Andrew might ask: “What choice do I have?”
