When the $500 million renovation of Buckingham Palace initiated by the late Queen Elizabeth II is complete in 2027, don’t expect Prince Andrew to move back into his quarters there. King Charles III’s younger brother, who was accused in 2015 of the 2001 sexual assault of a 17-year-old victim of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking operation, has reportedly been told he will not be welcome back at the apartment he has lived in since the 1980s. The Sun reports that the king, who took the throne upon Elizabeth’s death in September and will have his official coronation ceremony on May 6, made the decision, with a source telling the tabloid, “The King has made it clear that Buckingham Palace is no place for Prince Andrew.”
After the allegations against Andrew surfaced, the story of Epstein’s crimes continued to garner media attention, which only intensified when the shady financier was found dead in a New York City jail cell while awaiting trial for sex trafficking charges. Shortly after Epstein’s death, Andrew denied the allegations against him in a badly received BBC interview, and then announced that he would “step back from public duties for the foreseeable future.” In early 2022, his mother stripped him of his military titles. The following month he reached an out-of-court settlement with his accuser, Virginia Giuffre.
Typically the main residence of the sitting monarch (though the king has not yet moved in because of the ongoing renovations), Buckingham Palace has a whopping 775 rooms, 52 of which are bedrooms for members of the royal family and guests. Andrew’s suite is currently part of the construction, meaning it has already been vacated. Like most royal apartments, little is known about the interiors, but a 2012 exposé published in the Evening Standard revealed some wacky details. Apparently, he was a fan of embroidered pillows and had one that read “Daddy,” a gift from his daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, another stating “Eat, sleep and re-marry” (he and Sarah Ferguson divorced in 1996), and a third with the saying, “Before you meet your real prince you have to kiss a lot of frogs.”
Last year, two former employees of the Duke of York came forward with more details of his home life. One gave an interview to The Sun in which she claimed that one element of her job was arranging his 72 teddy bears in size order each day. Another told the paper that Ghislaine Maxwell, the Epstein associate who has been found guilty of sex trafficking of a minor and four other charges and sentenced to 20 years in prison, was given “unrestricted access” to the palace by Andrew.
As of right now, however, he will still be allowed to maintain his residence at the Royal Lodge on Windsor Great Park, where his ex-wife also resides. The Sun also reports that he was offered a suite at St. James Palace in London.
