This holiday season brings a sense of anticipation for royal watchers eager to see the British Royals gather for their traditional Christmas morning walk in Sandringham. But if there’s one person that deserves a frosty welcome, it’s Prince Andrew.
The Duke of York has only brought shame and scandal to the Crown with his close ties to sex trafficker and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his own sexual abuse case (which he settled out of court to avoid an admission of guilt). Although he has retreated from public life and stripped of his titles, he’s still enjoying the perks of being a royal and the British taxpayer’s money to fund his lavish lifestyle, including his extended stay in the Royal Lodge, which he clearly can no longer afford to pay on his own as King Charles III has cut off his allowance.
So it’s suspicious how he was able to secure the funds to prevent him and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson from being evicted (a rich sugar daddy maybe?) His stubbornness to vacate the 30-room mansion (which is badly in need of maintenance) despite his brother’s orders should be an added reason to exclude him from royal gatherings, including Christmas at Sandringham. So there may no longer be a repeat of his attendance at last year’s Christmas walkabout.
He and Ferguson joined their daughters and their respective husbands at the Christmas Day service at St. Mary Magdalene Church and for the walkabout afterward, where they greeted well-wishers. He was even caught on video in a bizarre exchange with those who recorded their conversation.
Royal correspondent Jennie Bond noticed that despite their strained relationship, Charles still includes Andrew in family gatherings. She told OK! “Thus far, despite the obvious tensions over Royal Lodge, the brothers have shared family time together at Windsor and Sandringham.” But she noted that ‘”what we don’t know is quite how things actually stand between Charles and Andrew.” She said it would be “interesting to see if he and Sarah are included in the Christmas gathering this year. If they are absent, it will tell us much about the state of their relationship.”
If Andrew is included, then it could send a message that Charles hasn’t completely shut him out. But it also “does not mean a full rapprochement between the brothers,” according to royal author Stephen Bates, who claimed that the King “has a clear sense of the damage Andrew has done to the institution of monarchy.”
In terms of the dispute over the Royal Lodge, Bond suggested that Andrew’s eldest daughter, Princess Beatrice, would make “an effective mediator if one is needed” despite her conflicting loyalties.
“You have to feel for Beatrice. She must be so torn between loyalty to the Crown and loyalty to her father,” she said adding that “perhaps Beatrice can persuade her dad that Frogmore Cottage is really rather lovely, and his life could be a whole lot easier if he moved there.”
Bond’s statements come following reports that Beatrice has had a secret meeting with Charles to talk about her Andrew’s relocation to Frogmore Cottage, the former home of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. She knows that her future lies in her uncle and with a baby on the way, it’s only understandable that she would side with the King. But more than Andrew, royal watchers really want to know if the Sussexes will join the royals for Christmas at Sandringham.
