Frogmore Cottage is back in the headlines. After Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were unceremoniously asked to leave the property after they chose to step away from their roles as senior royals, it appears that Prince William could be moving his uncle, Prince Andrew, into the home—and evicting him from his current residence, Royal Lodge.
“William has long held a grudge against Andrew for being unwelcoming when he first introduced the then Kate Middleton to the royal family and feels that his father has been too soft on him,” Royal reporter Richard Kay told Mail Online. “It has led to speculation that it is William who is pushing his father to evict the Duke of York from Royal Lodge, so the Waleses could move in.”
Kay added that William and King Charles have contrasting approaches to Andrew, saying, “Differences between monarch and heir do remain, especially when it comes to the Prince Andrew scandal.”
Royal Lodge is a 30-room mansion in Windsor, compared to the five bedrooms and Frogmore (it had 10 before undergoing renovations). Andrew’s move may just be one more blow to his royal life, after Queen Elizabeth stripped him of his military titles in the wake of his connection to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal in 2020.
According to the Mirror, King Charles previously asked Andrew to vacate Royal Lodge, but there hasn’t been any shift in royal residences—yet.
Royal expert Richard Eden agreed with Kay, saying that William has no plans to reintroduce Andrew to royal circles—in fact, the Prince of Wales wants to slim down the monarchy even more (which has already caused a few hiccups).
“[A friend of William] told me, ‘When the older members of the family retire, His Royal Highness won’t be inviting anyone else to become working royals,” Eden said. “It remains to be seen if he will even want his two younger children to be working royals. He sees the small European monarchies as the model for the future.”
According to royal biographer Omid Scobie, William “set the wheels in motion” for his uncle’s departure from royal life. In his book, Endgame, Scobie explained that William did what he saw was necessary when the “prospect of an out-of-court settlement involving money from the family’s private wealth were all damaging the monarchy’s reputation.”