RICHARD EDEN: Why King Charles should leave Prince Andrew alone and act now over 'trouble-making' Harry and Meghan instead By Richard Eden for The Daily Mail Published: 12:03 BST, 22 August 2024 | Updated: 12:08 BST, 22 August 2024 e-mail 80 View comments After she and Prince Albert bought Balmoral for £32,000 (the equivalent of £5million today) in 1852, Queen Victoria described the Aberdeenshire estate as her ‘dear paradise in the Highlands’. The Scottish retreat was so close to the late Queen Elizabeth’s heart that she chose to spend her final days there. Now, King Charles and Queen Camilla are at Balmoral for their summer holiday, with Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah, Duchess of York among their first guests.
But there is, I hear, trouble in ‘paradise’. While the royals enjoy their grouse shooting, salmon fishing and picnics in what Princess Eugenie has called ‘the most beautiful place on earth’, her parents are likely to know there is one subject they must broach with the King, however awkward. According to a Palace insider, that’s his apparent campaign to force them out of Royal Lodge, which has been Andrew and Fergie’s family home in Windsor Great Park ever since they paid £1million for a 75-year lease in 2003.
Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson currently live at the 31-bedroom Royal Lodge, in the grounds of Windsor Great Park The mansion is not owned by the King but by the independent Crown Estate, and it could not be let to a private.