King Charles Spends $2 Million on ‘Crumbling’ Royal Lodge After Evicting Andrew — Will He Make His Brother Pay?

King Charles III is a bit less liquid than he was before receiving a bill of $2 million for repairs to the Royal Lodge after he ordered his younger brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, off the premises because of his association with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. That relationship could yet yield criminal charges. Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor was evicted last year from the 30-room mansion, whose origins date back more than three centuries. The king also stripped his brother of the “HRH” honorific and any titles that remained after Queen Elizabeth executed a partial purge of those royal accouterments in 2019.Now that Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor has officially handed back the keys to his home of 20 years, he is on the hook for a £1.8 million — or $2.3 million — repair bill for “dilapidations.” The BBC reckons that the residence is in “poor condition,” while the Daily Mail describes it as “crumbling.” When Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor moved in, he signed a 75 year lease. The terms of his lease mandate that because he moved out after 20 years — courtesy of a royal decree from his older brother— he is entitled to a rebate of £300,000. That means that his bill is £1.5 million. King Charles, though, is covering the entire £1.8 million sum. It is not yet known if the king expects his younger brother to eventually pay the Crown back for his £1.5 million share. A spokesman for the Crown declares that “the lease for Royal Lodge has ended and our focus now is firmly on its future use and the opportunities to generate additional financial value for the nation from its early return.” When Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor first moved into the Royal Lodge, he paid some £7.5m for upfront repairs. As part of that deal Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor did not pay monthly rent. The king will pay the total cost of the renovation to the Crown Estate, an independent body that is owned — but not managed — by the sovereign. King Charles also pays his brother a private stipend whose sum has not been disclosed. A report from the National Audit Office disclosed that the king is paying for the support of his brother’s two daughters, Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice. They are living at undisclosed royal palaces.The BBC reports that the Crown Estate hopes to move a commercial occupant into the Royal Lodge. That means that there are no plans to place another royal on its premises. After Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor was expelled from the Royal Lodge, he moved to an undisclosed location on another royal fiefdom, Sandringham. The Royal Lodge was one of the residences searched by police in February when Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested on suspicion of abusing a public office.On Thursday Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor secured a legal victory when Judge Nicholas Hilliard quashed the search warrants against him after finding that a “significant error was made in the application for and the granting of the search warrants.” The ultimate fate of the evidence collected pursuant to those warrants will be decided at a separate hearing next year. Judge Hilliard adds that the “fact that the search warrants were quashed does not bring an investigation to an end, or mean that the whole of the investigation was unlawful.”The suspicions swirling around Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor stem from allegations that he, in his capacity as Britain’s special representative for international trade and investment, forwarded secret government documents to Epstein. The charge of misconduct in public office carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. In February 2022, Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor paid $16.3 million to settle a civil suit brought by one of Epstein’s alleged victims, Virginia Giuffre. She took her own life last year.

King Charles Spends $2 Million on ‘Crumbling’ Royal Lodge After Evicting Andrew — Will He Make His Brother Pay?

King Charles Spends $2 Million on ‘Crumbling’ Royal Lodge After Evicting Andrew — Will He Make His Brother Pay?

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