As the Battle Over Royal Lodge Rages On Between Brothers King Charles and Prince Andrew, Andrew Is Bringing In a “Secret Weapon” to Help Plead His Case

The fight over possession of the 30-room mansion on the Windsor Estate has dragged on for 18 months and counting.

The brother-on-brother battle for Royal Lodge apparently continues, with Prince Andrew—who resides in the £30 million Windsor-based mansion with his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York—up against his older brother, King Charles, for possession of the property.

OK reports that one possible motivation as to why Andrew is fighting so hard to keep the property is that he hopes to pass it down to his daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, someday; The Sun reports that Andrew is planning to use his daughters—who are well-liked by the King and the rest of the royal family—as his “secret weapon” in an effort to stay in the 30-room home.

“The princesses are Andrew’s secret weapon,” said Ingrid Seward, royal biographer and editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine. “They are very popular amongst the royal family, and Charles is especially fond of them. They are his passport now [that] he has lost everything.”

Andrew stepped back from royal duties after the disastrous 2019 Newsnight interview—dramatized in Neflix’s Scoop—which discussed his own allegations of sexual assault and his association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Though he has been seen at more royal events in the past few months than he has in years—Christmas at Sandringham, Easter at St. George’s Chapel—the 18-months-and-counting feud with his brother threatens to upend that (and he will never return to royal duty).

Of Royal Lodge, “It is his home, and it has been their home for many years, too,” Seward said of Beatrice and Eugenie. “Their childhood was all over the place, and Royal Lodge was the one stability they had.” (Andrew and Fergie divorced in 1996, the same year as Charles and Princess Diana.)