Prince Andrew is rolling his sleeves up.
The disgraced Duke of York, 64, has stored himself busy by making an attempt to take care of the 21 acres of backyard that surrounds Royal Lodge.
Andrew, who was poised to depart the Royal Lodge after Charles refused to proceed financially carrying his brother’s weight, is attempting to pinch a few cents by creating a inexperienced thumb.
“It is in a shocking state,” Todd Longstaffe Gowan, the Historic Royal Palaces gardener, advised the Every day Mail of the mansion’s worse-for-wear backyard.
“I won’t be knocking that into shape. It is impossible. I’ve been at Kensington Palace for 30 years and I think Royal Lodge would be quite impossible.”
However regardless of Andrew’s finest efforts, the backyard remains to be wanting tough and the flowers that after bloomed on the grounds of Windsor Citadel are nowhere to be seen.
As an alternative, the 30-room mansion is surrounded by shrubbery and woodland, insiders say.
Contained in the residence, the same factor is going down.
Over the previous couple of weeks, King Charles has reportedly kickstarted the method of eradicating valuable artifacts from Andrew’s house on account of upkeep and safety issues.
The transfer implies that the previous working royal’s property now boasts empty cabinets the place pricy gadgets had been as soon as displayed.
Andrew has resided on the sprawling property since 2004. He presently lives there together with his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson.
Andrew narrowly averted eviction from the lavish property final yr after discovering a thriller monetary backer on the eleventh hour.
He has since confronted calls from the UK authorities to disclose the supply of his newfound funding.
Precisely the place the Duke of York bought the funding to stay on the property remains to be unclear — his solely recognized regular earnings supply is a Royal Navy pension.
As for his ex-wife, Ferguson can also be refusing to speak in regards to the plush royal digs.
Earlier this month, Fergie walked out of an interview after she was requested whether or not she could be transferring out of the Royal Lodge.
Whereas Andrew has additionally tried to maintain a low profile since being plagued with a string of controversies, the king’s youthful brother was noticed on the Windsor property earlier this week.
His outing marked the primary time he was seen since his enterprise adviser was accused of being a Chinese language spy.
The controversy got here scorching on the heels of one other shocker, which noticed the monetary agency managing his non-public investments shut down.
Andrew was then reported to the police and accused of utilizing a pretend identify to register an organization.
Days later, the disgraced duke was snubbed from a royal dinner held at Windsor Citadel on Jan. 9 — regardless of dwelling on the grounds of the fort.
