Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice dragged into royal feud over ‘inheritance’

Friends of the Duke of York have claimed that Andrew, 64, intends to continue living at the Royal Lodge and leave it to his daughters.

On this week's episode of The Royal Record podcast Digital Royal Editor Svar Nanan-Sen and Royal Correspondent Cameron Walker discussed the attempt to move "stubborn" Andrew out.

Svar said: "One report this week discussed that a possible motivation for Andrew is holding out is that he sees the Royal Lodge as part of Beatrice and Eugenie's inheritance.

"The lease has got another 54 years on it to go, Andrew is 64, and so there is very much the possibility that at some point it could pass on to his daughters."

Cameron added: "Prince Andrew is I think we can safely say is pretty stubborn. And if you just think about Prince Andrew's life, this is the guy who was born into the Royal Family as the spare.

"He was the spare to King Charles's heir. Then, slowly but surely, over the decades, he's been depleted.

"He was that he was the naval hero in the Falklands War he was welcomed back with open arms. He was rumoured to be Queen Elizabeth's second favourite son, then Prince William's born, he moves further down the line of succession.

"He accepts freebie flights from his rich friends. He then is nicknamed Airmiles Andy by the press. He then gets a relationship, a friendship, with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which clearly then unravelled with the Newsnight interview.

"There have been strong allegations against Prince Andrew, all of which he denies. But he was forced to step back as a working member of the Royal Family.

"Going from almost the top of British society to where he is now, almost the recluse in this massive mansion which may be falling apart at the seams, depending on which way you look at it clearly must have had a huge effect on Prince Andrew.

"So is this Prince Andrew's way of trying to hold on desperately to the last thing that gives him status, rather than being demoted yet again, to a really small cottage which used to be lived in by Harry and Meghan and has been done up to Harry and Meghan's Californian tastes.

"I think it's going to be really interesting to see how this one plays out."

It comes after The Times alleged that the King is renewing his efforts to evict Andrew from Royal Lodge, threatening him with being cut off financially if he did not comply.

The article claimed the King would "reconsider the levels of support he is willing to provide" unless Andrew moved out.

It also alleged that King Charles is supporting the duke in the "low millions" of pounds per annum.

A source told the publication: "The King’s kindness is not without limit, and there is a very good option for Andrew to move into Frogmore Cottage… which also has the benefit of being within the Windsor Castle security cordon hence reducing the need for alternative round-the-clock security for Royal Lodge."