The real reason why Prince Andrew is refusing to leave Royal Lodge as Duke doubles down

Prince Andrew is still refusing to leave Royal Lodge in Windsor despite continuous efforts from King Charles to get him to downsize.

The disgraced Duke of York, 64, has been living at the royal residence with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson for years and even signed a 75-year lease on the property in 2003, with his hopes being to eventually pass the property on to his daughters.

However, the King, who has been funding security and a living allowance for Andrew since he became embroiled in sex allegations after his long-standing friendship with late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, something the Duke vehemently denies, has now been pulling out all the stops to encourage his younger brother to downsize.

This has included making cuts to the security staff at the royal residence.

Despite this, the prince has still not agreed to move out of the lodge, with expert Hugo Vickers claiming that this is because Andrew feels like leaving the property will be an admission of guilt.

Hugo told The Sun: “I think we must all accept that he is not wanted for any public duties. If you were running a charity you wouldn’t be asking Prince Andrew to come and be your guest of honour. So nobody wants him in a public way.

“So there he is living at Royal Lodge, playing golf, seeing his children and grandchildren and riding in the park and it is expensive. The ideal situation would of course be that Andrew would volunteer to down-size and move somewhere else.

“What I think he feels is that if he moves out of Royal Lodge it’s somehow publicly accepting guilt for which he has not been proved. Nevertheless it’s an expensive lifestyle.”