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Prince William is said to be keeping his distance from tense discussions between King Charles and Prince Andrew over the disgraced Duke’s battle to remain at Royal Lodge.
While the future King reportedly wants the long-running dispute settled once and for all, he has chosen not to step in directly — largely out of respect for his close bond with his cousins, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.
The Prince of Wales was said to have been quietly consulted on the move that saw his uncle give up his dukedom in name and lose a number of royal privileges.
Last week, Andrew was stripped of his remaining titles — including the Duke of York designation — amid renewed scrutiny over his links to Jeffrey Epstein and alleged connections to China.
Now, the 64-year-old royal is believed to be in advanced talks with Palace officials in a bid to remain in the grand 30-room Royal Lodge, his Windsor residence since 2003, which he has occupied virtually rent-free for more than two decades.
Despite the escalating tensions, William has opted not to take a hands-on role, preferring to allow the King and Palace courtiers to handle the delicate negotiations while maintaining harmony with Beatrice and Eugenie.
Sources say the Prince has made it clear to the sisters — aged 37 and 35 — that they are in no way to blame for their father’s fall from grace.
According to The Telegraph, William has also been involved in reassuring the princesses that their own royal tenancies remain secure, despite the controversy surrounding their father.
Beatrice currently resides at St James’s Palace, while Eugenie and her family live at Ivy Cottage within Kensington Palace. Both sisters share their homes with their husbands and young children.
Insiders claim William intends to keep his cousins close when he eventually takes the throne, ensuring they remain part of family events and official royal functions — a stark contrast to his reported approach toward their parents.
The Prince of Wales’s firm stance is also believed to extend to Sarah Ferguson, Andrew’s former wife, who became embroiled in the Epstein scandal and likewise lost her Duchess of York title.
However, William’s close relationship with Beatrice and Eugenie could complicate matters, as Prince Andrew is said to be determined to remain near his daughters in Windsor.
Proposed alternatives to Royal Lodge in Scotland and Norfolk have reportedly failed to tempt him, as they would place significant distance between him and his immediate family.
On Friday, it was revealed that Andrew and King Charles were locked in negotiations over his future at the Grade-II listed residence — a discussion that could determine whether the Duke is finally forced to vacate his longtime Windsor home.
Although Prince Andrew initially resisted, citing the 50 years remaining on his prepaid tenancy, Palace insiders now sense a growing acceptance that relocation may be inevitable.
His so-called “cast-iron” lease poses serious legal hurdles to any eviction, leading Buckingham Palace to pursue a voluntary surrender instead.
Another sticking point in the ongoing talks is believed to be financial — with Andrew seeking compensation for the substantial sums he has poured into the property over the years.
Official records show that the Prince signed a 75-year lease for Royal Lodge in 2003, paying £1 million upfront. According to a National Audit Office report, he was also required to invest an additional £7.5 million in extensive renovations, which were completed in 2005.
It was a brief 10-minute phone call with a “weary” King Charles that reportedly convinced Prince Andrew to finally agree to relinquish the use of his royal titles and honours for good.
Though the Duke has long since stepped back from public duties, the gradual stripping away of his royal privileges has unfolded over several years — even as he technically retains his titles and continues to reside at Royal Lodge.
Andrew has repeatedly and vehemently denied the sexual assault allegations made by the late Virginia Giuffre. The 41-year-old, who died by suicide in Australia earlier this year, wrote a memoir detailing her horrific experiences as a teenager under the control of Epstein and his partner Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking in the United States. The book was published posthumously this week.
Royal author Omid Scobie has previously suggested that both the late Queen and now-King Charles have long had a “blind spot” when it comes to Andrew. In his explosive book Endgame, Scobie claimed that Charles often suffered sleepless nights over his younger brother — detesting Andrew’s behaviour but still feeling a deep, brotherly concern for the disgraced royal.
According to royal author Omid Scobie, the tangled family loyalties meant it ultimately fell to Prince William to take the lead when Virginia Giuffre’s civil lawsuit against Prince Andrew hit the US courts in 2022.
That moment is said to have been a major “snapping point” for William, who reportedly decided that enough was enough. The future King is believed to have urged his grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, that firm action had to be taken.
The crisis deepened when senior figures in the military publicly weighed in, expressing their unease over Andrew’s continued honorary military roles. As Scobie notes, “Military leaders chimed in on the matter via an open letter to the Queen,” a rare and stinging public intervention that piled further pressure on the disgraced Duke.
The open letter — signed by 152 veterans from the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, and British Army — urged the Queen, as Head of the Armed Forces, to strip Prince Andrew of his twelve honorary military ranks and titles.
In a rare act of defiance, the veterans declared that “were this any other senior military officer, it is inconceivable that he would still be in post.”
According to Scobie, the blistering public backlash served as clear “proof” that Prince William had reached his breaking point, forcing him to act before the situation spiralled completely out of control.
Although the Queen was the public face of Prince Andrew’s downfall, royal author Omid Scobie insists it was Prince William who quietly set the wheels in motion behind the scenes.
In recent months, multiple reports have suggested that William intends to take a far tougher stance toward his uncle than his father ever has — with the future King reportedly determined to keep Andrew permanently out of the royal spotlight.
Just days after William is said to have privately met with his grandmother to lay out his concerns, Buckingham Palace released a bombshell statement announcing that Andrew’s military roles and royal patronages had been “returned to the Queen.” The statement went on to confirm that “The Duke of York will not undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a private citizen.”
