Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, took money from subletting homes at his royal residence, where he lived rent-free for two decades, according to a report on the royal family’s holdings released by the UK’s public expenditure watchdog on Friday.
The National Audit Office report said the former prince earned income from renting out three cottages on the Royal Lodge estate, “with income payable to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor,” his home near Windsor Castle.
She added, “These properties have been vacant since April 2026.”
She also said that his daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, reside in rent-controlled homes owned by the Crown and paid for by their uncle, King Charles III.
Rents for Eugenie’s house in the grounds of Kensington Palace and Beatrice’s house at St James’s Palace, also in London, are set at a fraction of the open market value, which can vary significantly, Audit says. In both cases, rents are paid from the private purse, which is the king’s own money.
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The princesses are not considered members of the royal family “working” on public duties, and both work in other jobs.
Eugenie is Director of the London branch of the international art gallery Hauser & Wirth. Beatrice is Vice President of Partnerships and Strategy In the American software and data analytics company Afiniti.
The Royal Lodge lease, signed in 2003, shows that Mountbatten-Windsor paid only a small fee, known as a “pepper rent,” for the property, which included a 30-room mansion and eight cottages, three of which he was allowed to sublet.
The report shows that 11 members of the royal family received free housing in palace properties in exchange for performing their public duties, including King Charles and Queen Camilla, Prince William and his wife Catherine, in addition to the king’s younger brother, Prince Edward, and his wife Sophie.
William and Catherine also own a family home near Windsor, for which they pay £307,200 (about $571,000 Canadian) annually, the Associated Press reported.
A police officer walks past the gates of the Royal Lodge in Windsor on February 19, 2026, after British police arrested Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
AFP Photos/Alberto Bezzali
The amount the former prince received from rented properties was not disclosed in the report, an omission noted by Margaret Hodge, a Labor member of the House of Lords, as a cause for concern.
She said: “It is shocking that the National Audit Office has been unable to establish how much money Andrew Mountbatten Windsor received from the properties he let out.”
The audit was carried out at the request of lawmakers after Mountbatten-Windsor was stripped of his royal titles and forced to vacate his home amid revelations about his alleged ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Mountbatten-Windsor moved earlier this year to the Sandringham estate, a royal residence in eastern England.
The police arrested and interrogated him in February over allegations of misconduct in public office.
While Mountbatten-Windsor has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to his ties to Epstein and has never been charged, concerns about his links to the disgraced financier have dogged the royal family for more than a decade.
Buckingham Palace said the audit office’s report “is consistent with the Royal Family’s commitment to transparency. We hope that the findings will help correct, clarify or contextualize a number of points relating to royal properties.”
-With files from The Associated Press
&Copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
