How does he pay for it all? The mystery of Prince Andrew’s money

The Guardian ^ | 25 October 2025 | Rob Evans

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Public records show that the late queen’s second son received official payments from the public purse as a working royal between 1978 and 2010. In 2011, David Cameron, while prime minister, decided to change the way the monarchy was funded by taxpayers.

As part of this change, Cameron, a self-described “passionate monarchist”, deliberately prevented the regular publication of how much public money Andrew and the other Windsors received.

The last published figure for how much public money Andrew received is £249,000 a year in 2010. After that, the queen made direct payments to him from her own private wealth while he carried out royal engagements.

When Andrew retired from the navy in 2001, he enjoyed a measure of popularity as he was well regarded for his naval service, particularly fighting in the Falklands war.

He could have lived on the income he was receiving from the public purse – at £249,000, a significant amount for ordinary Britons – and carry out good works as a diligent royal.

But he wanted money – and lots of it.

Andrew was the subject of a series of controversies over his close links with unsavoury foreign dictators and businessmen. He took a holiday with a Libyan gun smuggler, criticised a Serious Fraud Office investigation into corruption involving the arms giant BAE and lunched at Buckingham Palace with a leading member of the subsequently deposed Tunisian dictatorship.

His dealings with the elite of Kazakhstan show a flavour of what he was up to. In 2007, he sold Sunninghill, a mansion near Ascot that had been a wedding present from the queen, to the son-in-law of the autocratic president of Kazakhstan for £3m over the £12m asking price. Andrew made regular official and private trips to the country.

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TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: epstein; epsteinfiles; monarchy; princeandrew; royals; uk

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Andrew’s only current source of income that is declared is the pension he gets from his days in the navy between 1979 and 2001. This is said to amount to £20,000 a year – hardly enough to buy chalet Helora, the lodge in Switzerland that he acquired in 2014 for a reported £18m, nor to maintain the Royal Lodge, a Georgian mansion sitting in 40 hectares of secluded grounds in Windsor Great Park.

[glorgau]

Prince Andrew is a “brand ambassador” in much the same sense as Dylan Mulvaney.

[SkyDancer]

English tax payers pay.

[StAnDeliver]

Charles, under pain of order from the Queen, gave Andrew the money to maintain (and renovate!) the Royal Lodge. That has been the sticking point on the removal, Andrew wants Charles to make him whole on the Lodge remake, again with Charles money.

It's hilarious, the whole inbred family is a sham. John Lydon had it right.

[Captain Peter Blood]

I believe that was sold sometime back..

[Dave911]

Exactly, totally despicable royals live high off the sweat of hard working taxpayers. Never could understand why the people in the UK have put up with these inbred grifters for so many years.

[cgbg]

“Never could understand why the people in the UK have put up with these inbred grifters for so many years.”

They have been brainwashed by BBC propaganda.

Why do they do propaganda?

Because it works.

Without it the entire Royal Family would have been guillotined many decades ago...

[SkyDancer]

They, the royals, say their money comes from properties and investments. And the money and land came from whom exactly?

[Moltke]

“Prince” Andrew? That’s Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, commoner, no titles, no hono(u)rs.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Indeed, the above was published just before the name change announcement.