Some people expect to receive letters in the mail filled with cash and checks on their birthday. For others, a knock on the door by those kind of cops is a welcome gift. For Prince Andrew, his 66th birthday started with a trip to the booking station in handcuffs.
The disgraced second son of Queen Elizabeth II was escorted out of his temporary Norfolk home on Thursday morning by authorities who are investigating the former prince for possible misconduct while in public office.
Authorities are looking into an allegation claiming Prince Andrew—now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor—shared confidential information with Jeffrey Epstein while acting as the U.K.’s trade envoy.
Andrew has denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.
Thames Valley police issued a statement on Thursday morning saying they “arrested a man in his sixties from Norfolk on suspicion of misconduct in public office and are carrying out searches at addresses in Berkshire and Norfolk,” adding “the man remains in police custody at this time” but will not be naming the arrested man.
Andrew has been staying on King Charles’ Sandringham estate in Norfolk after being ordered to leave his 30-room Windsor Royal Lodge mansion by the King earlier this month. The former prince’s estrangement from the royal family is the least of his woes, as the prince’s funds are running low amid legal troubles.
Money troubles
Andrew’s financial standing has long been shrouded in secrecy among the Royal family, the Windsors, and their tax accountants. The former prince has been able to keep his financial affairs a secret for years through inventive uses of confidentiality clauses from his dealings with mainly wealthy foreign people.
However, after he reached a settled in a case stemming from his alleged abuse of Virginia Giuffre and his fall from grace that ensued, Andrew’s money troubles have come into public light.
His net worth is estimated to between £3 million and £3.7 million ($5 million), a staggering contrast to his brother Charles, whose wealth is estimated to be about £640 million. (The king inherited over $500 million in personal assets following the Queen’s death in 2022.) This, despite his 40-year career as a working royal in which he was reported to have received approximately £13 million in public and royal-household funding, according to The Guardian. His only declared source of income is a paltry £20,000 a year, stemming from his years in the navy between 1979 and 2001. Having reached the age of 66, he is now eligible for a state pension of £230.25 per week, The Guardian notes, although he is facing public pressure to donate the pension to charity in the U.K.
The Prince and the Pauper
The former prince has taken to selling properties and borrowing funds from his family—including £7 million from the late Queen—to pay for the settlement with Giuffre, estimated to cost him about £12 million ($16.3 million). He is reported to have not paid back a dime of that loan. Earlier in 2007, he sold Sunninghill Park to a Kazakh billionaire for £15 million (about $30 million at the time), reports the BBC.
In 2021, Giuffre filed a U.S. civil lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault, which led to a major television interview that forced him to step back from public life. To avoid a trial, Andrew and Giuffre settled out of court a year later, the same year he sold his Swiss ski resort property, Chalet Helora, according to The Guardian, for approximately £19 million ($25.5 million). However, due to the heavy mortgage debt on the property, the sale generated little to no profit for the former prince.
King Charles recently cut Andrew’s £1 million annual allowance and stopped paying for his £3 million-a-year private security, the Gloucestershire Live reported. This forced Andrew to reportedly arrange “cut-price” private security, possibly funded by “Middle Eastern money” or wealthy contacts.
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