A documentary has claimed Queen Elizabeth left Andrew enough money to continue his lifestyle (Image: Getty)
A documentary has suggested that Prince Andrew’s source of funding for Royal Lodge could be his late mother Queen Elizabeth II.
The Channel 5 programme discussed the position of the controversial royal and how Queen Elizabeth II may have left him some money in her will to enable him to survive after her death.
Andrew, 64, has remained out of the public eye since revelations about his friendship with the now dead convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and questions over his dealings with an alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo.
Andrew has been seen in public only a few times since his seismic interview with Emily Maitlis in 2019, including at the funerals of his mother, father, and the Coronation of his brother King Charles.
In the documentary it is claimed: “Some reports suggest that the late Queen may have left her son enough money in her will to enable him to maintain his extravagant lifestyle.”
Prince Andrew was allegedly Queen Elizabeth II’s favourite child (Image: Getty)
Richard Kay, a friend of Princess Diana, added that he believed any financial planning would have been done well in advance of the late-Queen’s death with the knowledge Andrew would be a “problem” after her passing.
He said: “We kind of think that the queen must have left Andrew something. I suspect it was done long before she died knowing, as she neared the end of her life, that Andrew was going to be a problem going forward, but we simply don’t know. Andrew you must remember was, it’s always said, her favourite son.”
Since moving out of the public gaze, there has been mass speculation about what life is like for Andrew and how he is spending his final few decades away from the limelight.
According to several royal and PR experts the Duke of York is focussing on things close to his heart during his semi-isolation at Royal Lodge.
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columnist and broadcaster Carole Malone said: “His life is golf and horses and Sarah (Ferguson) and their kids ( and ), and thank God he has them because I think he’d have very little else.”
PR expert Mark Borkowski told The Sun’s Royal Exclusive podcast: “I think he just needs to carry on playing golf and driving his cars around the estate and whatever.” He added there was “no way” anyone would go near him for work after the scandals that had hit him in the past 10 years.
Despite this his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, has stood by him. In a candid interview with The Sunday Times she said, what some are saying was a reference to Andrew, that she was “left to look after a sad man, which is sort of what I’m doing now”.
The Duke of York’s representatives have been approached for comment.