So how WILL he foot bill for his costly humiliation?
■ Andrew told to come clean over ‘£10m’ bill ■ Sale of Swiss chalet could help him pay
PRINCE Andrew faced questions last night over how he would fund his dramatic settlement with accuser Virginia Roberts.
Lawyers for the Duke of York agreed an out-of-court resolution to the civil case against him, and a ‘substantial donation’ to Miss Roberts’ charity to support victims of sexual abuse.
Details of the settlement were not made public, but it is thought he has agreed to pay at least £7.5 million. Extra costs for Andrew’s team of lawyers, plus of Miss Roberts’ legal expenses, are believed to be about £2.5 million.
Politicians and campaigners called for transparency over how the settlement will be funded.
Labour MP Nadia Whittome tweeted: ‘This settlement isn’t some act of philanthropy – it prevents this case going to court. We must also ask: where is the money coming from?’
Graham Smith, from campaign group Republic, said taxpayers ‘deserve to know where the money is coming from for a settlement, which we must assume is in the millions, if not tens of millions’.
Before Andrew was engulfed by the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, he appeared to enjoy the lifestyle of a multi-millionaire, complete with jetset holidays and luxury properties. He received £249,000 a year from the Civil List before the arrangements changed in 1992. He then received an annual allowance to fund his Buckingham Palace office while undertaking royal duties, paid by the Queen from the private income she received from the Duchy of Lancaster estate.
But Andrew was forced to step back from public life in 2019 after the furore over his disastrous Newsnight interview on his friendship with convicted sex offender Epstein. Since then it is not known what financial support he receives from his mother, leaving his modest pension from his time in the Royal Navy as his only visible income.
His previous official role as the UK Special Representative for Trade and Investment was unpaid, although taxpayers did fund his substantial travel costs and roundthe-clock security.
He is believed to have relied on handouts from the Queen, personal investments and bequests from family members such as the Queen Mother.
It has been suggested that the Queen has used her private income to help her second son with his legal bills. But royal insiders said it would be ‘inconceivable’ for her to contribute to a payout to Miss Roberts to settle her sexual abuse claim.
Courtiers have tried to distance
‘The Royal Family aren’t paying’
the monarch from the US court case, and any attempt to intervene would risk a PR disaster.
One source of income may have come from the sale of Sunninghill Park, the 12-bedroom country house near Windsor which was a wedding gift from the Queen.
The vast property went unsold for five years before it was suddenly bought in 2007 for £15 million – £3 million over the asking price – by Timur Kulibayev, son-in-law of Andrew’s friend Nursultan Nazarbayev, the former autocratic ruler of Kazakhstan.
Andrew now lives in Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park, the former home of the Queen Mother, on a preferential but undisclosed 100year lease from the Crown Estate.
He and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson share the sprawling grade II-listed house but could move out to minimise costs, although it would not bring them any extra income.
The Yorks bought an £18million ski chalet in the Swiss resort of Verbier in 2014 but put it on the market following a legal dispute with its former owner.
French socialite Isabelle de Rouvre took legal action after a final £5 million instalment on Chalet Helora was not paid, but said the debt was settled last year, clearing the way for it to be sold.
It was put on the market for around £18million, but it was not clear how much of the £13million mortgage remains. Lawyer Mark Stephens said the sale of the chalet could fund the court settlement with Miss Roberts. He added: ‘Essentially, it gives him the wherewithal to pay this from his own resources, because the Queen and the Royal Family have made clear that they’re not paying his legal costs, and they’re certainly not paying any damages.’
In November 2019, The Mail on Sunday reported that the duke was involved in a business venture with financier and property developer David Rowland, based in a Caribbean tax haven.
A spokesman for the duke said they would not comment ‘on the veracity or otherwise’ of the report, adding that he was ‘entitled to a degree of privacy in conducting his entirely legitimate personal financial affairs’.
Andrew’s representatives declined to comment on how the US court settlement would be funded.