Last night, it was revealed that Prince Andrew has not been paying rent for his Royal Lodge mansion for the past 20 years.

In a surprising development related to the ongoing royal controversy, an unredacted version of his lease disclosed that although he paid £1 million to secure the lease in 2003 and invested £7.5 million in renovations, the Duke of York has only been required to pay “one peppercorn (if demanded)” of rent annually since he took possession of the estate.

This arrangement is because Andrew is considered to have prepaid the rent—estimated at approximately £260,000 per year—through his substantial investment in upgrading the grand residence.

As a result, if Andrew were to vacate the mansion before his lease expires in 2078, the Crown Estate would be obligated to reimburse him around half a million pounds.

The Times newspaper obtained the agreement following pressure from MPs and activists, which is likely to fuel further public discontent about Andrew’s perceived “privileges.”

Nevertheless, insiders have conveyed to the Daily Mail that there are lingering questions regarding how the King’s brother manages to maintain the expansive 30-bedroom property, which incurs multi-million-pound running expenses.

The Daily Mail can exclusively reveal that Andrew is not believed to have received any significant inheritance from the Queen or Queen Mother, raising fresh questions about how he can afford to stay in the property – particularly when he now receives no personal allowance from the King, or public funding.

Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson (pictured in 2019) are holed up in their grace-and-favour Royal Lodge amid increased scrutiny over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein

Calls are growing for Prince Andrew to be kicked out of the Royal Lodge (pictured), the lavish Windsor mansion he shares with his ex-wife

Charles, 76, has desperately tried to persuade his younger brother to downsize and move out of the grade II-listed mansion in recent years. 

He believes many of Andrew’s problems – particularly those that saw him drawn to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein and other shady characters – stem from chasing a lifestyle he simply cannot afford.

But Andrew, 65, has stubbornly insisted that he has a cast-iron lease on the house. And as long as he pays the rent, the King has no legal right to throw him out.

The revelation comes as:

• A devastating memoir by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre is published today, in which she doubles down on allegations she was forced to have sex with Andrew on three occasions – a claim the prince strongly denies;
• A growing chorus of MPs demanded legislation to legally strip Andrew of his royal titles, including that of the Duke of York, through an Act of Parliament after he only voluntarily gave them up last Friday;
• Scotland Yard admitted an internal probe into allegations that the prince obtained Ms Giuffre’s social security number and demanded that a police protection officer try to ‘dig up dirt’ on her could take weeks – if the records even still exist;
• Buckingham Palace removed Andrew’s former title, Duke of York, from its website, although his official biography remains;
• Andrew’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson changed her social media profiles from ‘Sarah the Duchess’ to ‘sarahMFergie15’;
• Princess Beatrice visited her father at Royal Lodge in a public show of support.

Beatrice and her sister Eugenie are said to have pulled out of a charity ball in London on Saturday amid the torrent of unedifying claims around their father.

While details of the Queen’s will have never been made public, it is thought that Andrew was not left sufficient funds to sustain his apparently lavish lifestyle.

Royal Lodge, in the heart of Windsor Great Park, was the home of the Queen Mother, and was leased to Andrew after her death. 

The Crown Estate approved the arrangement, saying its location and ‘security concerns’ made it difficult to rent out on the open market. 

Princess Beatrice drives from Royal Lodge, home of her father Prince Andrew and mother Sarah Ferguson, at Windsor in Berkshire on Monday 

Beatrice is the first from her immediate family to break cover after her father was stripped of his dukedom and titles 

Andrew had to carry out £7.5million of refurbishment work when he took the property on in 2003. He was given a 75-year lease in return for a one-off payment of £1million.

His rent was believed to be upwards of £260,000 a year, with a legal requirement to keep the property in a good state of repair.

However, sources at Windsor say the house is a virtual ‘money pit’ and there have long been claims Andrew has been struggling with its upkeep. 

Until now it had been widely assumed that without any public funding or private allowance from his brother, the prince had been dipping into personal investments and family bequests to bankroll the property.

The revelation over his inheritance will inevitably raise questions about how he can afford to live there. Andrew also has to fund his own security after losing his official police bodyguard. 

The King had previously said that if his brother downsized and moved to a smaller property on the estate – potentially Frogmore Cottage, recently vacated by Harry – he would reinstate his personal allowance and help fund his security.

But after Andrew point-blank refused, it is not known whether the offer is still even on the table.

The headlines have been an unfortunate distraction for the King, who yesterday made a moving visit to Manchester to visit the Heaton Park synagogue that was targeted in a terror attack earlier this month.