Kate Middleton and Prince William have temporarily moved closer to disgraced royal Andrew Mountbatten Windsor ahead of his departure from Royal Lodge.
The Telegraph reported on Saturday, November 1, that the Prince and Princess of Wales officially moved in to Forest Lodge in Windsor Great Park, after making a decision to leave their previous home, Adelaide Cottage, earlier this year. The royals were originally supposed to settle into Forest Lodge by Christmas, but construction was finished earlier than planned. (Prince William and Kate are parents to three children: Prince George, 12, Princess Charlotte, 10, and Prince Louis, 7.)
The eight-room Georgian mansion boasts even more amenities than their previous four-room residence, including six bathrooms, a sunken fence for privacy, a tennis court and a large pond.
Royal expert Rebecca English told the Daily Mail in August that the couple intended to stay at Forest Lodge on a permanent basis, even after William is eventually crowned as King.
While Prince William and Middleton may have found their “forever home,” the move has temporarily brought them closer to Mountbatten Windsor. Prince William’s uncle currently lives only two miles away at Royal Lodge.
Mountbatten Windsor’s residency at Royal Lodge has proved to be hugely controversial in the U.K. as his connection to late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein continues to dominate headlines. Buckingham Palace announced on Thursday, October 30, that King Charles III was beginning the process of removing his brother’s “style, titles and honors” as the former Duke of York. (Mountbatten Windsor has denied wrongdoing regarding his connection to Epstein and subsequent claims he sexually assaulted at least one underage girl, Virginia Giuffre, when she was 17 years old in 2001. The former Duke and Giuffre reached a financial settlement in 2022.)
As part of this process, the Palace confirmed that Mountbatten Windsor would surrender the lease of his current home, Royal Lodge, and move to a Sandringham estate that is privately funded by the King.
“Prince Andrew will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. His lease on Royal Lodge has, to date, provided him with legal protection to continue in residence,” Buckingham Palace spokesperson told Us Weekly on Thursday. “Formal notice has now been served to surrender the lease and he will move to alternative private accommodation. These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him.”
Mountbatten Windsor’s living situation had been seen as a lingering problem for the royal family since he secured a very favorable lease for Royal Lodge in 2003. As part of this agreement, Mountbatten Windsor paid £1 million for the 75-year lease, plus agreed to contribute £7.5 million for refurbishments that were completed in 2005 and an additional $2.5 million for a rent buyout. (Mountbatten Windsor never outright owned the property, as Royal Lodge is managed by the royal family’s real estate overseers, the Crown Estate.)
The agreement was referred to as a “peppercorn lease” because it effectively meant that Mountbatten Windsor would only have to pay a nominal sum — or nothing at all — in rent after his initial upfront cost. London’s The Times reported in October 2025 that Mountbatten Windsor had indeed lived at Royal Lodge without paying significant rent for 22 years.
There is no official timeline yet for Mountbatten Windsor to move out of Royal Lodge. His ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, has also lived at Royal Lodge since 2008, despite her divorce from Mountbatten Windsor 12 years earlier. She will now have to find new accommodations as well.
Meanwhile, Us learned that Prince William fully supported King Charles’ decision to take punitive action against Mountbatten Windsor. There have been longstanding reports of friction between the prince and his uncle, with William favoring strong action to be taken over Mountbatten Windsor’s friendship with Epstein and his girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. (Maxwell was convicted of child sex trafficking charges in June 2022 and sentenced to serve 240 months in federal prison. Epstein died by suicide at age 66 in 2019 following his arrest on federal sex trafficking charges.)
If you or someone you know is a human trafficking victim, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.
