The battle over Royal Lodge dominated the headlines for much of 2024 as King Charles attempted to shift his younger brother Prince Andrew from his grace-and-favour home.
But the Duke of York – who lives there with his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson – is no pushover and he appears to have come out on top for now after securing a mysterious funding source to pay the bills.
Fergie is equally attached to Royal Lodge, as she demonstrated many years ago when she stormed out of a lunch in a swanky New York hotel to celebrate a new business deal to promote Wedgwood china and Waterford crystal.
The blast from the past was revealed by former Fleet Street royal correspondent Richard Mineards, who often appears on US TV to discuss the Windsors. By sheer coincidence, his main job is with the Montecito Journal – Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s local newspaper.
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In his latest column, Mineards writes: “While other hacks were peppering her with inane questions, I asked Fergie, given her new contract, if she would at last be moving out of Royal Lodge, the Queen Mother’s former home near Windsor Castle, having said previously she couldn’t afford to run any of the homes offered her by her mother-in-law Queen Elizabeth.
“She was clearly not amused by my query and walked out of the room.”
Sarah Ferguson visits the Wedgwood pottery factory in Stoke-on-Trent in September 2000
(Image: Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images)
He added that Lord Piers Wedgwood “said I had asked a perfectly reasonable question given her new contract”, which was said to be worth £500,000 a year when it was signed in 1999.
Later that day, Mineards was sent to cover a charity fundraiser at the Regency Hotel on Park Avenue, where the duchess was “glad handing everybody in the room – that is until she saw me and darted to the other side of the room”.
The event was staged to raise money for Chances for Children, a charity set up by Fergie and James Ogilvy, the son of Princess Alexandra. Mineards continued: “James noticed and asked me what had happened. I explained the lunchtime walkout and he rolled his eyes.”
Richard Mineards appears on CBSN Los Angeles
It comes after the duchess, now 65, walked out of an interview with Australia’s 60 Minutes after she was asked about the ‘cash for access’ claims printed by the News of the World following a ‘fake sheikh’ sting in 2010. She later sued over the story and the matter was settled out of court.
Mineards, who is still waiting for an exclusive interview with the two A-list royals who moved onto his patch in southern California in 2020, concludes: “Such are the joys of covering the Royal Family…”
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