New revelations have emerged about Prince Andrew: that he had a close relationship with a man accused of being a Chinese spy.
The man described as a “close confidante” of the Duke of York has lost an appeal over a decision to bar him from entering the UK on national security grounds.
Judges were told that officials claimed the man, known only as H6, had been in a position to generate relationships between prominent UK figures and senior Chinese officials “that could be leveraged for political interference purposes”.
It’s yet another blow for Prince Andrew’s reputation following the Jeffrey Epstein and Virginia Giuffre scandals – for which he has denied wrongdoing – that have led to the Royal Family increasingly distancing itself from him.
But as it does so, how does the duke continue to fund his lifestyle? Here, Yahoo News UK take a look.
What is Prince Andrew’s net worth?
There have long been questions over the duke’s finances – and his net worth is not known.
Andrew Lownie, who has written a biography on Prince Andrew and his ex-wife the Duchess of York, which is out next year, told Yahoo News UK we are unlikely to ever know given the lack of transparency around royal finances.
“It’s the fact royal wills are sealed so we don’t know what is inherited and what they pass on,” he said.
“Tax returns are not public. And they tend to operate through ‘front men’: we saw this with the Chinese case and Dominic Hampshire [Prince Andrew’s adviser who was named in H6’s appeal case].
“They have front men who do the stuff in Companies House and elsewhere, so it’s very difficult to see what business they are engaged in. It’s only when we have court cases like this that something emerges.”
The Guardian reported last year that when Andrew was a working royal, he received £13m in payments.
Has the Royal Family cut financial ties with Prince Andrew?
The King has seemingly been cutting financial ties with his brother over the past few months.
In August, it was reported Charles had axed the Duke of York’s security team.
His private security had been privately funded by the King after Prince Andrew lost publicly-funded police protection in 2022. But The Sun on Sunday reported that members of the security detail were told their services would not be needed from November.
Then, in November, it was also reported the King was withdrawing the duke’s annual £1m “living allowance”.
According to the serialisation of a new book by royal writer Robert Hardman, published in the Daily Mail, the keeper of the privy purse was “instructed to sever his living allowance” after the duke reportedly refused to move out of the Royal Lodge, a 30-room mansion in Windsor Great Park, into nearby – and smaller – Frogmore Cottage.
Where does Prince Andrew get his money from?
Last month, The Times reported the Andrew had raised the money to stay at Royal Lodge. Sir Michael Stevens, the keeper of the privy purse, reportedly approved the funds as coming from legitimate sources.
Exactly what those sources are, however, remains unknown.
In his book, Hardman suggested the money comes from “contacts in international trade”. Andrew was special representative for international trade and investment between 2001 and 2011.
And Lownie told Yahoo News: “He’s been doing business on his own path for the last 20 years. He made a lot of contacts as special representative.’
He said Andrew’s connections centre around Central Asia, the Middle East and China.
Lownie added that Andrew has “trust funds inherited from the members of the family, so he will be well catered for by several generations of the Royal Family”.
In 2022, Andrew paid a reported £12m to settle a civil case brought by Virginia Giuffre, who accused him of an historic sexual assault, when she was a 17-year-old. Andrew strenuously denied the allegations.
On how he could afford this, Lownie said: “We don’t know. He had money from selling his house in Sunninghill for £15m [in 2017] and a chalet in Switzerland. There’s some suggestion the Queen helped him… but we don’t really know.”
Did the Queen leave Andrew money?
No. The King automatically inherited her £650m Duchy of Lancaster estate when she died in 2022.
Last year, it was reported Andrew was “bewildered” and in “despair” after not receiving any of that money from his brother.
