According to reports, the King is preparing to withdraw private funds for the security operation at the Duke of York’s home.
As the release of hundreds of pages of court documents linked to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal continues apace, pressure on Andrew mounts.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment but The Telegraph said Andrew would have to cover the Royal Lodge’s multimillion-pound security costs himself if he wanted to stay at the 30-room mansion in Windsor Great Park.
The move will be seen as the monarch’s apparent estrangement from her younger brother, who walked to church with the royal family on Christmas Day less than two weeks ago.
The latest legal documents detail how Epstein’s former maid claimed Andrew received daily massages while she spent “weeks” at the pedophile financier’s Florida home.
Juan Alessi, who worked at Epstein’s home in Palm Beach, said both Andrew and his ex-wife, Sarah, Duchess of York, were friends with Epstein and now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.
The Duke greeted well-wishers outside the church in Sandringham, Norfolk, on 25 December; Sarah also returned to the royal family and was by his side.
But as the New Year begins, previous allegations that Andrew sexually assaulted Virginia Giuffre three times, including at an orgy, when he was 17, have resurfaced in newly released court documents.
He vehemently denies the allegations and in 2022 paid Ms. Giuffre millions to settle a civil lawsuit out of court, saying he had never met her.
The Metropolitan Police said no new investigation had been launched, but Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer, the former head of the Crown Prosecution Service, said where “credible” allegations were made they should be investigated.
The anti-monarchist group Republic reported the Duke to Scotland Yard and called for the accusations to be properly investigated in the UK.
Mr Alessi was questioned about the duke’s relationship with Maxwell and Epstein during an interview videotaped under oath in 2009.
Attorney Katherine Ezell asked if Andrew and Sarah were getting massages at her home in Florida.
Mr Alessi replied: “Prince Andrew did it.
“I think Sarah was only there once and for a short time. I don’t think he slept there. I can’t remember.
“I think he was visiting Wellington and he came home and we met him.
“But Prince Andrew, yes, Prince Andrew spent weeks with us.”
Ms Ezell then asked: “Where will he sleep?”
Mr Alessi said: “It’s in the main room, the main guest bedroom. “That was the blue room.”
The lawyer then said: “So when he came and stayed, did he often get massages during that time?
Mr Alessi replied: “I would say daily massages.”
In a subsequent interview under oath, an Epstein associate identified only as a “witness” in the documents claimed that Maxwell had taken the pedophile financier to England “to introduce him to the royal family.”
Staff said there were “many photographs” of the duke with Epstein at the property where they worked.
They also said they had not seen the duke visit the property but that he was “looking for it”.
In a resurfaced videotaped interview with Maxwell, the disgraced socialite said she did not know how Epstein met the duke and insisted on not introducing them.
However, Maxwell admitted that there was a Duke of York dummy in Epstein’s New York apartment.
Andrew was accused by Johanna Sjoberg of groping her breast while posing with what was said to be a Spitting Image puppet of herself at Epstein’s Manhattan home in 2001.
Maxwell said he did not remember the cartoon placing its hand on Ms. Sjoberg’s chest.
“There was a puppet, not a puppet, there was a, I don’t really know how to describe it… a caricature of Prince Andrew in Jeffrey’s house,” he said.
A US judge has ordered the unsealing of hundreds of documents as part of Ms Giuffre’s previously settled civil lawsuit against Maxwell, filed in 2015.
Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal prison in New York in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. It was stated that the death was suicide.
It was previously reported that the Duke was offered the much smaller Frogmore Cottage, home of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, in a bid to move away from the Royal Lodge.
However, the duke was said to have signed a 75-year lease for the mansion in 2003.
Andrew attended the King and Queen’s coronation in May, despite stepping away from public life in 2019 due to his friendship with Epstein.