The Duke of York took over Royal Lodge from his grandmother, the Queen Mother, who lived there until her death at the age of 101 in 2002.

He moved in the following year, paying nearly £7million to carry out extensive repairs and renovations on the property.

According to The Times, if Prince Andrew leaves the property during the first 25 years of his tenure, he would be entitled to get some of the initial outlay back on a sliding scale.

Rather than a grace and favour residence, Royal Lodge is let under a commercial lease agreement with the Crown Estate.

The Duke of York paid an initial £1million with a notional rent understood to be £260,000 a year.

If Prince Andrew dies, however, the lease can only pass to members of his immediate family.

These would most likely be his two daughters, Princess Beatrice, 35, and Princess Eugenie, 34.

The sisters spent much of their childhood and teenage years at Royal Lodge, with Eugenie even holding her wedding reception there.

While not part of the leased property, the private Royal Chapel where Princess Beatrice married Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi in July 2020 is also within the Lodge’s boundary.

Currently, Beatrice and Edoardo live in an apartment in St James’s Palace.

Edoardo’s stepson Wolfie, eight, from a previous relationship, also spends a lot of time there alongside his half-sister Sienna, two, the daughter of Beatrice and her husband.

Meanwhile, Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank split their time between the UK and Portugal.

Jack, 38, began working in marketing, sales and promotion for property developer Michael Meldman’s Discovery Land Company in Portugal in 2022.