PRINCE Andrew has ballooned up towards 15 stone after comfort eating during an uneasy standoff with his brother over the future of his Royal Lodge home.
Royal insiders have told how the Duke of York has abandoned a diet he began at the start of the year which was said to have put him in a foul mood.
Andrew, 64, has a history of yo-yoing weight, like his ex-wife Fergie, and a fondness for school dinner-style food that has not always been helpful to his waistline, according to royal authors who have followed his life.
“He often diets, a bit like Fergie, who has been a regular dieter, “ said biographer Andrew Lownie, who has spoken to 100 people so far in preparation for a book about Andrew and his ex-wife that he is writing in spite of the Duke’s efforts to persuade friends not to speak to him.
But Lownie suggested the diets were often short-lived. “He can go up and down between 13 and 15 stone,” he said.
Royal biographer Margaret Holder said Andrew had a history of weight problems stemming from his upbringing.
“He was quite chubby as a child but then so were Charles and Anne at times if you look back at the pictures,” she said, acknowledging that there was a fashion for bonnie babies after the war.
“He was institutionalised from childhood, from palace to boarding school, to Navy, and back to palace.”
His favourite food is said to be a Sainsbury’s meat and potato pie, so much so that the RAF used to buy them to serve him on royal flights when he was still undertaking official royal duties, and steamed syrup pudding.
The royal author thinks Andrew’s current weight struggle is a product of the situation in which he finds himself after being forced to stand down from official duties.
“What’s he got to do all day? He goes out riding and plays a bit of golf but we hear he’s at home a lot just watching television. I think he is a comfort eater basically,” she said.
Lownie, whose biography of Edward VIII, Traitor King, was critically acclaimed, disagrees. “I don’t think things are as bad for him as some people suggest,” he said.
“He was up playing golf in the Highlands the other day. He spends a lot of time in the Middle East.
"He is getting all the benefits of being royal without the responsibility and the scrutiny.”
I think he is a comfort eater basically
Margaret Holder
Andrew’s latest weight gain, shown when he was photographed out riding, comes against a backdrop of tensions with King Charles, who would like his brother to move out of 30-room Royal Lodge and downsize to five-bedroom Frogmore Cottage, Harry and Meghan’s former home in the grounds of Windsor Castle.
Royal sources have acknowledged that the King has no power to evict Andrew, as his brother’s lease is with the independent Crown Estate, but wants to cut financial aid to his brother and is concerned that he might not be able to afford to stay here without it.
Andrew is determined to stay at Royal Lodge, which he shares with his ex-wife, who lives at one end of the house.
Lownie believes the narrative that he is struggling to pay the £1m bill for repairs and maintenance to the property, the former home of the Queen Mother, is exaggerated.
He often diets, a bit like Fergie, who has been a regular dieter
Andrew Lownie
The author believes the Duke has money from a trust fund set up by the Queen and Prince Philip when he was born, from money he inherited from his mother and the Queen Mother, and also from the £19million sale of a Swiss ski chalet in Verbier he jointly owned with Fergie.
“He has money, he just doesn’t want to spend it.
"I think he is holding out for something from the King, perhaps his daughters becoming working royals,” Lownie said.
There have been signs in the past few days of scaffolding outside the house and maintenance work beginning, perhaps on the peeling paint of its facade.
PRINCE Andrew’s reputation is damaged beyond repair and he will never be able to engineer a return to public life, according to one of Britain’s top PR gurus.
Brand and culture expert Nick Ede, who runs East of Eden PR agency, called the shamed royal “deluded” for thinking he could ever return to royal duties and urged him to give up and ‘enjoy his life’ in exile.
It follows the release of Scoop - a Netflix movie based on the 2019 interview he gave to Newsnight.
Nick said: “There is no way back for him.
“I think you know this perpetual idea that he could still be back. Nobody cares. He hasn't got fans.
“There's nobody out there who's going ‘We want to see Prince Andrew’, not one single person. I think he has to realise that. But I think it's going to take a long, long time for him to actually understand. It's very deluded.
"In my opinion, the best thing that he could do is just enjoy his life. He's got gorgeous daughters. He has a great relationship with Fergie, he has a lovely house.
“Just live a quiet life.”
Reflecting on the interview five years ago - the fallout of which saw Andrew step back from royal duties "for the foreseeable future" - Nick compared the fallout to Frost vs Nixon and said he would have urged him not to do it.
He said: “If I had been advising him, I would say, go quiet, be quiet, just go to ground. You know you're a prince. Enjoy the life that you lead, but do not open this can of worms, because that's what it is.
“There was no admission that a relationship with somebody like Epstein was terribly toxic. There was no idea that there were loads of victims of trafficking whose lives were completely ruined by Epstein. He didn't seem to think that the association he had with that man was anything but positive.
“I think his worst gaffe was obviously being in that interview and agreeing to it in the first place, for not realising that he's actually going to be interviewed by a very, very good journalist who is going to ask him questions which he might not like.
“But I think what this has done is really shown how archaic Prince Andrew is in his opinions and thoughts.
"Read the room. He's never read a room at all.”
