PRINCE Andrew rose to 15 stone after eating comfortably during an uncomfortable stand-off with his brother over the future of their Royal Lodge home.
Royal sources told how the Duke of York abandoned a diet he started at the start of the year, which allegedly left him in a bad mood.
André, 64 years old, has a history from the weight of the yo-yo, like your ex-wife Fergieand a taste for school dinner-style food that didn’t always help his waistline, according to real authors who followed his life.
“He often diets, a bit like Fergie, who diets regularly,” 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 despite best efforts. from the Duke to persuade his friends not to speak to him.
But Lownie suggested that diets were often short-lived. “It 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 very chubby as a child, but sometimes Charles and Anne were too, if you look at the pictures,” she said, acknowledging that there was a fashion for Bonnie babies after the war.
“He was institutionalized from childhood, from the palace to boarding school to the Navy and back to the palace.”
His favorite 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 carrying out official royal duties, and steamed syrup pudding.
The royal author believes Andrew’s current weight struggle is a product of the situation he finds himself in after being forced to step down from official duties.
“What does he have to do all day? He goes horseback riding and plays golf, but we hear he stays at home a lot just watching television. I think he basically eats comfort,” 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 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 a royal without the responsibility and scrutiny.”
I think he’s a comfort eater basically
Margaret HolderRoyal biographer
Andrew’s latest weight gain, shown when he was photographed riding, comes against a backdrop of tensions with King Charles, who would like his brother to move out of the 30-bedroom Royal Lodge and downsize to the five-bedroom Frogmore Cottage, formerly Harry and Meghan. house in the grounds of Windsor Castle.
Royal sources acknowledged that the king does not have power to evict Andrew, as his brother’s lease is with the independent Crown Estate, but wants to cut off financial aid to his brother and is worried that he won’t be able to stay here without her.
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 £1 million bill for repairs and maintenance at the property, the former home of the Queen Mother, is exaggerated.
He often diets, a bit like Fergie who diets regularly
Andrew Lowniebiographer
The author believes that the duke money from a trust fund created by the Queen and Prince Philip when he was born, with money he inherited from his mother and the Queen Mother, and also from the £19 million sale of a Swiss ski chalet in Verbier, which he jointly owned with Fergie.
“He has money, he just doesn’t want to spend it.
“I think he’s expecting something from the king, maybe his daughters will become working royals,” Lownie said.
In recent days there have been signs of scaffolding outside the house and the start of maintenance work, perhaps on the peeling paint on the facade.
‘There is no way back for Prince Andrew,’ says PR guru
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PRINCE Andrew’s reputation is irreparably damaged and he will never be able to engineer a return to public life, according to one of Britain’s leading PR gurus.
Brand and culture expert Nick Ede, who runs PR agency East of Eden, called the embarrassed royal “deluded” for thinking he could ever return to royal duties and encouraged him to give it up and ‘enjoy his life’ in exile.
It follows the release of Scoop – a Netflix film 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 might still be back. Nobody cares. He has no fans.
“There is no one out there who says ‘We want to see Prince Andrew’, not a single person. I think he has to realize that. But I think it’s going to take a long, long time for him to really understand. He is very deluded.
“In my opinion, the best thing he could do is enjoy life. He has beautiful daughters. He has a great relationship with Fergie, he has a beautiful house.
“Just live a peaceful life.”
Reflecting on the interview from five years ago – the fallout of which led to Andrew stepping back from royal duties “for the foreseeable future” – Nick compared the fallout to Frost vs Nixon and said he would have encouraged him not to do it.
He said: “If I was advising him, I would say, stay still, stay still, just get on the ground. You know you’re a prince. Enjoy the life you lead, but don’t open that can of worms, because that’s what it is.
“There was no admission that a relationship with someone like Epstein was terribly toxic. There was no idea that there were many trafficking victims whose lives were completely ruined by Epstein. He didn’t seem to think that the association he had with that man was anything other than positive.
“I think his worst faux pas was obviously being in that interview and agreeing to it in the first place, not realizing that he was actually going to be interviewed by a very, very good journalist who was going to ask him questions that he might not have liked. .
“But I think what this did really showed how archaic Prince Andrew is in his views and thoughts.
“Read the room. He never read a room.”
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