By Marisa Laudadio
7:35pm PST, Mar 6, 2026
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Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's stunning fall from grace has landed him somewhere very different from the grand mansion he once called home.
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After King Charles III forced his brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor out of Royal Lodge (pictured) — the 30-room mansion near Windsor Castle where the former Duke of York lived for more than two decades — the ex-royal was relocated to a smaller property, Wood Farm. It features a five-bedroom farmhouse that sits about two miles from Sandringham House, where senior royals traditionally celebrate Christmas, on the king's privately owned Sandringham estate in Norfolk, England. Wood Farm was once a favorite retreat of Charles and Andrew's late father, Prince Philip, who spent much of his retirement there.
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According to former royal butler
Grant Harrold, Wood Farm (pictured) might be modest compared to royal palaces and estates, but it still has plenty of charm. "Wood Farm is a very cute farmhouse," Harrold, who used to work for King Charles III, told Reach PLC, which publishes Britain's
Daily Express, calling it "the kind of place many of us would dream of living in." But the ex-palace staffer also admitted, "It's no Royal Lodge, not by any means." He explained that in addition to its bedrooms, the property includes "a sitting room and dining room, plus a separate kitchen and a utility room."
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"It's got a few guest rooms, so it's small and humble. It's very different in scale," former royal butler Grant Harrold said. "I remember being quite surprised at the garden — it's quite plain." Though Harrold "wouldn't class this as a royal home," he thinks "that's why most of the royals" — including the late Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II — "liked it so much." Explained the former royal staffer, "It felt a lot more 'normal.'"
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Wood Farm has also hosted other members of the royal family over the years including
Prince Harry,
Kate Middleton and
Prince William before their heartbreaking rift. "I went there with
Prince William and Harry. Prince Philip used to let them go and have the weekends with their friends, and Kate used to join them," former royal butler Grant Harrold recalled. "It was fun. Kate used to take on the role of 'lady of the house' during the visits. She was in charge of organizing the meals, organizing the guests, organizing which rooms people were in."
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But Wood Farm is only a temporary stop for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who was arrested there — a few weeks after moving in — on suspicion of misconduct in public office after U.S. Justice Department emails suggested he'd shared sensitive government information with predator
Jeffrey Epstein while serving as Britain's trade envoy. The former Duke of York is expected to move into nearby Marsh Farm (pictured), which reportedly has five bedrooms, once renovations are completed in the spring of 2026. "Not much is known about [Marsh Farm],"
Robert Jobson, author of
The Windsor Legacy: A Royal Dynasty of Secrets, Scandal and Survival, told
Vanity Fair. "It's quite boggy, a bit of a shell. It's not finished yet."
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Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor hasn't exactly been embracing his new accommodations since King Charles III evicted him from sprawling Royal Lodge in January. Shortly before the former Duke of York's arrest, a Norfolk source told royal biographer
Robert Hardman, who wrote about it for
DailyMail.com, that the exiled former prince "has done nothing but complain since he got there." According to the source, "It's extraordinary. He hardly seemed bothered about the [Jeffrey] Epstein scandal. He was much more worried about where he was supposed to keep his horses. He was even grumbling about where to park his car."
