King Charles and Queen Camilla have been pictured arriving for Sunday service after the monarch axed Prince Andrew’s security team.
Charles, 75, and Camilla, 77, were snapped heading to Crathie Kirk – a regular place of worship for the royal family while staying at their summer residence in Scotland.
Charles is currently on his summer break but has been updated daily on the unrest in the country and recently spoke out to praise people’s ‘resilience’ in countering aggression.
It comes after it was reported Prince Andrew could be forced out of his £30million Windsor home by October after King Charles fired his ten-man private security team.
King Charles and Queen Camilla have been pictured arriving at Crathie Kirk for Sunday service
They appeared in good spirits and waved as they were pictured in the car
Charles, 75, and Camilla, 77, were snapped heading to Crathie Kirk – a regular place of worship for the royal family while staying at their summer residence in Scotland
King Charles waved cheerily out of the window as Queen Camilla smiled next to him
Prince Andrew has lived in £30million property for decades. Pictured: The white coloured facade of Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park
It was previously revealed that Andrew had rejected the opportunity to move to nearby Frogmore Cottage. Pictured: The exterior of Frogmore Cottage
Prince Andrew (pictured) lives in the mansion with ex-wife Sarah Ferguson. Pictured: The Duke of York riding at Windsor Castle this year
The King appeared in a good mood as he and Camilla made the short drive to the church, raising his hand from the steering wheel to wave as his wife smiled.
The church is also where Princess Anne married Sir Timothy Laurence in 1992 after opting to wed in Scotland.
Balmoral was the favourite home of the late Queen Elizabeth and where she died in September 2022. She spent three months every summer at the Scottish castle.
The King has decided to continue the tradition – and the trip comes as a well-earned break for the monarch after returning to public duties amid his ongoing treatment for cancer.
However, the appearance this morning comes amid tensions with his brother.
The Duke of York may have been set an autumn deadline to leave Royal Lodge, the 30-room mansion he shares with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.
The ultimatum has come from the monarch, who has long been trying to his disgraced younger brother out of the property with previous reports claiming he wants to rent it out for £1million a year.
However, Andrew has been reluctant to do so, having signed a 75-year lease with the Crown Estate when he moved in in 2003 on condition of making a £1million down payment and paying £260,000-a-year in rent.
There is also the added complication of much-needed repairs to the buildings on the property, some of which have fallen into disrepair and the bill for renovations already rising to £7million.
Charles’s overtures to get Andrew to leave appear to have taken a new twist after it was reported he had told his brother’s security team their services will no longer be required.
The monarch has been funding private guards at the mansion since Andrew’s armed cops – costing £3million a year – were removed in 2022 amid the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
A Palace insider told The Sun on Sunday: ‘Everyone is speculating this means the Duke will have to leave the Royal Lodge because what other reason could there be to take his security away?’
Dirt and grime lines the walls and extractor fan outlets on the outside of Royal Lodge in June
Paint is seen flaking from the dirty exterior of Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park this year
The source added that the team have not left their roles straight away, but will continue to work until their contract expires at the end of October, with no replacement lined up.
They added: ‘It isn’t a secret that the King wants him out.’
The same publication reported earlier this year that Charles could even cut off Andrew from the £4million-a-year he gives his younger brother to stay afloat.
Earlier this year, it was revealed that Andrew had rejected the opportunity to move to Frogmore Cottage, which is nearby and used to be the UK home of Harry and Meghan.
The King is reportedly eager to generate commercial revenue from the mansion as soon as he can boot out the Duke.
It was previously reported that the property was earmarked for heir to the throne Prince William and his wife Princess Catherine, but the couple said they are very happy at Adelaide Cottage.
Andrew – who remains an outcast from public life amid the fallout from his relationship with paedophile Epstein – has reportedly already spent nearly £7million carrying out extensive renovations and repairs to the property.
He has refused all requests by his brother to move into the smaller Frogmore Cottage.
Andrew downsizing to live at Frogmore Cottage would make a significant saving, with friends of the King saying he would continue to pay for mobile security, but would not have to provide static security for the building.
Despite his possible money worries, sources close to the Duke said back in January: ‘Andrew is going nowhere. He has a cast iron lease.’
The state of property has seen more than £7million spent on repairs and extensive renovations
In recent years the building has fallen into disrepair with paint seen flaking on the property
The Mail revealed last year that the King had offered his younger brother a more modest property but Andrew reportedly saw this as a ‘demotion’ too far.
By comparison run-down Royal Lodge is in dire need of repairs and restoration, which is why insiders believe the lodge should be handed back to Crown Estates.
One insider told The Sun this year: ‘It could then be rented to earn money for them, the King’s coffers and the country rather than being a drain on everyone’s resources’.
A property expert added that a rental price of £1million a year would not be too much of a stretch as the house is incredibly large and has royal connections.
Earlier this year photos showed scaffolding and a skip had been placed outside the property, with others showing the building left in a sad state of neglect.
In June, it was revealed in a document that Prince Andrew has to repaint his Windsor Royal Lodge with two coats of paint every five years.
The lease he signed in 2003 states he has a responsibility to ‘repair, renew, uphold, clean and keep in repair and where necessary rebuild’ the home.
This includes repainting its external walls every five years with ‘two coats of paint’ from 2008 and redecorating inside every seven years from 2010.
Prince Andrew has reportedly been given an October deadline to vacate Royal Lodge
This means that the exterior decorating was due to have been completed last year, while the interior work is set to be done this year.
The document – which was seen by The Times – dictated that he must ‘paint with at least two coats of paint and to paper, polish, decorate and otherwise appropriately treat’ the building’s interior walls.
Andrew signed the lease, paying £250 a week and agreeing to maintain the vast property.
But claims emerged last year that Andrew could not meet the £400,000-a-year upkeep of Royal Lodge and it was reported that the duke was told he would have to leave the property.
He was granted ‘a stay of execution’, it was reported last October, after he did a deal with the King to carry out the repair works on the 19th century, Grade II-listed property.
But in June a friend of the King claimed he had threatened to sever ties with Andrew if the Duke continues to refuse to leave Royal Lodge for his new home in Frogmore Cottage.
While sources close to the King said he is willing to pay for his brother to live comfortably out of his private funds from the Duchy of Lancaster, the level of funding needs to be appropriate.
Situated in 98 acres in Windsor Great Park, the property was once known as King’s Lodge but its name was changed by the Duke of Cumberland when he became King George IV in 1820.
William IV demolished part of Royal Lodge and, for sixty years, senior members of the Royal Household used it mainly as a ‘grace-and-favour’ home.
In 1931, King George V gave permission for his son, Prince Albert, the Duke of York, and his wife to take over the property and they moved in the following year.
They used the 30-room Royal Lodge as a private country house, even after they became Duke and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1936.
Princess Elizabeth and her sister Margaret spent many happy days playing in the grounds and making use of Y Bwthyn Bach – the miniature thatched cottage that was given to the future Queen by the people of Wales to mark her sixth birthday in 1932.
The grounds of Royal Lodge include a gardener’s cottage and the Royal Chapel of All Saints, where Princess Beatrice and Edo Mapelli Mozzi married in 2020 in a ceremony attended by the late Queen and Prince Philip.
There is also a swimming pool and tennis court.
