A new report has revealed that some members of the royal family have effectively been living rent-free.
The U.K.’s National Audit Office (NAO) published a report on Friday stating that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s two daughters, both non-working royals, have had their rent covered by King Charles III.
Princess Beatrice, 37, has a four-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment at St. James’s Palace in London, paid for by the king, while Princess Eugenie, 36, lives rent-free at Ivy Cottage, a three-bedroom house on the grounds of Kensington Palace.
Both sisters are employed and married to wealthy men—Beatrice to multimillionaire Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, who runs a property development business, and Eugenie to Jack Brooksbank, who works in luxury hospitality, with the pair’s combined net worth estimated at $4.8 million.
What’s more, the sisters do not pay rent for homes that, for years, have been based on out-of-date valuations and set below market rate, as Royal Household policy charges non-working members of the Royal Family 60 percent of the open-market value.
This lower calculated rent is covered by King Charles through income from the Duchy of Lancaster, a privately held royal estate that generates revenue for the monarch and funds official duties and selected private expenses.
Both properties are also maintained through public funding via the Sovereign Grant, the annual funding provided by the U.K. government to the Royal Household to cover the upkeep of official residences and other core expenses of the monarchy.
“The whole thing is outrageous,” said British politician Norman Baker. “There’s no way that non-working members of the royal family should be subsidized by the Duchy of Lancaster. The royal family is yet again taking the public for a complete ride,” he added.
In response to a request for comment, a Palace spokesperson told the Daily Beast that it is grateful to the National Audit Office for the report, which “is in line with the Royal Household’s commitment to transparency.”
“We hope that the findings will help correct, clarify, or contextualize a number of points regarding Royal properties,” the spokesperson added.
The NAO report also found that the York princesses’ father, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, received undisclosed rental income from sub-letting three cottages on the Royal Lodge estate, where he lived until February, before being pushed out by the king and relocating to Wood Farm on the Sandringham estate in Norfolk.
Though the sisters have sought to distance themselves from their father following the fallout from his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and further allegations of sexual abuse, which led to him being stripped of his royal titles, they have remained in the public eye and faced scrutiny as well.
An Ipsos poll shows Britons are split on whether the royal family represents good value for money, with 35 percent on each side. But there is far clearer agreement on Andrew: 73 percent say he should be removed from the line of succession. Views on his daughters’ place in the succession line, however, remain unclear.
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