King Charles III will not pay for the services of an Indian guru hired by Prince Andrew, according to British tabloid The Sun and the Times of India.
Andrew, who is no longer a working royal following his involvement in the Jeffrey Epstein sex scandal, handed the £32,000 (Rs 32 lakh) annual invoice to the privy purse to pay for the services and had expected that it would be approved without any hindrances.
However, his elder brother instructed him to pay for it himself. The privy purse is the private income of the British monarch. The annual income in the year ending March 31, 2022 amounted to £24 million (Rs 240 crore).
The Indian healer employed by Prince Andrew uses chants, massages and holistic therapies in the privacy of his £30 million (Rs 300 crore) 30-room mansion and has been offering his services to Prince Andrew for several years.
The report said the Indian guru stays for at least a month at the Royal Lodge in Windsor. The report said that Queen Elizabeth II signed off the invoices without asking any questions but Andrew’s elder brother is not keen to indulge him any further especially in an era of a cost-of-living crisis.
The Sun citing sources said that King Charles believes that the idea of tens of thousands paid to an Indian guru to provide holistic treatment to a non-working royal would irk people in the UK as they face effects of inflation and rising costs of living.
The king also plans to cut Andrew’s £249,000 (Rs 249 lakh) annual income paid from the Duchy of Lancaster. He is being evicted from Royal Lodge and has been offered Frogmore Cottage. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were evicted from Frogmore Cottage earlier.
According to the Times of India report, Frogmore Cottage is one of the cottages Queen Victoria gave to her personal Indian secretary Abdul Karim. Karim was sent to London from Agra in 1887 to be her servant.
Andrew remains removed from royal duties since 2022 after allegations of sexual assault were leveled against him. It is said he had sexual relations with Virginia Giuffre when she was a minor at parties hosted by US financier Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender.
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