The eyes of the world turned to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor‘s home on 19 February as he was arrested there on suspicion of misconduct in a public office. Having had his royal titles and honours removed by his brother, King Charles, in November 2025, Andrew, 66, moved from the 30-room Royal Lodge on the Windsor Home Park estate to private lodgings on the estate earlier this month.
Now, Andrew is residing at Wood Farm, a cottage on the Norfolk royal estate, while renovations take place on his soon-to-be permanent residence, Marsh Farm – and it’s a property with a sad past.
Andrew’s return to the ‘divorce home’
During Andrew’s lifetime, Wood Farm has gained the rather unflattering and unofficial nickname of the ‘divorce home’. It gained a reputation as a property for divorced spouses in 1992 when Sarah Ferguson stayed there over Christmas.
© AFP via Getty ImagesSarah, who was married to Andrew from 1986 to 1996, was invited to stay at Wood Farm as she had been prohibited from attending the annual royal Christmas celebrations at Sandringham House by Prince Philip after photographs emerged of her on holiday in which she is seen in a compromising position with her financial advisor, John Bryan.
While Andrew and Sarah’s daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, were invited to join the royal celebrations, the former Duchess of York, who long maintained that she and Andrew were the “happiest divorced couple in the world”, kept a low profile at her ex-husband’s current residence.
© Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty ImagesWood Farm’s tragic past
The home also has a tragic history going further back. Wood Farm was where Prince John, the youngest son of King George V and Queen Mary, lived a reclusive life. The young royal, who was born in 1905, suffered from epileptic seizures, and it has been reported that he exhibited signs of what experts would now diagnose as autism. He lived under the watchful eye of his nanny, Charlotte Bill, and was kept away from public appearances, and no official portraits were commissioned of him after 1913.
© Getty ImagesIn 1918, he spent Christmas with his family at Sandringham House and returned to Wood Farm that evening. Tragically, on 18 January 1919, Prince John passed away in his sleep at the cottage after suffering a severe seizure. The late royal’s gravestone is situated in the grounds of St Mary Magdalene Church, where the royal family attends Christmas Day mass each year.
A sentimental royal property
Though Sandringham House gets all the glory (it boasts over 100 rooms featuring grand Edwardian decor), Wood Farm held a special place in the heart of Andrew’s late parents, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. The couple would retreat there when their brood was young, and later, Philip made it his retirement property.
© PA Images via Getty ImagesWhile Andrew continues to live at Wood Farm, his future remains uncertain amid calls from foreign governments (including New Zealand and Australia, both of which are Commonwealth countries) to remove the former Duke of York from the line of succession.
Andrew’s uncertain future
Writing previously for HELLO!‘s Royal Club, before Andrew was taken into police custody, royal author Robert Jobson penned: “There is also no precedent for a royal enforced removal. Edward VIII’s 1936 abdication was, after all, voluntary and he signed the instrument himself.
© Samir Hussein/WireImage“Nobody has ever been forcibly expelled from the British succession. Even Catholic King James II, who fled the country, was declared an abdication by Parliament, even though he never accepted it.”
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