King Charles WILL NOT evict Prince Andrew from the Royal Lodge in Windsor following the latest revelations from the Epstein papers because ‘blood is thicker than water’, royal sources say

King Charles will not kick Prince Andrew out of his royal box because ‘blood is thicker than water’ for the royal family, an aide to the duke has claimed.

Reports last week claimed that the king was planning to evict the Duke of York from the country house he occupies on the Windsor estate by withdrawing funding for his brother’s home security.

But an aide who is in regular contact with the duke has claimed that while some palace officials would support the expulsion, King Charles would never authorize it.

The source claimed that Andrew was uncomfortable being thrust back into the spotlight for his friendship with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, but that the unsealing of hundreds of documents over the past week would not affect his living situation.

“The king is someone with a high level of integrity,” the source said The times. “There are people in the royal family who would be more aggressive, but in that family blood is thicker than water.”

The aide claimed that the Duke, like any leaseholder, has rights to the property and that the King would not be in favor of withdrawing his brother’s deposit and kicking him out.

Prince Andrew has lived in the 30-room mansion in Windsor Great Park for 20 years and has the right to continue doing so until 2078 under his lease with the Crown Estate.

It was previously claimed that the under-fire duke is facing calls to move to Frogmore Cottage, a five-bed home on the Windsor estate where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle used to live.

The source, who insists he has never seen Andrew do anything ‘inappropriate’, does not believe his old friend will return to public life unless public opinion about him changes dramatically.

Only 8 percent of Britons had a positive view of the duke in the latest YouGov survey of the royal family’s popularity. About 70 percent said they hated him.

It comes after the latest batch of newly released Epstein documents revealed that Virginia Giuffre claimed Epstein paid her $15,000 to have sex with Prince Andrew when she was 17 years old.

The 40-year-old made the allegations when she gave evidence while being questioned under oath in 2016.

“I did receive $15,000. I don’t know what that means in pounds,” she said, before being questioned by a lawyer about whether she had paid tax on the amount, to which Ms Giuffre replied “no”.

Andrew has always denied the allegations made by Ms Giuffre, with whom he settled a sexual abuse lawsuit she brought against him in 2022 without admitting liability, paying out £12 million.

Yesterday, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who represented Epstein, said Andrew’s decision to settle was a “terrible mistake” and that he “would have won” if the case went to trial.

He told Times Radio: ‘I think he has made a terrible mistake. I suspect his mother pressured him to make that mistake.”

Mr Dershowitz claimed Andrew would have prevailed in court.

“If he had fought that case, I believe he would have won, I believe the case would have been dismissed for a variety of reasons, but he didn’t want to make a statement, or the people around him didn’t want to. He had to make a statement, so he settled the case,” he said.

‘You often settle cases, not because you are guilty of what you are accused of, but because you do not want to admit to other things you have done.’

He added: “I feel sorry for Prince Andrew for this reason, assuming everything they say about him is correct, the woman who accused him was of legal age.

“She apparently bragged about it to her friends, and she raised millions and millions of dollars for that, so yeah, I feel sorry for him.”

The age of consent in Great Britain is 16. In Florida this is 18 years and in New York 17 years.

Ms Giuffre had claimed Epstein trafficked her to Dershowitz between 2000 and 2002, but he denied her claim.

In 2022, she withdrew the accusation, saying she was “very young” and in a “very stressful and traumatic environment” when she was around Epstein, leading her to falsely identify Mr. Dershowitz.

Ms. Giuffre dropped a defamation lawsuit she filed against Mr. Dershowitz in 2019 without making any financial payments to either party.

The five batches of “Epstein papers” released over the past week have put new pressure on those associated with the sex offender who was found dead in his cell at the Manhattan Correctional Center on August 10, 2019, while awaiting trial. Within a week it was ruled a suicide.

Yesterday, Epstein’s younger brother Mark Epstein questioned whether his death was “a cover-up.”

A total of 215 documents were ‘unsealed’ over the course of five days after the media claimed it was in the public interest to remove redactions that concealed the names of individuals.

In the latest round of documents released, it was revealed that Epstein refused to answer questions about whether he tried to blackmail the Duke of York after his alleged sexual encounter with Ms Giuffre.

Epstein refused to answer almost all questions, known as pleading the Fifth Amendment in the US, during his interview under oath as part of Ms Giuffre’s civil claim against disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.

He was questioned about whether he and Maxwell instructed Ms Giuffre to have sex with Andrew in 2001 and whether information gathered as part of the legal action “could tarnish the duke’s reputation”.

Andrew withdrew from public life after the fuss over his friendship with Epstein.

He was ostracized from the working monarchy and no longer uses his HRH style after Ms Giuffre, who was trafficked by Epstein, accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was 17.

The Duke strongly denies all allegations.