Inside Prince Andrew’s lavish life as he ‘spent £500k A YEAR on flights & would return laden with gifts from dodgy pals’
PRINCE Andrew's lavish lifestyle saw him spending nearly £500,000 a year travelling across the world heading to parties and exotic trips.
The Duke of York would then allegedly return from his luxurious trips laden with expensive gifts following meetings with his shady pals.
In her explosive book offering an insight into the Royals' life - The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor — The Truth and Turmoil - journalist Tina Brown branded Andrew a "coroneted sleaze machine".
And she laid out his lifestyle and ";money pit" as he globe trotted after his divorce from Sarah Ferguson - including claims his pal Jeffrey Epstein would act as an "investment advisor".
"Air Miles Andy" would travel across the globe, often playing golf at the expense of the government, claims the book.
Entitled Andrew would only fly in a private jet with an entourage of staff, tasked to cater to his every whim, including his personal pedicurist, and a valet armed with an ironing board.
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The Duke once defended his glamorous habit as a "little tiny spot in the ocean by comparison to many people".
Andrew spent a total of £465,000 on flights and £154,000 on food and hotels during his travels, according to the book.
And elsewhere, it was reported during a 2012 trip to India, Andrew spent thousands by hiring an £80,000 private jet, a £10,000-a-night suite that included a gold room.
His massive Maharaja Suite had private spa rooms, a Jacuzzi, a gym and even a butler.
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On a 2000 trip to Phuket, Andrew stayed at an "ultra-exclusive" £4,000-a-night resort and was pictured with topless women on a private yacht.
Andrew has a reputation for having an expensive taste as he has a number of pricey cars including a £220,000 Bentley as well as a watch collection worth thousands of pounds.
He was snapped in 2015 wearing the latest £12,000, 18-carat Apple watch while his lawyers reportedly cost him up to £2,000 an hour.
In a bid to fund his legal battle against Virginia Giuffre, the Duke had to sell his Swiss chalet after he reportedly paid £6.6m to French socialite Isabelle de Rouvre following a legal battle over the outstanding fee.
Andrew and Fergie share the Royal Lodge, the former home to the Queen Mother, after moving into the 30-room grace-and-favour mansion when she passed away in 2001.
The couple only pays a "peppercorn rent" for the house although the exact amount is not known.
It remains a mystery how Andrew secured £7.5million to renovate the property in 2003.
His extravagant lifestyle has previously raised questions as his official annual income is believed to be a Royal Navy pension of just under £20,000.
It is believed he no longer receives his annual £249,000 handout from the Sovereign Grant.
The Duke has also been spotted partying a number of times in St Tropez - and was pictured attending social events in the US, such as in New York and Florida.
It was previously claimed that he would pop £300 bottles of champagne as he frequented nightclubs.
Labour MP Chris Bryant claimed that the "last thing the Foreign Office wanted was Andrew on a trip" as he would constantly ask for more support and more luxuries such as bigger hotel rooms.
But apart from the extra luxuries, Andrew would often fly back from his trips with lavish gifts, often from his various foreign contacts, according to Ms Brown's new book.
While in matters of international diplomacy the Queen or her direct heir could be meeting with representatives from other countries, Prince Andrew's suspicious foreign contacts were "far beyond what was explicable acceptable".
Some of Andrew's acquaintances included Tunisian Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's billionaire son-in-law Mohamed Sakhr El Materi who was later sentenced to 16 years behind bars for corruption and fraud.
Another one of Andrew's pals was Libyan gun smuggler Tarek Kaituni, formerly married to glamorous Dutch supermodel Lisa van Goinga.
Kaituni was Andrew's guest at Princess Beatrice's 21st birthday party in 2009 in Marbella.
His birthday present was a £20,000 diamond necklace- while he was trying to get hired as a consultant at a British company with dealings in Libya.
But despite the disgrace, Andrew continued his association with Kaituni and even invited him to Princess Eugenie's wedding to Jack Brooksbank.
Kaituni, who has US citizenship, would later brag of his influence over the Duke of York, and helped set up secret meetings with Libyan dictator, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
Andrew met the son of Libyan tyrant Saif, -who was charged with crimes against humanity, - with the help of glamorous Kazakh heiress Goga Ashkenazi.
The oil tycoon-turned-fashion boss helped Andrew sell his and Fergie's Sunninghill Park house for £15m -£3 million more than the asking price.
In 2007, The Duke of York sold his luxury mansion to Kazakh tycoon Timur Kulibayev in a deal that sparked controversy.
The Palace said in a statement at the time: "The sale of Sunninghill Park was a straight commercial transaction between the Trust which owned the house and the Trust which bought it.
"There were no side deals and absolutely no arrangement from the Duke of York to benefit otherwise or to commit to any other commercial arrangement. Any suggestion otherwise is completely false."
And perhaps his most notorious relationship of all was the one he struck with Jeffrey Epstein.
Their friendship came after the convicted paedophile introduced him to a different world filled with women, exotic holidays, and glamorous Manhattan parties.
Epstein is said to have exploited Andrew's need for respect regarding his royal status.
During a dinner at Epstein's house, Andrew was heard exclaiming " I don't know why people don't pay us royals more respect."
Epstein reportedly told people that Andrew was "an idiot but a useful one" as he used him as a connection to meet businesspeople he wouldn't otherwise be able to.
Epstein claimed to a friend that he would go along with the former Duke to foreign business meetings, as "HRH's investment advisor".
Epstein would negotiate deals and then give Andrew "some cream off the cake."
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Last month Andrew was embroiled in an extraordinary High Court case amid claims he was given £1million by an alleged conman accused of swindling a Turkish millionairess out of her £40m fortune.
The Duke of York and his former wife Sarah Ferguson received "suspicious" payments on the orders of Selman Turk, a former Goldman Sachs banker, as part of a £40m international fraud, it is alleged.
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