King Charles arrives in Southport to meet victims

According to reports, this will likely hasten the disgraced Duke of York’s departure from the mansion, which has an estimated private security bill of £3m a year.

Andrew has lived in the property since 2003, when he was given a 75-year lease on the lodge by the late Queen Elizabeth for £250 a week.

Staff at the Royal Lodge have been told their contracts will not be renewed in November.

This comes after he visited Merseyside yesterday to hear firsthand from the victims and first responders.

The monarch took the opportunity to lay flowers for the three victims – Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine.

A close friend of the royals told The Sunday Times: “They are estranged, which is dreadfully sad.”

The insider said that the heir to the throne wants his coronation to “look and feel different” from his father’s.

Royal expert Cameron Walker said: “I know whenever I speak to people close to Prince William, the barriers go up when I mention his brother, the Duke of Sussex.

“They’re not on speaking terms. It is understood the last time they did speak was at the Queen’s funeral back in September 2022, and then it was very brief indeed.

“Perhaps that’s very sad, but I suppose we will just have to wait and see if time plays any part in any kind of reconciliation between the brothers.”

A former aide has said that Prince Harry is at a “crossroads” in life as he tries to find a purpose outside the monarchy.

The Duke of Sussex, 39, stepped down as a working royal in 2020 alongside his wife Meghan Markle, citing a desire to live a more independent life and obtain increased privacy.

“What is the purpose of Prince Harry, and what is Prince Harry’s purpose?” the former aide told The Times.

“He loved the army and was very good at his job. The work with Invictus is great, and fatherhood was the role he most wanted, so perhaps those are enough for him. But everything else is a bit woolly.

“I always thought he wanted more from life. I can’t help but think he must be wondering, ‘Where do I go from here?’”

On the trip, Meghan showcased her Spanish-speaking skills and stressed the importance of women using their voices.

BBC royal correspondent Michael Cole said: “She would have been a great asset had she chosen the wider stage and the bigger stage that Buckingham Palace could have given her, instead of scooting off to Canada and then to America.”

Harry and Meghan stepped down as working royals in 2020, citing press intrusion and a desire to live a more independent life.

A friend of Harry, 39, said that his life in California is not what he thought it would be after he left his previous role as a working royal in 2020.

Since then, Harry has pursued several projects, including Netflix documentaries and writing his tell-all memoir Spare about his life in the royal family.

His relations with the royals and some sections of the British public have soured as a result.

The friend told The Times: “He’s an angry boy. Things haven’t turned out how he wanted.

“I think he misses being over here [in Britain] desperately and wants to be admired more.

“Anyone who knows him feels he’d rather be top of the pops here with everyone loving him, as they do with William and Kate.”

He recently hastened his disgraced younger brother’s departure from the property he has occupied since 2003 by removing his security provisions.

An insider told The Sun: “It makes sense for Royal Lodge to be handed back to Crown Estates, which can pay for the much-needed repairs and renovations.

“It could then be rented to earn money for them, the King’s coffers and the country rather than being a drain on everyone’s resources.”

The Duke of York was forced to step down as a working royal in 2019 following his association with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Royal expert Anna Pasternak said that a lack of privacy at the time caused their opinion of life as a working royal to sour.

She told Channel 5: “I think that started to sour things (lack of privacy after Archie’s birth) and then of course it’s easy to add the moniker that they’re entitled, they’re going to do it their way, they’re difficult, they’re not playing the royal game.

“I think there was definitely the sense that the pressure is building, cracks were starting to show and that there was a friction.”

The couple cited press intrusion as one of their reasons for stepping down in 2020.

The monarch was greeted by cheers when he arrived at Southport Town Hall this afternoon.

He laid flowers in memory of the three children who lost their lives at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class – Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine.