A French socialite who claims she was owed millions by the Duke and Duchess of York has spoken of her anger over Andrew’s lucrative new source of funding.
Isabelle de Rouvre, 76, said she let the couple pay millions less than they owed for a Swiss ski chalet they were buying from her as she believed ‘Andrew was going to prison’.
‘I lost so much money,’ she told the MoS last night. ‘This caused me so many stresses.’
Chalet Helora, a seven-bedroom luxury lodge in the exclusive ski resort of Verbier, boasted a indoor swimming pool, sauna, sun terrace bar and lavish entertaining area.
Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah bought the sumptuous property from Ms De Rouvre in 2014 for £18 million. They took out a mortgage for the bulk of the cost and agreed to pay her the remaining £5 million plus interest in instalments.
But by 2019 it became apparent that Andrew was struggling to pay and Ms De Rouvre launched legal action to try to recoup her millions.
In 2022 she revealed that she was still owed £6.8 million but had agreed to a payment of £3.4 million to settle the dispute because she believed the couple were short of money.
‘I am a businesswoman and did well in life but with this problem I lost,’ she told the MoS last night. ‘I hate losing. But what could I do? Four years ago I was told he had nothing.’ She was stunned to be told that Andrew has now been deemed to have the funds to support himself at the 30-room Royal Lodge in Windsor.
‘I am missing millions as a result of this man. I reduced what he owed me because I was afraid he was going to jail and they told me he did not have the money to pay me. I was left with little choice.
‘Now he is saying he has plenty of finances, but where does this money now come from? Is it from the late Queen? He was her favourite son apparently. And if not, then from where? There needs to be transparency. It is crazy.
‘Either he has this money or he is lying and maybe he has nothing. Has the money come from Saudi Arabia or Kazakhstan? Has he used his name and royal connections? He can be very convincing.
‘They were apparently so poor before they had to pay me and now they are so rich. It is all very strange in this family. He is not working, so where does the money come from?’
The Duke was later forced to sell the chalet after racking up enormous legal bills during a sexual assault lawsuit in America. Virginia Giuffre alleged she was forced to have sex with Andrew on three occasions after she was trafficked by the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew settled the case out of court and paid a multimillion-pound sum to Giuffre while denying any wrongdoing.
The MoS revealed in 2022 that a city financier had bought the chalet for almost £20 million.