Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson’s £15m home with £300k/year security bill was worlds apart from Wood Farm

Royal author Andrew Lownie has revealed that the impressive estate boasted “its own helicopter landing pad, a cinema, pool room and swimming pool, and 20 rooms of staff quarters”.

With a love for clothes, it was quite fitting that Sarah reportedly had “one of the world’s largest walk-in wardrobes”, coming in at 100ft long. The couple’s bathtub was said to have got the builders talking during construction – it was hilariously nicknamed, HMS Fergie, alluding to the gigantic size.

All these lavish features needed protection, and that racked up an eye-watering £300,000 per year security cost, according to Andrew Lownie. Security weighing heavily on their minds, they also added panic buttons in the property and a bomb shelter.

Photos of the sprawling residence show that it was a red brick structure, a common design for the period. A brick wall provided privacy around the building, and picket-style fences marked off the couple’s immaculately landscaped lawn.

During their years at the property, they certainly lived a life of luxury, according to an array of royal reports. Authors of Sarah’s Story: The Duchess who Defied the Royal House of Windsor, Chris Hutchins and Peter Thompson, have revealed various demands made by Andrew’s then-wife. For example, staff were expected to iron tights, squeeze fresh orange juice the moment she sat at breakfast (not a second sooner) and prepare human-worthy dinners for her pet pooch.

Now, Andrew is faced with a life in exile, where he will be afforded luxury features, but not to the scale that he once enjoyed when he was a newlywed basking in this glorious home. 

In 2015, nine years after it was bought by Timur, the existing house was demolished and a new one built. According to planning documents, the new property was designed with six en-suite bedrooms and eight staff bedrooms, a living room, a drawing room, casual and formal dining rooms, a study, and sitting rooms for the children and the master suite.

Outside, he removed the outdoor pool in favour of an indoor one, while he had a walled kitchen garden built, and the grounds completely relandscaped to include a wild woodland area and orchard.