bitchy | Prince Andrew planned to spend his 66th birthday alone with his seven dogs

The Sun has several exclusives about Prince Andrew’s arrest Thursday morning. We knew that the Thames Valley Police arrived around 8 am, and we knew that they took Andrew into custody and to jail at around 10 am GMT. But we didn’t know that Andrew had just woken up when the police arrived, nor did we know that he had originally planned to spend his 66th birthday by himself, alongside his seven dogs.

Disgraced royal Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was preparing to spend his 66th birthday alone with seven dogs when six police cars arrived today. As many as 15 officers from two forces were involved in the 8am raid — where he was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

Andrew had just woken up — officially as a pensioner — when the convoy swooped at Wood Farm on the Sandringham estate in Norfolk.

A source said the team of Thames Valley Police officers, supported by Norfolk Police, arrived with “stealth, speed and surprise”.

With no visits from friends and family planned or expected, Andrew was set to spend the day alone with two corgis which used to belong to his mum, the late Queen Elizabeth, and five Norfolk terriers.

A friend said: “The plan was to spend a quiet and lonely 66th birthday at Wood Farm as no one was coming round to celebrate with him, not even Fergie or their two children Beatrice and Eugenie. He was expecting to spend the day with seven dogs, instead he had 15 coppers at his door.”

The police convoy would have been invisible to Andrew on the two-mile private road to his five-bed farmhouse near the village of Wolferton in Norfolk. One cop car headed down a drive to the front of the property while the rest went via the back entrance to the house — which Andrew moved into only three weeks ago after his humiliating exile from Royal Lodge in Windsor. Despite the major police operation on the royal estate, King Charles was not informed about his younger brother’s impending arrest before it happened.

[From The Sun]

The more we hear about the police operation and the execution of two search warrants on two royal properties, the less I believe that Buckingham Palace was not informed. That just seems like a stupid lie which they’ll eventually backtrack on six months from now. “Of course King Charles knew,” they’ll say snootily. “Of course the palace was informed, the king had to give his permission for the police to enter his property!” As for Andrew and his dogs… I guess we’re supposed to revel in how pathetic it sounds, a man with seven dogs spending his birthday alone and getting arrested. But… you have to remember, Andrew’s emergency setup at Wood Farm is pretty nice. Wood Farm was renovated for Prince Philip and it’s supposedly one of the more modern and convenient cottages/homes on the Sandringham estate. Andrew is well-cared for, you know? And people should also remember that royal protection officers were the ones to drive Andrew back to Wood Farm from the police station.

Meanwhile, I can’t even process these Andrew photos, apparently from 2011. TMZ published them last night – they show Andrew playing with an unknown toddler, and there’s a “ball” in the shape of a breast which the child is playing with. Literally, whose child is this? Why do these photos exist? WTF is going on here?

📸 Exclusive: Former Prince Andrew turned fun bags into kicks for kids in some very un-princely photos obtained by TMZ.

Photos: pic.twitter.com/6oFhvcUPkZ

— TMZ (@TMZ) February 20, 2026

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red. Cover courtesy of The Sun.