STRIPPED of his titles, his mansion and his dignity, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor will mark his 66th birthday today as a man diminished.
At his new, more humble abode — a secluded farmhouse on his big brother the King’s Sandringham estate — a chill wind has blown off the North Sea all week.
Surrounded by marshy farmland, the five-bedroomed property removes the royal exile from the public gaze as he faces potential investigation by nine police forces.
Many of his new neighbours are far from thrilled that he’s been banished to their green and pleasant corner of Norfolk.
Walking his alsatian Archie in the nearby village of Dersingham, John Bloomfield, 69, told The Sun that locals wished Andrew was “somewhere else”.
The retired vicar added: “I certainly won’t be offering him my birthday wishes.
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“There are reports staff at Sandringham don’t want to work for him. I don’t blame them.”
Today, there will be no lavish birthday celebrations similar to those Andrew enjoyed on his 40th.
Back in 2000, aristocrats and landowners, sports stars and celebrities all jived the night away at Windsor Castle.
And who were the then Prince’s special guests at the so-called Dance of the Decades that night?
None other than close friend Jeffrey Epstein and the convicted paedophile’s “enabler-in-chief” Ghislaine Maxwell.
Now police are assessing flights linked to child sex trafficker Epstein which landed at Stansted airport.
Officers are also examining whether women were sent to the UK by Epstein for sexual encounters with Mountbatten-Windsor.
Andrew has consistently and vehemently denied all allegations against him.
And the late Queen’s favourite son will certainly have time today to look back and reflect on a life lived.
Once considered by many royal watchers and the public alike to be a more natural fit for King than his elder brother, he was also a genuine war hero.
During the 1982 Falklands conflict, he piloted his Sea King helicopter as a decoy for Exocet missiles menacing British warships.
A 22-year naval veteran, he was then seen as a handsome and dashing man of action, while his more cerebral elder brother indulged his love of water colours and Shakespeare.
Now Andrew is an embarrassment to the House of Windsor.
His life at Wood Farm — while he waits for work on the more modest nearby Marsh Farm, in Wolferton, to be completed — is now a world away from his jetset existence.
Something of a couch potato, he enjoys crime novels as well as watching golf and war films on TV.
Andrew is also said to enjoy flight simulation games and watches YouTube videos of aircraft taking off and landing.
His prized collection of 72 teddy bears — which had to be arranged in size order by a servant every morning — haven’t followed him, reports suggest.
They were put in storage after he was evicted from Royal Lodge, Windsor, by the King.
A shooting enthusiast, he surrendered his treasured guns and firearms licence in November after a visit from Met Police officers.
It was on the Sandringham estate that Andrew arranged the “straightforward shooting weekend” as a 39th birthday treat for Maxwell in 2000. Epstein was also there.
A recent image released by the US Department of Justice shows Andrew, dressed in formal black tie, lying across the laps of five women in the salon of the main Sandringham House.
Maxwell stands behind the group, looking down and grinning.
Royal author Robert Jobson revealed in his book The Windsor Legacy how guests at the shooting weekend were left gift baskets in their bathrooms containing “sex drugs, toys and lubricant”.
“They were distributed to the guest rooms like party bags,” he wrote. “Not concealed discreetly. Poppers — amyl nitrite, aphrodisiac substances — exotic condoms, too.”
Today, Maxwell is serving 20 years in jail for trafficking young women for Epstein.
Once known as Air Miles Andy, Mountbatten-Windsor’s wings are clipped.
He hasn’t yet been spotted at his nearest shop, the Co-op in Dersingham — population 4,750 — some three miles from his new digs.
Shopping on the village high street, ex-police officer Bryan Bradshaw, 81, said: “I hope he’s got sense to keep his head down. I don’t think people want him here.”
Andrew was said to have been spotted making a tour of Marsh Farm cottage last week.
It’s a world away from Manhattan, or Epstein’s Caribbean island where he once liked to visit.
Few across the land will be raising a birthday glass to Andrew today. A man who frittered away his privilege and prestige.