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Prince and Princess Michael of Kent have finally agreed to pay the £120,000 rent on their Kensington Palace apartment.

The Queen has been personally subsidising her cousin and his wife - to the tune of £10,000-a-month - for the last six years. But they have been told that she will not pay after 2009.

Until 2002 the Kents had been paying only a 'peppercorn rent', rumoured to be around £69 a week, for their five-bedroom, fivereception room home at the palace in London.

Rent payers: Prince Michael and Princess Michael of Kent will be charged £120,000 a year to remain at their five-bedroom, five-reception home

But outraged MPs insisted that the couple, who carry out no official royal duties, should pay the going commercial rate.

The Kents argued that the Queen had given them the use of their palace apartment in 1979 as a wedding present.

But once the writing was on the wall, the Queen, said to feel 'terribly awkward' about
the situation, agreed to bail them out initially.

Long stay: The royal couple have been using the apartment at Kensington Palace since 1979

The couple have since sold their Gloucestershire home, Nether Lypiatt, and will now pay the rent for their palace apartment themselves. It will initially be set at £120,000 per year but will be index linked. A spokesman for estate agent firm Savills said this was significantly lower than the market value.

The money will be put towards the Government's grant-in-aid which pays for the upkeep of royal palaces but specifically earmarked for maintenance work at Kensington Palace.


Former digs: The Prince and Princess sold their Nether Lypiatt Manor in 2006

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: 'In 2002 it was agreed that rent should be paid on the apartment occupied by Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, and the Queen agreed to pay this rent from her own funds for up to seven years. It has now been agreed that, from 2010, Prince and Princess Michael of Kent will remain at their apartment but pay the rent from their own funds.'

The couple's spokesman, Simon Astaire, added: 'They have wanted clarity and are happy this issue has now been resolved.'

They Kents have always claimed to be paupers - by royal standards at least - with the Princess once joking that she would 'go anywhere for a hot meal'. Neither receive a penny from either the state or the Queen and have always had to earn their own keep.

It is understood they will use a significant part of the £5million profit they made from selling Nether Lypiatt to pay for their palace home. A friend said: 'It's their family home and they simply don't want to lose it - whatever the cost.'




Source: Daily Mail UK., October 7, 2008