Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, have been asked to move out of Frogmore Cottage, their five-bedroom Georgian house on the grounds of Windsor Castle, the couple’s press secretary said, in a further sign of the bitter rupture between them and the British royal family since they withdrew from royal duties and left Britain.
Queen Elizabeth II offered the house to the couple, known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, at the time of their wedding in 2018. It has served as their home base on infrequent visits to Britain since they relocated to Montecito, Calif.
“We can confirm the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been requested to vacate their residence at Frogmore Cottage,” said the press secretary, Ashley Hansen, who is head of communications for the couple’s foundation, Archewell.
Ms. Hansen did not provide further details about the reasons for or timing of the eviction, which was first reported on Wednesday by The Sun, a British tabloid. The Sun said that King Charles III had made the decision shortly after the publication of Harry’s memoir, “Spare,” which is replete with scorching accounts of Harry’s dysfunctional relationship with Charles, his father; and with his brother, Prince William.
Buckingham Palace has declined to comment on the report, as it did on the claims made in Harry’s book. Discussions about the cottage were a “private family matter,” according to a person with ties to the palace who was not authorized to speak with the news media and commented on condition of anonymity.
King Charles III, the New British Monarch
Charles acceded to the throne after being the designated successor for longer than anyone in the history of the British crown.
The royal real estate shuffle took on added piquancy with The Sun’s report that the king had offered Frogmore Cottage to Prince Andrew, his disgraced younger brother. That would give Andrew a home after he downsizes from his much larger house, Royal Lodge, which is also in a sprawling park near Windsor Castle.
Andrew can no longer afford the upkeep on the residence, The Sun and other newspapers in Britain have reported, after the king planned to cut back his allowance. Prodded by Charles, Queen Elizabeth stripped Andrew of his honorary titles and sent him into a kind of internal exile after he settled a sexual assault lawsuit stemming from his association with the convicted sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.
Losing Frogmore Cottage will be a bitter pill for Harry and Meghan, and it raises doubts that the couple will attend the king’s coronation in May. They poured 2.4 million pounds, or about $2.9 million, into refurbishments of the charming but ramshackle house, which had been divided into apartments for Windsor Castle employees.
The renovation, which was paid for with taxpayer funds, caused an outcry, and when Harry and Meghan negotiated their withdrawal from royal duties in 2020, they paid back the money. The couple has supported themselves through deals with Netflix, which recently aired a documentary about their split with the royal family, as well as with Penguin Random House, which published Harry’s memoir.
In the opaque finances of the royal family, the king does not privately own Frogmore Cottage. It is a part of the Crown Estate, which belongs to the monarch and is run by him. But any rental revenues would flow to the British Treasury.
Charles could face other real estate decisions in the wake of his mother’s death last September. Although he works in Buckingham Palace, the king still lives mostly in Clarence House, his nearby London residence, and at Highgrove House, his weekend retreat in Gloucestershire. That leaves the queen’s two main residences, Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, largely empty.
Located on the gated grounds of Windsor Castle, Frogmore Cottage offered a refuge and security to Harry and his family, which the couple said have become important issues for them when they visit Britain, as they no longer have state-funded police protection. They pay for private security in the United States.
In the opening of “Spare,” Harry recalled a tense meeting with his father and brother in Frogmore Gardens, not far from the cottage, to hash out their differences, hours after the funeral of Prince Philip in April 2021.
“How beautiful it all is, I thought. And also how sad,” Harry wrote. “Once upon a time, this was going to be my forever home. Instead it had proved to be just another brief stop.”
