It’s been one year since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle handed back the keys to Frogmore Cottage, which they were gifted by the late Queen shortly after they got married
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were asked to vacate Frogmore Cottage last March – but the drama around the royal abode rumbles on.
The Sussexes were given the property as a wedding gift from the late Queen Elizabeth and made the four-bedroom historic home their own with a £2.4million renovation. They moved in during 2019 and stayed until announcing their decision to step down from the Royal Family in 2020. King Charles then asked them to hand over the keys last year.
The cottage was the couple’s last remaining foothold in the UK and they now live in a £12m mansion in Montecito, California. But the grand home isn’t expected to lay empty for long as now the King, 75, is said to be urging his disgraced brother, Prince Andrew, to leave his 30-room Royal Lodge in Windsor and move into Frogmore Cottage.
Here, the Mirror takes a look back at the financial details and full controversies surrounding the property…
£2.4million renovations
Meghan and Harry spent £2.4million of taxpayers’ money on renovations to their new home, according to official royal accounts. Work included the removal of a chimney, re-finishing the roof and adding new staircases. The couple also had new fireplaces installed and a new ‘floating’ wooden floor in the main kitchen area, in order to protect the old flooring underneath.
The Sovereign Grant, which pays for salaries of staff, upkeep of palaces and official royal duties, paid for the renovations. The Sussexes paid privately for all fittings, fixtures and furnishings. After using the £2.4m, Harry and Meghan paid back the costs in September 2020. Harry’s spokesman confirmed he had paid the bill in full by making a contribution to the grant.
Sussexes’ eviction
Back in March 2023, it was revealed Charles had asked Meghan and Harry to vacate Frogmore Cottage. A source told The Standard at the time: “The Sussex’s are no longer leasing Frogmore Cottage. That privilege has been removed. It’s over for them in the UK. If they want a residence in the UK they will have to buy one privately.”
It wasn’t until June 2023 that Meghan and Harry finally handed back the keys to Frogmore Cottage. The couple’s remaining possessions were shipped to California with courtier Sir Michael Stevens saying at the time: “We can confirm that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have vacated Frogmore Cottage. Safe to say that, as has previously been stated, the Duke and Duchess have paid for the expenditure incurred by the Sovereign Grant in relation to the renovation of Frogmore Cottage, thus leaving the Crown with a greatly enhanced asset.”
Harry’s residential status
Harry has now switched his formal residential status from the UK to the US in paperwork filed in Britain. The documents relate to his sustainable travel initiative, Travalyst. When the project was set up four years ago, Harry’s place of residence was originally listed on Companies House as being in the UK.
However, a new filing states his “new country/state usually resident” is the United States. The date of the change was backdated to June 29, 2023, one of the last days he and Meghan had access to their old UK home of Frogmore Cottage.
Prince Andrew offer
When the King issued Harry and Meghan with an eviction notice, it was reported that he was drawing up a “range of options” to satisfy his disgraced brother Andrew after insisting he must leave his Royal Lodge mansion.
One option presented to Andrew was Frogmore Cottage. A source said Charles told Harry and Meghan he wanted them out to “allow someone else to move in” and it looks like he could have had Andrew in mind.
But royal expert Tom Quinn recently claimed that Harry isn’t happy with the development. “However deep the rift with his father and brother, Harry always had hopes that he and Meghan might eventually be allowed to re-establish Frogmore Cottage at Windsor as their UK base,” Quinn told The Mirror.
“He will be deeply upset at the prospect of his uncle Prince Andrew moving into Frogmore – a very real prospect as King Charles insists that Andrew cannot continue to live at Royal Lodge, the 30-room mansion on the Windsor estate where Andrew has lived for decades.”
He continued: “Andrew is furious that despite his pleas to his brother to be allowed to stay at Royal Lodge he has been given his marching order. The spat has been going on for some time. Always bullish and overly confident, Andrew was convinced that if he stood firm and continued to refuse to move his brother would give way, but now that Charles is king this is not going to happen.”
Quinn suggested that Charles is sending a message to his son Harry that he will never return to Frogmore with the move. He said: “For King Charles, forcing Andrew to move to Frogmore solves several problems at once – it sends a message to Harry that, as a private citizen and no longer a working royal he will never be allowed back to Frogmore.
“It sends a message to Andrew that having disgraced himself, he can no longer expect to live in the grand style. And, finally, it means that a suitably grand residence can be made ready for the royals who really matter – William and Kate. Charles is determined that Royal Lodge is the only residence on the royal estate at Windsor that is big enough and regal enough for his heir.”
Meghan’s reaction
While at Frogmore, Meghan revealed that she had written a daily journal – and was surprised by its contents. In an interview in August 2022, she revealed that she was packing up ‘personal matters’ from Frogmore when she came across the diary before they moved out. She told The Cut: “You go back and you open drawers and you’re like, Oh my gosh. This is what I was writing in my journal there?'”
It has been claimed by sources that Harry and Meghan never anticipated being evicted from Frogmore, despite not being working royals. Royal author Tom Quinn told the Mirror in April: “Harry and Meghan imagined Frogmore would always be there for them even if they came back to the UK for just a few weeks each year and even if they were no longer working royals.”
While a source told The Sun in February 2023 that the Sussexes were reportedly “stunned” by the King’s decision to move Andrew into the cottage. The source, who was allegedly close to Meghan and Harry, said: “It all feels very final and like a cruel punishment. It’s like [the family] want to cut them out of the picture for good.”
