Prince Harry and Meghan
Markle’s new home next door to Prince William and Kate Middleton is being
hurriedly renovated in time for them to move in once they’re married.
According to insiders workers
repairing the roof of Apartment 1, Kensington Palace, were instructed to
complete the job quickly, as Prince Harry made it clear that he and Meghan plan to
start a family soon.
Royal courtiers were last year
keen to let it be known that the couple would immediately be living at
Nottingham Cottage – Harry’s “Batchelor pad” in the grounds of Kensington Palace – for the foreseeable future.
But insiders have known for
some time that it was always Harry’s intention to move out of the cozy two-bed
“Nott Cott” as soon as possible and into Apartment 1 – a stunning
21-room wing of the palace.
It was revealed yesterday that
the Duke of Gloucester agreed to move out of Apartment 1 shortly after the
engagement to allow Harry and Meghan to move in.
The Daily Mail’s Royal expert
Richard Kay wrote: “Soon after their engagement, the Queen’s cousin Richard —
the Duke of Gloucester, 73 — whose three children are now grown up, offered to
vacate his splendid 21-room Apartment 1 at the palace so Harry and Meghan could
have it — it is next door to William and Kate. The question was, where would
the Gloucesters go?
“Now the problem has been
solved with the departure of the Queen’s private secretary, Sir Christopher
Geidt.
“This has freed up his
smaller but very comfortable apartment, seen as ideal for the unfussy
Gloucesters, who still carry out many official duties.
“The Queen has allowed
father-of-two Sir Christopher, 56, to stay on for six months at the prestigious
address until the end of the school year.
“So when will Harry and Meghan
move in? Well, it was more than a year after their wedding before William and
Kate moved into Princess Margaret’s old home.
“Right now Meghan and Harry
are content with the intimate comforts of Nottingham Cottage, with its open
fire and chintzy furnishings.
“Meghan’s influence is
everywhere — cashmere throws, scented candles and vases of fresh flowers.
“They are putting off as long
as possible the dreaded time when they will have to have umpteen servants.
“They borrow staff from
Clarence House to help out when they really need them for dinner parties.
Neither of them is a very good cook.
“This extends to cleaning the
cottage. Rather than have their own staff, they are using contract cleaners
Mitie, the company that ‘does’ the royal palaces.
“At the same time, they have
been slipping away from the bustle of London to the relative peace of Windsor,
where a bolthole at the castle has been made available for their occasional use
as they prepare for what will be one of the most microscopically observed
occasions of recent times.”
Harry and Meghan certainly
seem to be in rather a hurry to get a family started. The pace of their romance
has been swift to say the least in Royal terms.
Harry spoke back in November
of last year about the speed at which he fell for Meghan – it was love at first
sight, he said.
Lifting the lid on their
whirlwind romance, he said ‘the stars were aligned’ when ‘this beautiful woman
fell into my life’.
Harry, 33, also promised he
and the American actress, 36, will start a family ‘in the near future’.
The compact cottage is no
place for a young prince and his bride to plan for a family.
