Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
didn’t quite get the palatial home they had their eye on while they were
working royals, writes Katie Nicholl in her book The New Royals.
Apparently, the Duke and
Duchess of Sussex were hoping for a “suite of apartments at Windsor
Castle,” but the late Queen had other ideas, and offered them Frogmore
Cottage in Windsor Great Park instead—a home which they retain to this
day, and which they have let Princess Eugenie and her family live in for a long
time.
“The cottage was a big
deal,” the Queen’s cousin Lady Elizabeth Anson told Nicholl (via the Daily
Mail). “The Queen’s entrance into the gardens is right next to their
cottage. It is essentially her backyard, her solitude, and her privacy. She
was giving that up in gifting Harry and Meghan Frogmore Cottage. We all thought
it was very big of her. She said, ‘I hope they’ll respect it.'”
The Sussexes lived at Frogmore
from April 2019 until their departure from the U.K. and from their roles as
senior royals in March 2020.
After a short stint in Canada,
the royal couple established themselves in Montecito, Southern California,
where they still live now with their two children, Archie and Lilibet,
and their three dogs, two beagles named Guy and Mamma Mia, and a labrador
named Pula.
When they return to the U.K.
for short visits (which are admittedly few and far between), the Sussexes still
stay in Frogmore Cottage.
Speaking to The Cut recently,
Markle spoke about returning to Frogmore and finding all her old possessions in
drawers, including a journal which has some people worried she might use it to
reveal royal secrets in the future.
