a royal eviction
Spokesman: Harry and Meghan asked to 'vacate' Frogmore Cottage
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been asked to "vacate" their residence at Frogmore Cottage, a spokesman for the couple confirmed on Wednesday.
Harry, Meghan, and their two children live in Southern California, and have used Frogmore Cottage as their home base during visits to the United Kingdom. Frogmore is part of the Crown Estate, and Harry's late grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, gave it to them as their primary residence when they still lived full-time in England. In his memoir Spare, Harry wrote that Frogmore was "charming, full of potential" and it was "a dream come true" to live there. In January 2020, when Harry and Meghan quit being working royals, they repaid the $3.2 million of taxpayer money that had been used to renovate the property.
Harry also went into detail in Spare about his fraught relationship with his family, but expressed optimism that he could get back to a good place with his father, King Charles III, and brother, Prince William. It's not clear if his public airing of grievances had anything to do with Charles' Frogmore decision, or if it's because there will be "a major government review of royal household finances" after his coronation in May, The Washington Post reports. Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the matter.
The British tabloid The Sun is claiming that Charles' younger brother Prince Andrew has been offered Frogmore, which the Post said would be "a downgrade" from his current residence at the Royal Lodge, a larger property in Windsor. In January 2022, Andrew was stripped of his titles and patronages after being accused of sexual abuse; he settled with the accuser, Virginia Giuffre, in February 2022.