King Charles Evicts Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan from Frogmore Cottage
Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan will soon lose their last high-security home base in the United Kingdom.
King Charles III has evicted the couple from Frogmore Cottage, their official U.K. residence located on the Windsor Estate. A spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex confirms to BAZAAR.com that they "have been requested to vacate their residence at Frogmore Cottage."
Instead, the king has reportedly offered the residence to his disgraced younger brother, Prince Andrew, who the late Queen Elizabeth II stripped of royal titles and patronages after Jeffrey Epstein survivor Virginia Giuffre alleged that he sexually abused her when she was a minor. Charles has ordered Andrew to downsize from his Royal Lodge mansion by August, BAZAAR's royal editor at large Omid Scobie reports for Yahoo! News.
The eviction notice leaves the Sussexes with just weeks to vacate their former home, which is covered by the Met's Royalty and Specialist Protection Unit. Although Harry and Meghan travel with their own private security team, Frogmore Cottage's access to royal protection officers also lends them essential intelligence information that is deemed necessary for other royals. (Harry's lawsuit against the Home Office for not allowing him to pay for police protection while in the U.K. is still ongoing; the Sussexes were stripped of armed police protection in the U.K. when they stepped back as senior members of the royal family.)
Meghan previously discussed the emotional toll of navigating the security threats on her and her family members’s lives after leaving the royal family.
"I'm a mom. That's my real life. And that's the piece when you see it and you go, 'You are making people want to kill me. It's not just a tabloid. It's not just some story. You are making me scared,'" she tearfully said in her and Harry's Netflix docuseries. "That night, to be up and down in the middle of the night, looking down my hallway, like, 'Are we safe? Are the doors locked? Is security on? Is every'—that's real. 'Are my babies safe?' And you've created it for what? Because you're bored, or because it sells your papers? Or it makes you feel better about your own life? It's real what you're doing. And that's the piece I don't think people fully understand."
Since the couple relocated from the U.K. to California, they have repaid the $3.1 million they spent in renovations on Frogmore Cottage to the Sovereign Grant, the British government and tax-payer supported purse that funds the royal family and their professional endeavors. Additionally, they reportedly paid a large sum to the Crown Estate in order to cover rent on the residence for the foreseeable future.
Their eviction comes a month after Harry released his bombshell memoir, Spare, in which he disclosed shocking revelations that ultimately led to his decision to step down as a senior royal. The book included claims of a lifelong feud with brother Prince William, the frosty relationship between Princess Kate and Meghan, and the planting of stories in the media by Charles and Queen Camilla.
The memoir reportedly left the family feeling "rattled," a source told BAZAAR.com at the time.
The move also comes just a few months before Charles's coronation. For now, it is still unclear if Harry and Meghan will attend, and a Buckingham Palace insider tells BAZAAR that "no decision" has been made yet.
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